Alvatter was initially suspicious of how effective the arts of the Order and the Dreamers would be. While not diametrically opposed they sought different objectives and their ways were largely foreign to him save the sparse academic knowledge the Order had collected of their 'magical' traditions and rituals. Still they harmonized surprisingly well and to great effect within the Road. Perhaps it was a consequence of their environment or perhaps their two paths were simply more amendable to one another than he had initially anticipated.

Still as the palatial structure came into sight he called out to the group.

"Halt!"

He repeated it as necessary until the entire caravan was stopped. He then called for his colleagues to gather once more, all the while eyeing the structure suspiciously.

"Does anyone have any idea about how or why this palace is here? Or what that humming sound maybe?"

  La had hovered close throughout the combined effort, keeping the sages' pipes fresh and delivering ritual tools almost before they knew they needed it: a few commented as much, displaying no small pride in the girl. Some of the diviners' traditional charms for preventing nightmares had nuances that only entirely made sense if they had decayed from much more complex and powerful magic in the past. It was a bit of a stretch to adapt it for these living(?) nightmares, but Alvatter's miraculous expertise clearly equaled the task. Something distant stole into her face every time she spotted him approaching the sages directly, but her manner was impeccable regardless. And when her tasks had ended, she conducted her own small, private prayer. And there had been power in it.

  She is still nearby when Alvatter orders the halt, and immediately she turns to whisper something to a woman beside her. The woman whispers something to a man next to her, who says something to his children, and by then the woman has passed the message to two more. And that goes on until the wave of sussurus spreads out of earshot, and you can only track it by how quickly the swath is to obey—the whole column is brought to heel sooner than anyone with authority took up and relayed the Inheritor's order. And she stays nearby while the rest of the Chosen gather to discuss their situation. There are enough cups of tea going around, the whole area smells like chamomile and poppyseed.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Fri 14 Aug 2020.

Sani just gaped and wondered whether they had found the den of the awful creatures, or perhaps something worse. She stared at the tall structure, still holding Joshua's Gun, limply in her hand.

Anything was better than the Road.

Right?

   "This one has heard the wisdom of the Most Puissant Sun, and cannot deny it.  In your hands, the future of Irohn.  Your hands must stay alive.  This one is of no consequence.  She will go in ahead and discover any ambush that may have been laid against you." La raised her head toward the sudden obstruction and looked up and down its walls.  Her hands vanished into her sleeves when she bowed again.  Someone passing by had... taken the tea service just at that instant...

  "This one only suggests herself because she is present now, exalted ones.  If this one is inadequate to the task, she can fetch another at your pleasure."

"I--I have no idea, " Sani replied to their leader. "What could it be?"

When Brie volunteered to go alone, she said, "No!  Let's all go together.  It's not like we have a choice, but you saw what happened to Joshua -- we need to stick together."

  "You... will be sticking together, exalted one. It is the purpose of this one's offer. If there is any danger, you will know in time to coordinate your response." The girl gave an uncertain cringe that failed to convincingly play a smile, then turned her face toward the edifice. "This one cannot argue, of course. If the Honored Inheritor wishes to be the first to enter, it is not this one's place to object."

Alvatter nodded his head in agreement with Sani.

"Sani is right. We should move together. We have all received the blessing of Anaya. That must mean something beyond the simple inheritance of power."

"Besides I have seen what power we might call upon by unifying the mystic ways of the Dreamers and the arcane knowledge of the Order. This night palace shall not overwhelm us."

The group of heritors moves into the palace, finding it surprisingly simple in layout. There are clear halls, a few rooms that hold odd-looking glass constructions, and doorways built of something that looks much akin to silver.

As you move further into the palace, though, you start to notice a certain...wrongness. The colors woven through the glass tubes of this place's walls take on a sort of too-vibrant tone, virulent and pulsing with life. It looks wrong in a way that is rather divorced from the Night - this is not an emptiness, not a hunger, but a corruption of something, taking what is and twisting it. It is tainting the construction of this place with some energy that does not feel natural, or clean. The same taint has spread into several of the devices, most of which are no longer working once they have been corrupted in this way.

