At the Camp.



At Mustane's urging, Alberic falls silent, waiting - he starts as the crystal appears, then watches it fall with interest. "Fascinating. Do you mind my asking what it is? And yes - do lead on, I look forward to meeting your friends. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure where or when we are. Are we near Yenth? What time of year is it? I'm starting to think I may be in breach of contract back in Jargolamis, though I have to say it wouldn't be the first time I lost a job by getting catapulted into another dimension..."

Alberic continues in this fashion - apparently having forgotten the questions he started with in favour of a rambling monologue with little regard for whether the other is listening. The charitable interpretation would be that of a man who has been starved for company for a long time...

When Zalbane encouraged her, Tacita's eyes lit up. Without any hesitation she reached for and activated the wristband cypher. She aimed about 2 meters in front of her, into the sealed room, leaving behind a ghostly, fading image of the delve.

OOC: Cypher is a Bounder Teleporter (Discovery pg. 289)

At the camp...

Mustane tries to answer Alberic's as they go, but Alberic seems to talk over the answers, and eventually Mustane just stops trying.  "Well, it's just a-" ... "Yeah, we're north of-" ... "What time?  When I left it- "

He focuses on finding his fellow carpenters, shouting their names when they aren't immediately visible.  Soon two men come running from the forest, one broad and muscled like Mustane, the other shorter and leaner, sporting a goatee and cybernetic eye.  They both smile and whoop when they see Mustane, although the larger man's glee soon turns to anger.  "That was a cruel trick to pull, you blasted bullymong!  We was worried sick, us.  Ain't no trace of you to be found no where.  How'd you manage that?"

Mustane smiles as he explains.  "The trick was on me, you bastard.  I got pulled into an exy-pocket.  That's where I found this'n, Alberic.  He been there a while.  Said them exys fancied chattin' but had stopped chattin' with him."  He grins.  "I convinced 'em what carpenters ain't good at talkin' and such, said I'd show 'em where some good talkers was if they set the two of us free.  They lost two and got back three, s'what I agreed to."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the cave ...

Tacita finds herself in a room of while metal.  There is a slight texture to the surface and warmth in the room.  There are no sounds here, besides those of her own breathing, and the quiet feels deeper than even that of the cave.  The back wall is just as she saw it from the other side of the barrier, with light fixtures in the ceiling at regular intervals.  The wall nearest Zalbane and Nalla is composed of the same metal as the rest.  Beside the gap occupied by the force field, there is a small black panel, just slightly larger than her hand.

The young woman takes a second to get to bearings and then turns around to the transparent barrier and makes a quick curtsy while smiling from ear to ear. Tacita then takes a moment to listen, even tapping the floor with her spear a moment later, to make sure the cypher did not made her deaf.

Switching her attention towards the panel she steps towards it to inspect it in more detail.

At the Camp...

"Pleased to meet you." Alberic tips his hat to the carpenters as his name is mentioned, revealing a badly scarred left eye socket, filled with an orb of blue crystal in lieu of the eyeball. "I must say, Mustane here did a marvellous job of getting us out of there. I was starting to think I might rot in that pocket dimension. Well, I hope whoever you sent out to them are jam-packed with interesting stories, for their sakes." He cheerfully pulls his pipe from his pocket, and jams it into his mouth, saying round it: "It is good to be back in the Steadfast. So, what are you chaps doing out here? I think you said something about being hired by the Order of Truth to do some building work?" A cloud of blue smoke, smelling faintly of sea salt and ozone drifts from the barrel. "Actually, what date is it? I suppose I should probably establish how long I was actually away for..." He gives an apologetic cough. "I'm supposed to be working a contract in for Limech back in Jargolamis."

At the camp...

Artane looks at Alberic.  "Pocket what?" and "Yeah, we're building a-" and "It's spring, 'bout two weeks past the equinox.  We still go the rains to deal with."  and "Who's Limech?"

Eventually he turns to Mustane.  "Where was yous again?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the cave ...

The sound of Tacita's spear and steps are heard, but muffled and quickly absorbed.  The room does not echo as one might think from the surfaces.

The panel itself just seems to be a square of black glass with rounded corners.  It lies flush with the wall.

