maybe.. "Directly opposite the entry stairs is another doorway, and in a similar position to the room above, another doorway in far or lefthand wall.

"Let go deeper down." Cathal says, pointing to the door.

"I think we should be careful. I feel like this shadow has been deliberately isolated to keep something in. The trump power source is very powerful. It might be also very dangerous." Rhiannon looked at the door. "But, whatever's here, it's probably the key to possibly getting out."

Sarah looked up with some bit of alarm.

"If you find something -- someone -- and he seems to know a lot about what happened before, don't let him out. That goes double if his name starts with an 'R'."

You descend the staircase, as previously using light provided by Kenneth's gun....


As you emerge into the basement there appears to be a feint flickering light coming from the 6ft wide, 7ft high archway to the left.
Cautiously peering around the edge of the archway a curious sight awaits you across the far side of the basement.
Attached to, or part of, some sort of 'Heath Robinson arrangement', is a 3ft diameter gyroscope frame, inside which 3 rings rotate slowly (one ring in the x-plain, one ring in the y-plain, and one ring in the z-plain), about 1 rpm.
Extending from the top of the 'Heath Robinson structure' which is predominately behind the gyroscope frame, is the veined structure which disappears into the stone of the ceiling.
The whole structure emits a low level of illumination, the rotation of the rings causing the flickering effect.
The intensity of Trump energy down here is significantly greater than on the floor above.

Cathal is not going close to this strange construct. If there is something trump related on the floor this is something for the trump artist to solve.

He looks around for a torch or a lantern. And if the light allows if there are any further stairway. [yes I see the map]

You have not found anything resembling any form of torch or lantern..
Do you have your mobile phone on you? Does it still have any charge?

On seeing the construct Charlie develops a puzzled expression, then slowly crosses the room towards it.
Nothing appears to happen and there appears to be no reaction from the construct.
Cautiously she extends her hand towards the construct, until finally she places it on the outer framework.
She then appears to slump forwards onto it.

Rhiannon tensed as she watched Charlie go over to the strange device. She herself didn't see how it could be dangerous, but there was so much she didn't know, and the trump power emanating from it was extraordinary. Charlie always seemed to act like she knew what she was doing, but she wasn't at all immune from making grave mistakes, and this seemed unwise. When she touched the device and looked to slump, Rhiannon gasped, but then rushed forward to pull her back.

"One of you first aid types, hurry." She laid her back on the ground, cradling her head.

Having made her way down, at Rhiannon's initial call, Natalie will rush over to Charlie, and help her to sit up, before checking her over, much to Charlie's annoyance.

After a couple of minutes Charlie will say, although her voice isn't steady

"Can we help Ghostwheel somehow. Without Ghostwheel we will not be able to leave." Cathal asks.

"I've no idea on the former, it will only talk to my mother for reasons known only to itself. As to leaving here, as we're using the Carnelian Pattern, yes we can leave. It's not going to be easy, but I can Shadow Walk us out of here."
"That's not the real question though, the real question is do we move in a few hours after the horses, and us have had something to eat and some rest, which means it's going to be late this afternoon before we can leave, or do we wait until the morning."
"I would prefer to move this afternoon, but what ever we do it is going to mean a couple of hours treking through snow and ice before we can get anywhere snow free and warmer."

"What is 'ghost wheel'?"

"That's a good question, and I'm not even sure my mother, or her half brother who originally built it can answer it any longer."
"As I understand it, and this is based on what my mother and others have said about it, is that it was originally conceived by Zander as a project for his doctorate, a computer which scanned and tallied shadows to build a database."
"At some point after it was built and activated it became self aware, much like the AI's Mizzurian uses. At this point on instructions from teh family Zander was told to shut it down, something he failed to do, as like all sentient beings it objected to Zander trying to kill it and retaliated."
"Exactly what happens next is unclear as Ghostwheel appears to disappear, primarily because the 'family' are incorrectly blaming it for all that is going on at that time, something it actually has nothing to do with."
"At some point during all this it finds my mother, who's just starting to learn to use Trump. It's worth pointing out that at this point neither did she know Zander existed nor Zander know she existed."
"Having 'found' my mother Ghostwheel, creates Mikato, and sends him to my mother as a conduit to find out what's going on and to try and inform the 'family' that it has nothing to do with what is happening."
"Anyway, long story short, the family find out the truth behind what is happening, and it gets resolved, leaving Ghostwheel to come and go as it pleases."
"At some point, in a manner known only to itself, it manages to acquire both a Pattern and Logrus imprint, and subsequently rebuild itself, in a completely different part of shadow to the one it was originally built in."
"So exactly what Ghostwheel is now is probably an impossible question to answer, other than without it's main power tap, it will die once the entropy level of this shadow reaches a critical point, which is estimates will occur in about 6 months, at which point this shadow and everything in it will cease to exist."

"To me it sound like we should leave this shadow, return to you mother and device a rescue plan." Cathal says.

