Collyn smiled, "Sweet, yeah, I'll buy!" and follows Rayjay!

No one was ever quite sure why the University had a sunken courtyard in the first place, particularly one that had direct access to the Underlinth. Then again, the Underlinth may not have always been the 'Underlinth'.

The courtyard was built on three levels--the upper concourse, the mezzanine, and the lower courtyard.

The concourse was just the open area that provided access to the Scholar's Tower. It had benches and planters and art sculptures. No one was sleeping on the benches any more. A flight of stairs at each end and a broader one in the middle led down past the mezzanine to the courtyard.

Like the courtyard below, the step-backed mezzanine had once been part of the food court, with numerous eateries and a few shops to buy supplies. There was no longer enough student traffic to warrant that so the shops were all empty but left open for use. All equipment had long ago been salvaged for more critical needs; the remaining walls, floors and ceilings had then been cleaned up into stark, featureless modernity. What made it odd is that the plethora of ostentatious opulence was mostly all gone. There were still a few functional ornaments--light fixtures, benches, railings, and the occasional sculpture (the  gold-and-silver werringdoo (flamingo-like Drinaxian bird)), but the lack of more was actually refreshing and seemed to emphasize the importance of the Scholar's Tower.

Only a dozen or so people were coming or going at any given moment, but you still had the ubiquitous workers cleaning, polishing and maintaining the area. The two workers went about their business, with a nod and cheerful hello to the 'civvies'. One of them was accompanied by a robo-vacc... one of those round low-to-the-ground cleaners.

The mezzanine level provided access to the basement level of the superstructure, which was only local here for shop storage.

Access to the Underlinth was only through the Courtyard level via 4 tunnels outright but also through some of the shops. The tunnel entrances were covered by mesh gates decorated with gold, silver and ruby sculptures of birds, animals and flowers. These gates were all closed and locked with touch-card access. The shop interior doors were solid rather than mesh, had touch-card access as well, but two of them weren't fully closed.

As the group moves down the steps and across the courtyard, Rayjaynul recognizes one of the workers--Jayke Sullyvan. He served in the Navy with Rayjay a few years back.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:01, Tue 09 May 2023.

"Well unfortunately beverages will indeed have to wait till after the tour as the Tower sadly lacks such facilities." He informs the trio, still acting as tour guide.

Upon reaching the courtyard however, and noticing the closed gates, Rayjay was pleasantly surprised to find two of the shop doors being left ajar. Clearly left by some youth no less. Trust in instinct to create a way.

Before recognizing Jayke from his old navy days. "One moment, I notice an old navy friend of mine, give me a moment or two to reacquaint ourselves, then we can check the shops for souvenirs." He said, making no attempt to lower his voice as he approached.

"Jayke Sullyvan! Well met, how're the days treating you my old friend?" Rayjay asked, offering his hand to his hard-working acquaintance, still using his Palacer accent before explaining the situation a little. "Currently playing tour guide myself to a trio of Travellers no less." He said conspiratorially. "I don't suppose the shops are still open for memorabilia?" Before asking curiously to cement their reason for interrupting his duties, besides the opportunity to catch up of course.

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Jayke responds to Rayjay's greeting.

"Not that my eyes are sore... med-techs won't allow it. Good one. If you find any souvenir... other than a cobweb... in those empty shops, I could get a demerit. Remember Old Man Winston and his demerits... what did he call them? Ah, yes--hash! We kept 'hashing' up his record. Felt bad for the Daugg brothers, but with a name like that... at least it kept the Old Nan off our backs."

"When they closed up all these shops they even pulled the paint off the walls. No, literally! Make upstairs look pretty."

"About once a month I gotta dephase some holo grafitti off one of the walls. Kids. No respect."

"Last I heard, you were traipsing around out in The Borderland. You didn't get the gold mine but I hope you didn't get the shaft, did you?"

"So, which one of those four isn't the tourist?" he gestures to Ghent, Collyn, Viridian and Taliesa.

