The guards on the doorway get ready to attempt to throw their lives away, but Shuak has them stand down. "Wait. This is a holy place. Let him see."

The Duke is allowed to pass through the doorway. (Of course, Foers would have stopped him from killing them, but none of the Onsu are aware of that.)

It leads to a long hallway-- dimly lit, but only because some of the lights built into the ceiling have burned out over the millenia.

The far end opens into a huge room...

There is no more rough stone nor worked stone-- this is white plastic and tile.

Many Onsu sit within, singing.

It's... rather beautiful, really.

(Roll Scary/Weird, please, The Duke...)
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:57, Wed 07 Oct 2020.

ooc: NO post as i assume more comes depending on the roll. Feel free to roll on my behalf in such a case.

23:40, Today: The Duke rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,3.  scary.

In the center, two Onsu take turns slowly using large bowls to pour water over a third. Drains in the center of the floor remove all excess water.

Something about the acoustics, the singing, the hauntingly dim lighting, is beautiful and calming. Foers has marked these people as Do Not Injure, but The Duke does not want to hurt these people anyway.

These jaguar-people seem holy... what they're doing, sacred.

But The Duke is in control of his mind... His will is still his own... for now.

(Anyone else who comes to this room will also need to roll Scary/Weird.)

There is another large doorway on the far side of the room. (One could, if one wanted, get to the other side and continue without disrupting the Onsu ceremonies, even if one was a very large man.)

The Duke sees the water go down  the drain and though this place fills him with a strange sense of calm and peace also unnerves him. It was a feeling unnatural to him. He was almost about to be swayed from his purpose wich was returning the water to the tree man to find the cloister for his people. After looking at the ceremony for a long (especially for the Duke) he carefully makes his way to the next door to see if he can find where the water drains too.

The Lady watches The Duke, casually and curiously.
She doesn't follow him into the next room immediately, but like a mother keeping an eye on her roving child, if The Duke looked to be moving on further (through or beyond that room), The Lady would follow.


- rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 2,6.
... if said 'following' takes her into the 'sacred' room

The Lady observes the ceremony... The singing is beautiful, and the aesthetics, but she's been around long enough not too be bowled over.

She sees The Duke heading through the door on the far side of the room...

---

The Duke comes to a room that's some sort of laboratory, with lab tables on the near side of the room, and more lab tables and equipment and sinks and bottles and microscopes on the far side. (There are no Onsu in this new room.)

The REASON for there being so much more stuff on the far side of the room is that there's a glowing green wall of light-- very thin-- in the middle of the room. All the stuff is on the far side of the wall of light.

One question that might be asked is:

--Is the wall of light a force field, keeping everyone out by whatever energetic means?

--Or is the wall of light JUST a wall of light, and the Onsu don't cross it because they think it's sacred or something...?

The Dukes first memories are about a place much like this. It made him feel safe and welcome and he trails around a little picking up some things and just zoning out for a few minutes before he goes and touches the wall to see if it was passable. He remembers a blue one from his youth that tingled when touched.

ooc: assuming its an insightful. Failing miserably and gaining an xp.

12:01, Today: The Duke rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,2.  INsightful.

The Duke has a flashback-- he remembers something very traumatic from his past... (What is the memory?

Meanwhile, The Duke gets 1 new xp, but gets a -1 on his next roll...)

On the other hand, his hand does pass through the wall of light.

LIFEFORM DETECTED, a voice says quietly into the room. SPECIES: HUMAN. YOU MAY PASS.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:52, Sun 11 Oct 2020.

Ajakstu watches his new companions wander off in search of water. Water is nice, but rarely valuable.

Still, this leaves him alone with his former captors.

He turns to the seated Onsu. "I am not without skills with such things," he says, pointing lazily at the screen. "Perhaps if I sit and apply myself we can understand more of the message?"

The Lady, now in the 'sacred room', stood just near the doorway into the 'laboratory' ... as always, watching The Duke.

It was the blue lights and the electronic voice that triggered the memory ...
Suddenly, The Duke was floating.  It was a bit like being suspended in a wall-less zero-gravity chamber, if he'd ever known what that was.    The space about him glowed in that faint blue light, consistently and always.
There was always movement out there in the darkness, beyond the faint, glowing aura ... and faint electronic voices, buzzing and chittering to one another.   But The Duke could never quite make out the words, or the forms.

And, as though an invisible hand had gently spun him, he twirled and spiralled in the air ... unable to stabilise himself on any nearby object.
It made him dizzy, and sick, and scared.

Whatsmore, experiences came at him from various and unpredictable angles.
A burning beam of light from somewhere to the side, sliced into his arm.
A swarm of buzzing insects relentlessly stinging and biting ... until suddenly they no were simply no longer there.
And at times, there was simply no air to breath.
Screaming sounds and klaxons shattered against his ears, and the flashing lights were confusing.