"In which case we need to feed the horses, sort out some food, and then we can go somewhere where I can call my mother. Until she's spoken to Ghostwheel, we can't do much more, other than finish what I started yestereday, which is to teach everyone the basics of Shadow Walking."

"So, basically, we fell into a trap of sorts. Not random, but something not intended for us specifically. So all this is just a detour. If the Ghostwheel is somehow rescued from this place, will the shadow be spared, or are all the people here doomed?"

"If by detour you mean, could I have just walked away from this shadow without evening bothering to find out what had gone wrong, then yes I could, pretty much as soon I determined that I could bring the Pattern up. But there's this irksome thing called responsibility, so no this isn't a detour, and yes in a way this was a trap, but the 'SOS' kind."
"As to the shadow, if I were to guess then yes it is probably doomed, and therefore the people with it."

From what Sarah understood, this Ghostwheel was something like Zou Yan, except instead of being stuck in the Mansion it could somehow roam the Shadows. From what she understood, it made sense that it would have the Pattern within it... although she found herself wondering how it had managed to navigate the Amber Pattern. She squinted at the device that had almost knocked Charlie out. Perhaps it could roll along the path?

At the comment about the people being doomed, Sarah frowned.

"They could come with us? The people in the village, I mean. They're not in great shape, but trying is better than sitting around waiting to die, right?" Sarah said. Even as she asked, however, she knew what the answer would be -- it had been a long trek out to where they currently were already, and the folks there were unlikely to survive the trip.

"If I went back -- maybe I could use portions of the path we've already made, and get them to a Shadow where the Trumps work?"

"We could possibly make it back to the village, but that would exhaust all of the food we have with us."
"Assuming we can persuade them to leave, then we would have to leave by a different path to the one we used to arrive, although the time then taken to get to a snow free shadow would possibly be the same, but I suspect it will be considerably slower because we'd be moving with a much larger group, and a lot of them are probably not in the best of health."
"There is then the problem of what to do with them, moving more than a few people who have a vague idea of what to do and can move swiftly though a portal, is not practical, and where would we move them to?"
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't do something, just right at the moment, contacting my mother, and avoiding both us and the horses, and possibly of the two the horses starving, or freezing to death, is the higher priority."
"Also from a more longer term perspective only two of you being able to Shadow Walk, and even that after a lot more practice just isn't going to work, on top of which, both Alana and I have exams tomorrow Earth time, about 48 hours local time."

Rhiannon just rolled her eyes at Charlie's snide response regarding the detour. It was increasingly obvious that Cordelia's daughter was intent on being a complete cunt at every opportunity. There was no point in arguing, so she addressed the more important issue.

"We have some time to come back and maybe help these people. I hate the idea of knowing that their world is going to end, but I agree we're not equipped to convince them to leave right now. Although, I don't see us starving for having missed a meal. I myself can go without eating for a few days. It's really not that hard. That said, the cold and the lack of provisions for the horses is enough reason for us to hurry out of here. I expect though, that we could go directly from here to a more hospitable shadow."

"I'll stay," Sarah said suddenly. "The rest of you go on. Take the horses, get back and contact Cordelia for help. If you give me a Trump to... to wherever -- then I just have to Shadow Walk them enough so that the Trump will work." She nodded at Rhiannon. "I've gone without food for a time; I'll be ok. And if we can just make it to a Shadow with a bit more game, I might be able to save some of them. It's worth a try, at least."

Sarah head back up the stairs to gather the gun, the bullets, and the bag she'd brought, as she was already prepared to head back toward the village.

"Sarah your wish to help is honorable. But you should consider this. You have to return to the village alone with not much food. You will spend the night alone without others to warm you. When you reach the village there is no guarantee the the villager will let you in their house. Most likely they will not. And they will not share their food with you."

"There is a difference in not eating for some day when you are somewhere warm and shelter to an environment that is constantly below the freezing point."

"Your shape shifting will protect you but it takes energy. You risk going primal."

"I understand the compulsion to help. That's why I asked the question. But it sounds like we have months to do so. We're not equipped to do anything now, and as Cathal said, the  people here will likely not agree to even shelter you, never mind leave their homes on your say so. You might be able to convince them by pretending to be a Norse god, but they might also think you're an evil spirit come to lure them to doom. There is some urgency, but no immediacy. Charlie laid out the smartest course. We get out, get Cordelia to help the Ghostwheel and potentially unlock this shadow, then walk everyone out to someplace they can acclimate to."

"This is where I have to tremble at the enormity of the problem. Perhaps we can save these villagers and perhaps the others nearby, but the entire shadow is going to be destroyed. That means an entire world of people are doomed and we can't do anything for all of them. I'm not saying we should do nothing, but impulsive action is least likely to succeed."

[OOC Cathal has something to suggest about the other door on the floor but I do not want to skip in before Sarah posts.]