And then, at the dead center of the palace, and some four floors up from the Road, there stands a much larger door, silver and glass. It is the first in this place that has been closed, and locked as well. It positively throbs with that pulsing, virulent intensity, and you get the instinctive sense that the corruption is spreading from here like blood pulsing out from an unearthly heart.

Rashana had joined them, as their debate raged on. It had taken a fair bit of effort for her to convince the nerve-rattled folk manning her towers not to open fire on the bizarre towers, and she relayed as much as she joined the others. At Bire's suggestion of her going first to investigate, she keenly shook her head. "No, if anyone goes first, it should be me. That place is clearly a structure of some note, and some power rests in its walls. I may be able to help comprehend what we're dealing with there, especially if ways are barred or traps lurk inside."

True enough, she turns her eye to the various inoperable devices, doing what she can to discern the form and function of this strange place. The discover of the locked and barred silver door, pulsing with energy, and seemingly a bulwark against strange corruption, gave her pause, though. It would be trivial for her to break the locked seal and open the door... but what was on the other side...?

"I could open this door. Could. But I'm unsure if I should. I sense something inside, perhaps dangerous, definitely powerful..." She said quietly.

(Rolled an Intelligence Check (13 >3+, with possible fact bonus; Success either way) with the intent of seeing what she can deduce or learn about the various devices, this structure, and the strange power she can feel within? She's also got the Theft and Artiface Words that may help with minor miracle perks for access to insights or understandings, if this stuff is valuable, ect?)

  "This one is not trained to evaluate sorceries," La admits. She is at that moment evaluating the extent of the rot every handful of paces. She stops when another of her seemingly endless subordinates approaches and whispers something in her ear before backing out of the room and trying to keep his eyes straight ahead on the way out. Of course, the Servant girl is there. She says she'd been sent by whatever fancy title she called the high priests she worked for. Apparently, over-performing chatelaine is the heart of her duties in the temple, too.

  "The will of Irohn, Chosen Ones," she explains, hastening back in toward the center. "The populace would consider themselves much safer, I am told, from behind these castle walls. The attacks are light, but they still come. The people who need to know what lurks further in already know, and they believe our people could be kept to the places still clean. This one does not know enough of engineering to judge those claims."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:31, Tue 25 Aug 2020.

Rashana took some time to think over the situation, the structure, and what she could make of the function of it all. It was distinct in a big way from the road itself, and everything they had seen so far...

It seemed like the center of the Road's structure, in a strange way. Foundational, perhaps responsible for creating and maintaining the road they'd been travelling? These odd engines seemed to be the source of the road's stability. Troubling, then, that the sense of power behind that locked door seemed in some way either aimed at establishing the road, or destroying it. The former hinted that perhaps it was used to connect to Irohn intentionally, possibly to draw the predations of the Uncreated, or perhaps to serve as access for someone who had traveled it to reach their former world. Alternately, maybe the connection had always existed quietly, and this change was a new one, or some effort to break off a link that was now dangerous, with the Uncreated swarming their home.

Rashana played the possibilities in her mind, but soon put them aside to consider the immediate - whether the road was maintained by or being damaged by what was within, it was probably something that they should open up and investigate - if it were under threat, they needed to preserve the road - if not, perhaps it could offer means of facilitating a better escape or offer some knowledge of a destination beyond traveling blindly into darkness.

It was, though, ultimately clear - whatever else waited behind the door - it blocked their way to the end of the road. It would have to be opened.

She gathered the others, once she'd made her assessments and briefed them as such on her findings. There was no way to go but through, and that may be a dangerous prospect, or a very good one - regardless, great care should be used with the engines and machinery within, else harm may befall the road itself.

"I can open the way." She finished. "It's locked, but I can simply take that lock apart. Like anything else, it can be dismantled. I just think we should all be present and prepared for anything, before I do."

(OOC: I should be able to bypass the lock with the Theft passive ability. It may (probably) require effort committed for the scene to overcome a magical lock, at GM discretion)

  "This one can tell you only this, to aid in that decision: the nightmares at your people's heels want you to. It is the only explanation of their activity." La has undeniably sidled into something of an advisory position, it at least has come to behave that way. Old habits, most likely. While Rashana investigates more thoroughly, she fields increasingly urgent questions from various factions of the gathered refugees. With the investigation surer now, she presents them at the first opportunity.