He howled in pain and fear; and the cry was that of a baby in torment.

Everything, all this and so much more,  all taking turns to assault The Duke.
Not all the time.  Sometimes there was peace and quiet and harmony, as he revolved and slowly somersaulted in his un-space.
Sometimes, he was even able to sleep ... for short periods of time ... before some horrid and painful experience again descended upon him from any unknown source or quarter.


The memory, this vision of his babyhood?,  made him scared ... and the vision ended as he vomitted onto the laboratory floor before him.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:57, Mon 12 Oct 2020.

Shuat's response and tone make it clear that not only is this not allowed, he (Shuat) does not even take the idea very seriously. "No no," he says, as if addressing a toddler, "this seat is reserved for those who have proven themselves worthy through years of soul-searching and meditation. Even then, one does not choose to sit here-- the Onsu people as a whole choose the one who is worthy."

It would appear that if Ajakstu Gul is to tinker with the Onsu's computer, it won't be through this particular terminal... perhaps there is another somewhere else...?
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:01, Mon 12 Oct 2020.

"I am doing a little soul searching right now," Ajakstu mutters, none too quietly.

He goes to the door that the lady and large man went through and cocks his head to listen. Surely by now there must be screams and destruction??

The Duke was unhappy to say the least. Not only was his mind invaded by bad thoughts that made him feel scared a thing the Duke really did not like as it was something he had no defence against. It also was this place that scared him now. Once he is done vomiting and the fact he eats a lot means there now is a massive sour smelling smudge over the floor and along the side of a cabinet. He wipes his face and looks outside to the lady looking miserable.

"I do not like this place."

He says in such a sad tone it makes him really pityable. But then he seems to regain hemself a little as he turns his back to her to rummage around the 'enclosed' location to see what was there.

Ajakstu Gul hears nothing-- but, faintly, some beautiful singing...

---

(Roll Insightful again, buddy)

7 as i forgot the -1

20:31, Today: The Duke rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,6.  insightful.

The Duke finds some notes.

This facility was once a laboratory, long ago, for working on genetic experiments... but so far, that's all he can understand, based on the notes he finds... Honestly, the whole thing just continues to make him uncomfortable...

However, now that he knows he can cross the wall of light at will, he also finds that what he had previously expected would just be the door of a large vault (perhaps for keeping samples cold) is, instead, a doorway to another part of the facility-- and the thick door doesn't appear to be locked, either...

(The Duke learns a few things, but takes -1 forward due to his emotional discomfort. Now THIS is how one starts earning XP...!)

The Duke gives all the papers which are something he has no patience to read to the Lady.

"This is a bad place. See if you can find anything in here. I will go see if there is something behind that door. See if you can do something about  this water wastage. Let them return the waste water to the fountain maybe?"

With that he goes back to the room to see whats behind the door but he clearly lags at the door into the lab needing to gather courage to go back inside.

Ajakstu cycled through several twitchy movements.

"Bother!" he finally shouts.

The Onsu won't let him have his way. There appeared to be no easily obtainable treasure. His axquaintances or companions or human shields had wandered off. He glared at all the Onsu in turn.

"Harrumph!" he snorted as he stalked off in the direction of the singing.

Please, is the door (through which The Duke goes) on The Lady's side of the blue wall, or the other?

(Sorry not to make clear: it's on the far side of the wall of light.)

The Duke sees a sort of airlock.

If it's anything like an airlock, it's not functioning properly, because it allows him to open the door on the other side just fine while the first door is open.

The space on the other side is a hallway about twenty feet long, and then it turns off to the left...

---

(Ajakstu Gul, roll Scary/Weird, please...)

The Lady walked casually over to the blue force wall, and attempted to touch it ... to put a delicate finger through.

The Duke is more then happy to be out of the room with the scary light and simply loiters on once he is 'safe' Though he slowly starts to expect this is not where the water was going.

The Lady's finger does in fact go through the wall of light.

SOLID-ENERGY CONSTRUCT DETECTED, a voice says quietly into the room. ANALYSIS: NON-LETHAL. SUPPRESSION MODE NOT ENGAGED. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ACTIVATE SUPPRESSION MODE, ACTIVATE VOCAL COMMAND SHIBBOLETH ZETA ALPHA GAMMA.

Then the voice goes back to being silent.

So the lab's sensors noticed The Lady, and in spite of her making the lab's sensors just a little nervous (at first), apparently it classifies her as not an immediate danger, and so she, too, can pass through the wall of light like The Duke.

---

("Loiter" usually means "to stay in one place, lazily," but it does also have a seldom-used-these-days meaning of "moving on, lazily." Do I interpret correctly that you mean that The Duke slowly moves on...?)

Yeah i believe the correct term might be saunters instead.