Rob nods and, not really needing light, takes point and moves ahead almost as quietly as a whisper.

The temperature of the hallway soon returns to the "normal" cool of underground, and no further events stall their progress.  Soon, the trio is at the structure they understand to be a non-functioning gate that may lead to New Yenth.

Mhari steps aside for Alberic, "Alright, Wright... this is what we came here for.. use whatever instructions came from Yenth... see what you can do.  I'll keep watch.  Everyone Else stay at least 20'ft back from the portal when he tries to activate it."

Mhari readies his Force Field Bracelet-Cypher ready to move in to defend Alberic if something should come through the gate and be hostile.

Rob interjects, "Let me check out whether I can figure out how to help fix it."

She is skilled at tinkering with uch things; specialised in their dissassembly, and has some spare parts.

In reply to Roberta Shadowprancer (msg # 272):

Mhari bows, "Ah.. forgive me.. of course anyone who can contribute is welcome! I know I have no skill for such things.. I'm still in my studies as a AEON Priest - acolyte of the Order of Truth."

"Maybe you can tell me about that when we get back," suggests Rob as she settles down to examine the detail and condition of the gate.

In reply to Roberta Shadowprancer (msg # 274):

Mhari chuckles, "It be a rather boring conversation over dinner... most of acolyte training is reading old manuscript records of the things uncovered in expeditions and theorizing over the underlying science of the cyphers, artifacts and phenomenon observed and or recovered.  History records mostly. 'Only by understanding the nature of the past can we divine the possible course of the future'... and all that.  It's slow going as I must still keep my Glaive skills & instincts sharp ~ understanding Numenera is hard!  Nano's have an easier time with scholarly work."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:01, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

The portal/doorway itself is built into the far end of the tunnel.  It seems mostly intact, although there is enough stone and other material on it and around it that fun investigation is impossible at the moment.  It seems of a tarnished bronze color, identical to the larger portal in Yenth.  There is no obvious damage, but the installation seems inert.  Where there portal space would be, the frame is filled with a dark, solid substance.  It appears similar to smoked glass, hard and smooth.

"We'll need to clear away some of this stonework for a proper look," concludes Rob. "Need tools for that She steps back, ready to go.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:09, Mon 07 Aug 2023.

Mhari agrees, "Yeah, we need to ..carefully remove the stone and detritus from around and on the Arch to get a full documentation of its patterns and possible controls. Alberic... you brought tools for that, how can we assist to speed it up... as safely as possible?  We do know this, my holy lightning power can cause a reaction... but unpredictably.  Best I not use them until we have uncovered and documented the entire device but if need be I can recharge the device.. and I do have a collection of power-cells with a good chance of having something that will power the gate."

"I have knocked together something that might help." Alberic grins, puffing a cloud of yellow, lemon-scented smoke from his pipe. He pulls two dull metal plates from his pack."It will redirect gravity, so I hope to make a gravity tunnel that can make the rubble 'fall' away..."

With the tools and team available, it will take several hours to uncover a meaningful portion of the portal that is now encased in the stone.  The group grows to understand that it has been installed in this location, not merely entombed here by eons of sediment and pressure.

Rob keeps awareness of the time and treis to estimate whetrher the group are liekely to finish meaningful uncovering today.

Mhari will assist and closely watch, asking questions and listening to explanation over the course of the days as the portal artifact is uncovered.  Continuing his studies and hands on work in field work of artifact discovery and examination furthering his experience as an acolyte of the Aeon priests.

In the evenings, Mhari will return to the Clave and will see to Ur-Dani's needs, engaging her in her own language in hopes of polishing his proficiency with her assistance ~ perhaps eventually convincing her to trust him enough to allow him to eat dinner in her presence... keeping in mind the limits of her social customs.

Of course he will remain vigilant as a glaive to keep the work area in the Caves safe while the researchers work.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Sun 13 Aug 2023.

After about a week of travels to and from the gate, along with consultations with the miner brothers, much of the frame of the gate has been excavated.  It seems that it was, as Alberic opined, not designed to be moved, but rather a fixed object, by the way it was situated in the stone.  The exact process or mechanism which seated the gate in the its present location is unknown.

The excavations reveal several panels which seem able to be removed (although returning them to pristine condition afterward may be harder.  The energy level and activity of the gate is unchanged during the process, that is to say, inert.  Nalla asks many questions and demands sketches, but does not leave her workshop.

The tramping back and forth through the tunnel/cave allows the crew to witness the degradation of the stony remains from the freezing creatures.  Hints of metal and crystal are exposed, and a few cyphers are able to be salvaged from within the shattered bits.

Mhari's efforts to engage Ur-dani make some slow progress.  She is becoming less imperious as she acclimates to the clave.  Her efforts to practice her telekinesis are halting, at best.  And she only cut herself with a flying axe once so far.  She still refuses to engage with anyone poorly dressed or dirty, although her standards are looser with children, whose child-like behavior seems almost strange to her.

At the clave, slow progress is made in the construction efforts.

OOC: you may each roll a d701 to determine the cypher you find.

Mhari will watch the investigation and excavation of the portal machinery particularly the panels that can be removed but will counsel nothing be removed or opened until detailed sketches and drawings of the entire machine are made and sent to both Nalla and the Aeon Priesthood in Yenth and new directives or analysis is communicated.

He himself will look and 'feel' with his ability to power devices to see if there is some specific portion he can discern where recharging the device might be done, but makes NO Effort to do so... merely report his findings to the Aeon Priests in Yenth.