Tacita glanced at the panel, dark as it was. She created an illusory representation of it, about 2 meters on the other side of the barrier, facing her, so that the others could see it, and she could see their directions.

Then, almost theatrically, she poked at it with her right index finger.

In the cave ...

At her touch, the panel lights up with a blue square toward the bottom and a red laser emitter at the top.  The laser runs a beam over Tacita's hand (harmlessly) before the panel light changes to a yellow square.  The panel then goes dark.  Nothing else happens.

Quickly, Tacita retracts her finger and examines it for any markings. She cocks her head to the side and examines the panel again. Then, tentatively, she lays her full right hand on the panel.

In the cave ...

Tacita's hand is unmarked and undamaged.  Placing her full hand on the dark glass yields the same response from the panel as before: blue light, red laser scan, yellow light, return to black.

Her illusion shows all interactions with the panel and the results.

With a sigh the delve leaves the panel alone, but not before crafting an illusion of an hand performing a rude gesture at the panel. To ease her frustration, she moves with a cartwheel towards the door on the back wall. Using the blunt back part of her spear, she pushes against it.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Sat 01 Feb 2020.

Although she doesn't look any different when charged with the energy of the door Nalla does seem to be refreshed by it in much the same way a short nap would.  After letting Tacita try to bypass the security more politely she shakes her head sadly and mumbles to herself ”I suppose it is going to be the hard way.”

Pointing her hand at the wall near the doorway on the side opposite of the security panel Nalla unleashes all the energy she has stored up, blasting it into the rock with enough force to leave scorch marks or even a few cracks in softer material, then she places her other hand on the energy barrier again and absorbs more of its power, which she begins to channel directly into the wall.

In the cave ...

Nalla's blasts of kinetic energy, now coming in rapid succession, begin to show an effect on the rock.  Bit by crumbly bit, an area about the size of her outstretched hand begins to wear into the stone.  A small pile of dust and sand begins to accumulate at the bottom of the irregular stone wall.  If she continues at this for a little while, she'll be able to "mine" a path to the back side of the wall that the control panel is in.

The energy field remains as solid and unyielding as ever, despite Nalla's draining of the forces maintaining it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:00, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

In the cave ...

Meanwhile, inside the chamber, Tacita finds that the door is quite solid, opaque, and has no apparent controls or handles on this side.  Only its shape, as compared to the rest of the walls, marks it as a door.  Likely it has controls on the other side, although perhaps it is activated by some other mechanism.

From the other side of the barrier, she can here the muted sounds of Nalla's force blasts striking the stone of the passageway.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:01, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

Zalbane squints at the panel as Nalla does her energetic mining and tries to think of another way of activating it.  Zalbane holds up her hand, one finger extended, and acts like she's drawing a circle on the panel.  A square.  A checkmark.  And various other forms for Tacita to try, just to see if that might do anything.

Notified by the noise of Nalla's blasts, Tacita turns around and sees Zalbane's suggestions. The young woman taps herself lightly on the for-head and jogs over to the panel to try the forms suggested by the jack.

At the camp...

"Spring? Oh dear. I've been gone..." He holds up his mitted left hand, and stares at it for a moment as if counting the hidden fingers. "Six months. Eeepp... you know, I probably shouldn't head back to Jargolamis. I'm pretty certain I'm well past my notice period, and I didn't buy myself out of the contract. Limech's the head honcho building up that new bridge between Jargolamis and Luigolamis. He can be quite hardball, especially on, er, matters of contract. Anyway, something'll turn up. The place we were was a pocket dimension. Fascinating place. Quite an experience, I highly recommend it, though only if you have a way back!" He gives a hearty laugh, which trails off as he realises belatedly that the others are not sharing his interest in the conversation. He finishes, rather lamely: "Ahem. Well, er, Carpenters, eh? You guys are working for the Order of Truth, yes? You er, don't happen to know if they're in need of a handy engineer?"

At the camp ...

Mustane laughs at the last question.  "Heh.  Mayhaps they might now.  Have to see who's left.  Some o' them Order folks have already gone on that holiday you recommended.  Have to find their own way back, though."  He winks to his fellow builders and they join in the joke.  "Come to speak of it, where is the lot of 'em?  Out looking for me, I 'ope."