  "There may be no other way forward, but the Honored Inheritors should be well-prepared for whatever that may mean. The people also urge haste, and continue to press Your lieutenants with questions they are not able to answer. If this one is not too bold for saying it: there appears to be little time to choose and take action. The trouble at Your people's heels is coming to fruition."

Alvatter listened to the interplay between Rashana and Bire La, nodding along at their assertions. His gifts did not allow him the divination of intents as Bire La or the command of machines and artifice as Rashana. No his power lay in his mortal knowledge, vast as it was, and his command of the arcane. Even if only from a theoretical vantage. Still it was plain to see that this night palace, tainted with fell energies, was somehow connected to the Road.

"We could ignore this room, attempt to press on past it, but I fear a reprisal from those misbegotten things. If they truly do wish for us to penetrate these defenses we may have no other recourse but to abide."

He swallowed hard, steadying himself with his staff.

"I am prepared if the rest of you are. Whatever is behind these doors we can face. Together."

Sani felt an increasing nausea as they traveled into the depths of this lost palace. "I think... perhaps something... needs to be healed here, if we can pass through the door." Putting her hands on the door, she tried to sense more, before stepping aside to allow them to open it.

The doorway cracks open, and reveals a large chamber, an atrium of sorts, all woven glass and too-intense colors. The ceiling is thirty feet up, and you can see other doorways opening room onto balconies above. The floor is more woven glass, covered in sigils that look harsh and angular and somehow hurt the eyes to look at, as though there is something in them that is inimical to life as you know it.

All of that is quickly overshadowed by a pair of other observations. First, directly in front of you, there is an archway that extends up to the ceiling high above. It's filled with darkness, the darkness of the Night, unrelieved by any light or color. A plaque next to it reads NEXUS in an archaic dialect of the language you grew up speaking.

Second, in front of that is a tall being, fifteen feet tall. Its body is too long, as though it were stretched on a rack - long limbs, angular joints. Its eyes are massive black orbs, and spurs of bone extend from each joint. And from its back, wings of bone extend like a cloak, spread wide. The virulent wrongness of the colors in the glass is radiating out from it, emanating from it, spreading.

It looks at you and you look at it, and then it speaks in a voice like soured milk and broken glass. "Godlings. How quaint. And how delicious."

OOC: Yeah, that's the start of combat, you're up.

Alvatter walked into the room, taking stock of the area. Despite the revulsion he felt when looking at the harsh, angular glyphs he studied them briefly to see if they might reveal to him something worthwhile.  When spoken to his eyes focused on the elongated, winged creature. He did not speak, largely because words would not come to him, but he instead focused his divine power and attempted to learn more about what stood before him.

Using my Action to use Read the Signs

"Alvatter, watch out!" Sani urged. She felt her breath speeding up, her chest getting tight, the world starting to blur from sheer panic at the edges of her vision.  Holding up Joshua's gun, Sani fired again and again, until the gun clicked uselessly.  As the moment passed, and the Keeper clutched the gun with a nervous, shocked expression, it became clear that Sani had done more damage to the architecture than anything else.

  Oh!  Good.  It made its target clear.  La is only too happy to let the godlings handle this one.  She only came along in the first place because they needed her example to stay focused, which had come as a disappointment, not a surprise.  And since whatever that horror story was, it definitely was going to need the Inheritors' full attention, holding back and getting the other servants out of the path of danger seemed like her wisest course of action.  "Tranh, go see the doors opened."  If the godlings weren't able to arrive at a prompt decision, she would make one.  It isn't all that different from herding the doddering Big Fish before them, really.  If people had any idea how that temple really operated...

  La shakes her head; she was distracting herself at an important time.  "They've found the source of the evil here, and they're fighting it.  But it's still very important no one spend too much time on the colored parts until they've won."  She glances meaningfully down at the social worker's feet and just how far he'd followed onto clearly unwholesome territory.  She leaves no time for discussion of her own position deeper and closer to the taint.