He does indeed examine the remains of the stony freezing creatures looking for cyphers that might be recovered.

{OOC: Looking for something that might be a Glaive Improvement.. considering that glaives are always looking for post-human upgrades to their bodies to improve combat capabilities.  In this case looking for something that is worn like an armor upgrade of some sort?}

07:19, Today: Mhari 'Stormbolt' rolled 430 using 7d100.  What 7d100? – 430
So potential results: 430, 340, 403, 304, 043, 034?
23:30, Today: Mhari 'Stormbolt' rolled 453 using 1d701 ((453)).
This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Thu 17 Aug 2023.

Alberic spends the week in a state of great excitement, taking as many notes and readings as he can, furiously sketching images of the gate and offering his thoughts and observations to those around him, whether they are interested or (more often) not. He cheerfully regales Nalla with every detail he can find. He is clearly in his element here.

07:57, Today: Alberic rolled 110 using 1d701 ((110)).

With the efforts of the new clave moving away from the need of combat but turning to research... Mhari slowly falls back to his 'proclivities' and in his off time not working with the research crew or providing security for the "dig".. he turns his attention to trying to charm and romance Raelle Pellegrino over  lunch and passtime.  Seeing if she will go with him for a few aerial rides on Z'Dakk in recreation.

He makes NO such attempts on Ur'Dani, she's a married woman after all...

Alberic finds a crystalline vial with some liquid in it.  Deception filter; lvl 1d6; User cannot knowing tell a lie for one hour.

Mhari's find is more interesting, if a bit more curious as well.  It isn't armor, but would certainly prove to extend his fighting capabilities in the right circimstances. A pair of metallic headbands with strange inscriptions and small  chambers (?) are tied together with some rotting twine.  Fallback Clone; lvl 10; To activate this device, the user must place a few drops of blood, strands of hair, nail clippings, or a piece of flesh in a sealed, water-filled tank with one of the headbands and wear the other one.  The headband in the tank facilitates the rapid growth of a clone in one month.  The clone is a fully grown creature, identical in every physical way to the user.  However, it has no consciousness and remains in a comatose state in the tank.  Once the clone has matured, if at any time the user dies while wearing the headband, their consciousness is transferred into the clone, regardless of distance.  All skills, abilities, and knowledge are transferred.  The user does not need to wear the headband throughout the process (if, for example, they are worried about their cypher limit) - just at the beginning to spur the clone's growth.  However, if they die while not wearing the headband, no transfer occurs.

It's not entirely clear why these items, and the other bits of detritus discovered, were within the stony bodies of the freezing creatures.  Perhaps they were held by previous victims?

In reply to Immortal Eye (msg # 287):

Wow.  Just WoW!

With the grdual exposure of the gate Rob takes great interest, possibly less than Alberic but more than Mhari. She spends some time figuring out what the spare parts she'd found might be used for, otherwise she works to improve the Claive.


=======
OOC: Sorry got beaten down by RL for a while there. Hopefully back with you now.

***
16:38, Today: Roberta Shadowprancer rolled 296 using 1d701 ((296)).

Rob is able to salvage a small ceramic sphere from the crumbling "bodies" of their attackers.  Its surface and color were so close a match, that it was almost indistinguishable.

OOC: Detonation, flashfire (1d6+3), thrown (short range); Explodes with radiation in an immediate area.  The radiation burns so quickly that things affected by it char (taking damage equal to the cypher level) but never catch fire.

Additionally, as group, you salvage 15 shins from the tunnel/bodies/excavation.

The clave is a hum of activity as the days pass.  Progress is being made in accessing the portal(?), more permanent housing is being constructed, Urr-dani is picking up bits of the language of the Truth and seems to be following the Varjellan botanist around frequently, quite curious about their efforts and their alien self.  The brothers have been making slow work of improving the path to the cave, widening the ledge and adding more reliable handholds and ropes along the course of it.  Recovered stone slabs and blocks are being piled for later use, if desired.

In reply to Immortal Eye (msg # 287):

Mhari will request to move into one of the new permanent housings of modest size.  He will indeed gather materials and samples of his current body and prepare the Fallback Clone Tube ~ But the blood, hair, nail clippings in a bit of flesh shall be preserved in ice and stored with the chamber and the Headband for another purpose.

Someday... Mhari will be old and near the end of his life... THEN and only then does he plan to unfreeze the preserved samples to clone a new young body.. as he is now.  You only live twice it seems.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:56, Wed 30 Aug 2023.

For the moment, the construction that Mustane is working on is just barely habitable and he makes clear that he (or his helpers) will need to make additional trips into each room before he is satisfied.  Still, there are 5 rooms in the cabin he has made, plus a communal toilet room.  The largest room is obviously intended for a family, or at least a couple, but the other rooms seem designed for single occupancy.  Built into the walls are a bed platform, table, and shelves.  It isn't fancy, but fairly practical.  Others in the clave have been helping to site out and clear space for additional such buildings.

Consulting with Nalla as he makes his preparations of the Fallback clone ... Mhari learns that the clone when grown will be of an age and physicality of his current body and age..regardless ~ until it is activated!

With this new info he sets the clone's creation in motion.. sealing and hiding the chamber away in his meager residence for ... hopefully no time soon, saving it for when Age weighs heavy upon his current body.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:18, Mon 23 Oct 2023.