Ghent shrugs loudly. "I heard Collyn would love to get 'screached' in," Ghent said with a wicked smile as he pointed towards his 2IC who seemed more interested in mapping Taliesa's hips, than the work at hand. 'Hopefully that'll keep him busy,' Ghent thought with some satisfaction.

"Jealous Ghent?" and he was already back to business. He took in the large area, sad it was so stark.

"Nah. You're the one that asked for a place to drink, figured this guy would know all the watering holes worthy of a local," Ghent said, smiling pleasantly.

"Old Man Winston's still alive? Man must be fast approaching a century at this rate." Rayjay said honestly astonished that the old coot was still around a kicking let alone keeping up his management duties. "Well good on him, keeping the reaper at bay for so long."

"No mine, but no shaft either, though I did wind up playing dock hand for a while. and if that's your none too subtle way of asking if the lovely lady here is my bride, then unfortunately I must disappoint. My wife remained on Torpol with our children as the trading lanes are still too dangerous for family adventures, but perhaps given enough time I'll be able to show her the Palace as it was meant to be, the crown jewel of a Drinax Empire reborn." Rayjay suggested proudly before chuckling deeply as he always did

"Wouldn't that be the day huh?" He said ribbing Jayke lightly. "Well I fear I've taken enough of your time, wouldn't' want the old nan shrieking your ear off, but if any of our old haunts is still operating, I'd love to catch up and buy you a round." He said, preparing to part ways and present the majesty of the Scholar's Tower to the four assembled travelers.

"Sounds like a plan," Jayke replies. "You can catch me at the Dragon's Maw after work just about any day. I wind down so I can wind back up. Have a little fun before I repeat."

With that, he turns back to his work and lets Rayjay continue his tour. He doesn't appear suspicious of you, nor does he seem overly concerned.


Rayjay is now in uncharted territory. If he's ever been in the Underlinth before, he's certainly never ventured to the Life Support section. Although there aren't exactly street signs directing you, there are colored decorative bands on the walls and beams that show you the way.

No glass windows down here, but the walls are painted to look like the ones above. Apparently, the admins didn't want the delivery or maintenance people to get lost or confused.

Access to the other side is through a personnel door with touch-badge lock and 3 electronic sliding delivery/shipping doors. No locks are visible. All doors are closed and locked--that is, they won't open just by pulling them.

"So RayJay, what do you want to do? You got a key card on you? I have a psionic sword, but it isn't a plasma cutter. What do you want to try?"

Rayjay clicked his tongue. "I do not, and I suspect it might be alarmed at the very least." He said looking over the badge lock, wondering if there might be a maintenance access to its internals.

"Look for the access panel, I might be able to get something working."

OOC - JoaT 2, Comms 2, Electronics 0, Computers 1

Breaking and entering wasn’t Ghent’s strong suit; he’d be the most likely to get them caught and might opt to slice through a side wall instead of using the door. No, Ghent had many fine qualities, but leaving Collyn and Rayjay seemed the best course for now, while he kept watch with Taliesa.

"Hmmmmm," Viridian mutters as he studies the lock. "The card-reader is the access panel, installed from inside for security, so that option is out."

"We'll just have to do an old-fashioned computer hack. Doesn't sound like any of us are particularly good at that, but I'd guess I've got a bit more experience at this sort of thing than any of you."

"I'll give it a shot...if any of you want to assist, that might help."

He uses his comm to find the lock's radio frequency, and then starts hacking the system for a valid access ID number. The main danger there is that he enters a number of somebody important. Also, if someone was actually monitoring the system, they might notice the delivery door was being accessed.

07:37, Today: Viridian Starfire rolled 11 using 2d6+2 ((5,4)).

In reply to Viridian Starfire (msg # 24):

Collyn tries to assist Viridian with his Jack of all Trades.

07:15, Today: Collyn Ramburton rolled 10 using 2d6+3.  computer hack
This message was last edited by the player at 20:30, Tue 16 May 2023.

Rayjay is quite impressed by his fellow crewmate's ingenuity; he was almost certain they'd have to use a cutting torch and just sprint for it, but with the lock hacked, then they wouldn't be on some timer then either.