  "Stay in the first ring of walls, where it's safest, and keep an eye on the children.  The Scholar is busy finding weakness in the heart of the corruption, and no one knows how it spreads.  Go!  I'll tell you if anything changes.  I promise."  And so she bundles the young man who was assisting her out beyond the last door, closing it behind him.  The sacrifice she makes, leaving herself in danger to play messenger of the New Gods, is objectively, ontologically heart-wrenching.  The little servant girl is too noble, too pure for this world.  One cannot have a heart but wish her forever safe.

...which is courtesy Unbearable Beauty as a miracle.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Wed 02 Sept 2020.

Rashana doesn't take long before the lock clicks open, revealing... well, she wasn't quite sure what she'd expected within, but this definitely wasn't it. The portal labled  as a NEXUS had her curiosity, but, perhaps unlike the others, she immediately reacted to the threat. Seeing and hearing Sani unleash the fire of Joshua's gun in an ineffectual hailstorm ending in emptied clicks, Rashana lunged forward. She'd already seen that gun's user fall once, and in this case, for Sani, she'd at the very least step forward while she was here and now and try to protect her. A Scholar, an Engineer, and a Gardener to face whatever this dead monstrosity was...

As she moved, she pulled both of her daggers from across the back of her skirt, and drew them together, forming them into part of the arched frame of a glowing bow forged of raw inspiration, and a gleaming arrow drew back as she rushed forward, veering to the left around the chamber, spreading out from her companions as she instinctively took aim and let the bolt fly, an aimed shot intent on splintering the bone of that winglike structure.

"Sorry, but we're not on the menu~!"

====
Using my movement for the turn to Spread Out (Left around the room, maintaining distance from target because ranged attack) so we don't all get AoE Nuked at once.

Using my Ten Thousand Tools + Artiface passive to make a bow and arrow as part of the action to use it. Committing Effort for Hammerhand.

Attack hits with a result of 24 and does 4 points of converted damage.
13:27, Today: Rashana rolled 19 using 1d20+4.  (Result +5 (Target AC) Hit on 21+.
13:27, Today: Rashana rolled 12 using 1d10+3.  Damage (Hammerhand).

The bony, winged being winces as a balcony falls on it in the wake of Sani's salvo of gunfire. This is, however, only a prelude to what happens to it as Rashana fires a bolt of pure energy and inspiration into it. The lance of power punches straight through it, leaving a hole the size of a large man's fist completely through its sternum and torso.

It stares, collapsing to its knees. The too vibrant colors pulse once, painfully bright, before fading entirely. The archway labeled Nexus stands before you.

As the construct falls, two things happen. The first is a palpable sense of release and relief, of the people of Irohn recovering and their confidence and belief that things are going to be okay. The second is a howl from outside the palace, fierce and shrill and piercing through the walls.

The Uncreated are coming.

Laila looks to the exit, where people are streaming in now that the monster and its corruption have been purged. She draws her blade and nods to the other Heritors. "I'll guard the door until you can close it from the other side," she says simply. "Go with God."

---

Through the portal, another dizzying step that covers far too much reality for such a small action, you find a city of polished marble, glittering glass, and shining silvery metals. It extends into the distance, filled with towers and buildings of all sorts. You are standing in a plaza, in front of a simple stone archway. Next to the archway a stone pedestal with a lever and a plaque that reads The Land of Twilight Skies in an archaic dialect.

And looking around, there are a lot of archways in this plaza. And other plazas nearby. About thirty, all told, each one silent and empty awaiting activation....

Rashana moved over to Sani once the creature was down - more easily than she'd feared, or maybe her bow was just that powerful, she wasn't sure. She tucked her daggers behind her, and put a hand on the scared girl's weapon, lowering it, before she pulled the Gardener's tense frame into a light hug. "It's okay. Come on. We need to get people through. I'll go through and see what there is to see first." She said, before parting from her and heading for the portal.  The wagons may not fit inside the building and through the gate, but that was fine - they'd served their purpose, she hoped... If not, she could always make more, given materials.

She paused briefly, though, at the sound of the howl, and her eyes lifted to Laila with a worried tension as she directed them to go, and to close the gate from the other side. She stared for a moment. "You better actually hold it."