"That one that fell asleep on the wagon finally woke up," explains Artane.  "An odd one she is.  Quiet like.  She, the ugly one, and the cranky woman went down in that big hole over there.  Was a bit ago.  Ain't heard much since.  S'pose they coulda falled in."

Pik jumps in, "The others, yeah, they was fanned out in the woods.  Dunno if they was more concerned about findin' you or killin' whatever took ya, but they was lookin' all the same."

- - - - - - - - - -

In the cave ...

As Nalla continues to bore a hole in the stone, Tacita tries all manner of manual configurations on the scanner, checking both hands just in case.  Nothing seems to change the response.  Blue light, red scan, yellow light, shut down.  At least the panel continues to function, and no lock-out has affected it.  So far, at least."

In the cave ...

Zalbane, watching Tacita's movements (directly or via illusions) wonders if the scanner is checking something more subtle or even something visual at all.  Perhaps a tattoo or pattern or crystal or chip ... some other means of identification.

And the only place Zalbane can think of where there might be an example ... is at the bottom of the gorge.

At the camp...

"Big hole..." Alberic repeats. "Could have fallen in..." He frowns. "I'm not sure who these people are, but if their potential demise stands between me and potential gainful employment, then perhaps we had better go and see if they're alright." He pauses, taking another puff from his pipe, which comes out black and smelling of charcoal. He grimaces. "Also from concern for their wellbeing, naturally. Er, which way did you say they went?"

He turns as if to start walking, but pauses, waiting to see if the carpenters are also willing to come.

Zalbane taps Nalla's shoulder and waves to Tacita.  "It might be that the glass is trying to detect something that we don't have.  And the only example we might have of that is in the bones in the bottom of the gorge."  She looks behind her at the way they've come.  "I am interested in what's in there, but should we pursue this path and hope that Mustane is as its end?  Or assume he didn't come this way, look elsewhere, and come back to this as soon as we've found him?"

At the camp ...

Artane and Pik both point to the "entrance" to the gorge, which is fairly apparent once they've pointed it out.  "They went that way," Artane explains.  "I'm sure you'll find 'em one way or another.  But we's got work to do.  Wasted our whole morning looking for this lump."  He smacks Mustane on the chest.  "Gotta catch up now.  Camp to set up.  The grumpy one's got plans.  Good ones, by the looks of it.  Readable.  Workable.  I like a good plan, I does."

He claps Aberic on his metal shoulder, indifferent to the hard material beneath his clothing.  "Good luck."  The trio turn and walk toward one of the piles covered in a tarp that rests beside a tent.  They commiserate about Mustane's experience while taking off the tarp and getting to task.

At the camp...

"Thank you. A real pleasure to make your acquaintance." Alberic says absently, then begins to muse to himself: "An odd one, a cranky one, a hideous one. The grumpy one - presumably the cranky one - has plans." Then, louder, he declares: "Well, I'll let you know if I find anything. And I'll try to scream loudly should I fall down any large holes, or otherwise be in the process of getting killed by something. Just to let you know." He offers a broad grin - revealing that the teeth at the left corner of his mouth are all metallic - a cheery wave, and sets off into the gorge, a plume of maroon-coloured smoke flaring out behind him from his pipe.

It is only once he has moved out of sight of the camp that he abruptly stops and claps a hand to his head. "Ach! I should probably have asked for names. And descriptions, for that matter." Then he shrugs. "Oh well. I suppose I could just call for Order of Truth people."

Apparently satisfied with this idea, he resumes his trip into the gorge.

Nalla takes a break from blasting the rock to reply, and inspect the progress of her work, using the break to reply.  ”In part that depends on if we can get our scout out of the room at all.
In any case I doubt that Mustane was able to come this way.

Along the ledge ...

Turning in the pointed direction, Alberic sees a hill to his left and a flatter area to the right.  As he moves between a par of larger rocks into the gorge (the gap between the hill and the flatter area), he finds a narrow ledge along the left hand side.  It descends slowly as it follows the wall of the crevasse.  The gorge is quite deep, fairly narrow (although he has no hope of touching both sides at once), and twists a bit, so he cannot see too far ahead.  Luckily, there seem to be plenty of handholds along the way.


- - - - - - - - -

In the cave ...

Nalla has managed to bore several inches into the rock, but isn't to the opposite side of the panel(?) yet.