Collyn was very unhappy with his efforts/results. He just hoped it was good enough to get through. He needed to work on his skills in the computer/electronic area!

"So, Taliesa, how many men does it take to hack a security panel?" Ghent asked with a wry smile as they stood watch.

"Three," Taliesa answered. "One to hold the light bulb and two to spin him around." She was clearly mixing her metaphors citing the traditionally 'idiot' joke.

She was keeping watch up and down the Underlinth passages, expecting a police siren to suddenly scream an 'intruder alert'.

"I'm surprised that there aren't homeless Palacers living down here. From what I've read, the Floating Palace was massively overcrowded after the Aslan bombardment of the planet. All the nobles fled to the Palace and then had nowhere to go."

Collyn had no problem assisting Viridian (an 8 was success), even if it wasn't needed, but it might just have been that edge that kept anyone on monitor duty from noticing.

The lock disengaged and the door swung open readily enough. There was a small office on the right and receiving/storage bays on the left. The bays are all empty.

Behind the mesh grid wall of the back of the bays, you can see the array of huge storage tanks. And, of course, all the pipes that interconnect everything. Most of the pipes are overhead but the majority of the system is below the floor.

Looking around, you find only one access point to the down below area--a a flight of spiral stairs behind a mesh door. This door is secured by both a card-reader lock as well as a sophisticated mechanical bar lock. Careful examination of the bar lock shows no signs of it having been used/opened in a long time. There's no rust, but it is a bit dusty, as are the steps leading down.

Even surprising himself, Viridian quickly and easily (?) circumvents the card-reader lock.

"Quick! Everyone inside!" Viridian snaps out. "If someone is actually monitoring the screen, the less time they'll have to notice it."

It was only after everyone was inside and the door was closed again that he had something to add.

"Keep in mind, Taliesa, that only nobles were on the Palace. None of them would have tolerated being 'homeless'. Oleb IV's arrogance may have brought the disaster down upon them, but I have to give him kudos for saving everyone... for what that's worth. He and Duke Shivando practically worked a miracle. The Duke knew what had to be done, organized everyone, and the King made sue everyone complied. He's the one that started making up new 'royal' titles to placate everyone."

"Okay, it doesn't look like the saboteur went into the engineering areas below. But then he didn't really need to. That makes our job a lot easier."

"We need to start following all these light blue pipes. We're looking for some cylinder that's been attached to one of these pipes. Let me correct that. There could very well be more than one cylinder. The scenario that Aaron and Zhouth came up with indicates that there should only be one, but better safe than sorry."

"So, Rayjay, you okay with everyone spreading out to search?"

Rayjay agrees on the swiftness front, pushing the rest of the gang through the gate if need be, before pulling out his breather mask. "Don't see a better option, and remember, while t'e agent might be diffused t'roughout t'e rest of t'e palace, it probably concentrated down 'ere. So, wear ya' masks, and if someone asks, ya got lost on ya way to t'e shuttle bay to explore t'e surface." He chuckled, doubting the lie would hold for more than a second given their current location, but it could make the difference between getting shot on sight or detained.

Collyn dons his mask and hurries along as told. He kept his eyes on the line Rayjay had pointed out, looking for some kind of bottle sticking to the pipe.

There doesn't seem to be any internal security at this level, but at TL-14, most of it wouldn't be visible and obvious. Someone entering the area with explosives, for instance, might set off all sorts of alarms and security protocols.

There also does not seem to be any regular workers stationed here, though no doubt some get the maintenance duty now and then.

As you spread out through the Life Support Underlinth, the tanks and pipes get more and more complicated. The markings on them no doubt identify the source and destination but it's all coded; being able to read them wouldn't help you anyway.

Unless someone comes up with some brilliant approach to finding the cylinder, you each need to make 3 Recon rolls (TN 14; ten minutes).

OOC: Could I use Life Support to narrow down the possible search area?

Rayjay strikes a contemplative pose as he looks over the air pipes, being quite familiar with the water pipes he was doing his best to remember a rough layout.