=====

Passing through the portal, Rashana kept low and quiet, dagger drawn as she inspected the quiet plaza on the other side. She moved clear of the gate itself, and, upon seeing no people in direct view, she stood, tucking her blade away as she drank it all in - the materials, the ornate stone, metal, and glass all impressive works. The multitude of other unopened gates also drew a curious look. All fascinating, none of them active, it seemed. Time enough to investigate them later. She moved to find a large enough space to assemble the people starting to pass through the portal, stopping several of the forward guard and directing them to direct the people to gather in the center of the large plaza for now, far enough out from the gate to  leave room to bring more in, and with clear directions not to mess with any of the other gateways. That would be the last thing they needed...

Alvatter was shaken from his surveillance of the room and the construct before him by the sound of Sani's gunfire. Gathering his wits he prepared to inform his group about what he had learned but the words died on his tongue as Rashana utterly destroyed the creature with a singular massive attack. Inwardly Alvatter made a silent promise to himself to never anger Rashana enough to turn her ire upon him.

Still with the construct destroyed the Uncreated became agitated and the portal became their only safe course of action. He remained with the citizens for a while, helping to herd the front half of the group through the gate. When they reached the middle section, the portion where the Order and its belongings were gathered, he forcibly corralled them through the gate and passed through himself. He knew that if permitted they would die to obtain even the slightest bit of insight into the theurgic runes that decorated the area. He'd deny them such a fate.

===

Once through the gate Alvatter continued to direct people away from the portal and towards the center of the plaza. He didn't have any immediate awareness of the nature of the Nexus but it was at least implied in its name to be a place between places, a hub which likely connected to many different Roads or planes. He took note of his home plane, this Land of Twilight Skies and resolved to avoid opening such a portal in the future lest he return to a ruinous hellscape.

"It seems that we are safe for the moment."

  "All but one of us, now."  The voice of the servant, just emerged from the portal with an arm around Sani, is thick with emotion that her face does not admit to.  She lets the Gardener go with a gentle pat on the back and turns, immediately, to look for a closure to the door.  It isn't really hard to identify the only likely candidate, and she throws the lever as fast as she can lunge for it.  Then she drops like a puppet with her strings cut, leaning against the portal.  She has her face hidden against the metal before she reaches the ground.

  And a minute or two later, she gets her professional demeanor drawn back around her like emotional armor.  "The Sun was undimmed behind us.  There were no shadows behind her.  But they filled the corridors beyond, to the ceilings."  After that uplifting report, she rises from the spot and heads off to assist with settling the  community in.  Tracks had been cut through her blush, but there were no more tears in her eyes.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Mon 07 Sept 2020.

Rashana had busied herself with seeing the exiled people clear and into an open space, the better to manage the process of seeing them all through the gate. Once the last had made it, though, she returned back toward the gate to find Sani and Bire La, the latter having closed up the gateway. Her eye lingered on the lever, before she moved closer, and gave a shake of her head. Her hand rested on the lever, and it came free in her hand, disconnected from the machine proper. "... As much as I want to open this gate again and go back in for her, we can't." It would be easy for her to fix. But what better way to ensure that the danger that must lurk on the far side of the gate be locked out than ensuring none could open it?

She put a hand on Bire's shoulder as she stood. "There's a lot to do, this place seems enormous. If all of these towers have as much usable space as they should inside, well... There's a lot to assess." There was a pause, and she took her hand back. "Are you okay to work on it?" She looked over to Sani as well. "You too. This wasn't easy. Things at least seem calm, here."

  La pauses at the touch on her shoulder without immediately turning around, not until after a steadying breath.  She makes eye contact very briefly with Rashana before she realizes her mistake and drops her gaze to the hand as the Maker withdraws it.  She waits, quietly, for Rashana to finish speaking, but deftly moves in on the tail end, before there can be any distraction.  "I can gather survey teams, Tireless One, and organize their efforts.  I will do so at once."  The bow forces her to back away, and she turns faster than she rises, to begin immediately hurrying away from the unanswered question.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Sun 13 Sept 2020.