Entering the room, the party found a long curved chamber, lined on one side by various bits of Precursor tech, similar to what they had found in the towers of Arcspire. On the other was a long waist height control panel, with displays glowing blue against the curved wall of the hallway they had just come from. The middle of the room was filled with tables, each covered in ancient papers and writing tools. As they moved in to explore, they found more than a dozen of the Precursors, petrified and slumped against the tables and back wall. Their spider-like forms made the party uncomfortable, frozen in stone but still lifelike.
Paz and Reith set about reviewing the papers on the tables as best they could without disturbing the parchments for fear of destroying the ancient texts. They found information on the world after the activation of the Hylantic weapon, information on the two remaining underground facilities and the efforts in each to deal with the world-ending fallout of that action. They spoke of the weakening of reality around their world and it’s rapid slide in to the Eldar Gods dimension. The test facility in Arcspire was unable to offer much assistance as the combined energies of that smaller weapon and the surface fallout caused mutations and sickness, including what seemed like evolutionary regression in the Precursors there. The inhabitants of Magrathea closed off the portal network to prevent any travel between them for fear that the Precursors there were contagious, only to fall prey to a different effect of the fallout. They found themselves turning to stone with no way to slow the process, leaving them little time to stop their world of being lost forever. They devised a crystal “anchor” that would root their world in this reality, not reversing the slide but stopping it where it was. The first tests were partially successful, slowing the decent from mere months to centuries but the crystal was highly unstable while they attempted to isolate the frequency that would stop the slide altogether. It created random blasts of deadly radiation which they managed to contain and vent out in to the ocean depths. The Precursors determined that they could run simulations to work out the correct frequency given enough time. They feared they would not survive to see the program completed but hoped that there were other survivors of the apocalypse that might be able to complete their work.
Paz moved to the displays, looking at the timers and maps that were available. One showed how long since the activation of the anchor, nearly 2300 years. Another showed the time remaining before program completion, it showed -731 years. They hoped this meant the program had been ready for multiple centuries, rather than this being some kind of error. Paz worked the controls while Reith continued to go down the displays. The controls seemed to be centered around the largest display, which showed what appeared to be a map of the facility. They were in the largest outer ring, with the control room at the bottom of the ring. Directly across the ring, furthest from the control room was another similar room labeled in Precursor as “Relic Elimination Room”. About halfway between the inner and out rings they could see the gate room they entered through, not far from the hallway they found sealed. The hallway was lit red with dozens of red dots within it’s contained area, they milled about and seemed to disappear and reappear at random. In the control room they could see dots that seemed to represent them, some blue, some yellow. They were unable to determine what the difference was between the two or who was what. Reith noticed that the elimination room also contained a single red dot. It was moving about slowly, seemingly circling the room. Reith called everyone over to see the map, with everyone but Paz gathering around to see the other red dot move about. Paz continued to work on the display with the crystal vibration information, trying to figure out how they could get the results of the millennia long tests and try to apply them to the anchor.
The map contained one other yellow dot, Auf as best as they could guess, that was moving around the ring that the portal room was in. As it approached the portal room, seven more yellow dots arrived, spreading out from the gate and in to the room. The solo dot stopped just outside the door, waited a few seconds then moved in to the room. The other dots started to move about quickly but began to disappear one by one. In a matter of seconds there remained the solo dot and one other yellow dot. The two remained motionless for nearly a minute then began moving, one very close behind the other. The pair began heading back around the rings, moving slowly and with no seeming destination.
The red dot began to move again, leaving the room it was in and heading out through the outer ring. Tracking it’s path, the party determined it was coming toward them and they might be able to ambush it. As they prepped to leave, Paz yelled excitedly, she had managed to locate the information they needed and activated the console to function as the charging point for the four devices they had found earlier. The crystals could be attuned to part of the frequency required to stabilize the crystal, although they would only hold the vibration for about thirty minutes, and once activated consoles would rise in the center chamber and the crystal would be exposed. This had it’s own set of dangers as the crystal would still be releasing huge bursts of radiation at random until they could complete the stabilization. Paz called up the frequency, the result of 1,700 years of calculations.
“Combined, the crystals will change it’s vibration to 2112MHz. Seems this number may save the world.” She said, her voice soft as she considered what this could mean for all of them.
“We’ll deal with that after we see what this red dot is.” Reith said.
“Or it kills us.” Edward added helpfully.
Before leaving, Reith experimented with the map. He tried pressing the lines that appeared at intersections in the rings which then changed to solid lines. The party figured this meant that the doors they had seen sealing the hell tunnel were at every intersection. Reith fiddled with the controls a little more and found he could close all the doors at once. He did so and the party continued to watch the map. The pair of yellow dots were now trapped in a hallway section in the middle ring. One dot stopped moving as the other went to one set of doors then the other. It returned to the first set, paused then the door line flashed and disappeared. The dot returned to the other dot and the pair began moving again.
“These doors might not be as impenetrable as they first seemed.” Paz said as they watched the dots continue moving.
“Let’s just open them all!” Edward suggested.
The party looked at him, then moved on.
The party headed back to the outer ring, following the tracks as they followed the gentle curve of the wide hallway. They came to one of the small supply trains that used to take goods around this ring, hoping to make some use of it. Unfortunately it’s arcane power cell was dead. They continued on, watching the curve of the hall as they approached where they thought they would meet up with what they assumed would be the Eye, but what could be anything the system decided was worth marking as red. All they found was more hallway, more tracks and a few scattered petrified bodies. As they approached the relic destruction room they came across doors in to the inner rings. They had been sealed as part of Reith’s efforts to trap the dots but one door lay on the ground in the hallway with the other knocked out of the heavy frame inside the next ring. Scorch marks were on the doors as well as long lines of burn marks lined the walls around the entrance as well. The party recognized the marks as similar to the ones left by the Eye back in the Bureau. Knowing that keeping the element of surprise was important against such a foe, they quietly followed the trail of destruction in to the inner rings.
They followed the trail of wrecked doors and scorch marks to the center room, with the final door reduced to smoldering hole leading to the crystal room. Looking in they could see the Eye facing the center column, trying in vain to find some way to open it or find some seam in the dark metal that contained the anchor. They quietly entered the room, fanning out toward the viewing ports to hide behind. Reith prepared a shot over the top of the metal and crystal hell window, about to fire when the other door to the chamber opened.
The Eye stopped attacked the metal column and moved to the side to look around at who dared to interrupt it’s attempt to breach the crystal chamber.
In the door stood Auf, her golden short sword in one hand and a barbed chain in the other. The chain lead behind her where the party could see a figure bound in the chain laying prone on the ground. She had dragged whoever she had captured behind her to this place, for what purpose they didn’t know.
Her eyes blazed as she stared down the Eye, her voice cold and clear as she spoke.
“I found something you lost.” She said flatly, tossing the chained figure forward with a snap of the chain. It landed hard with a thump, relieving to the party the bound shape of Hattori.
The Eye seemed as shocked as the party.
Auf put her foot on Hattori’s chest and leaned toward the Eye.
“He took everything from me to make you, now I intend to kill you both.” A small smile crossed her lips as she spoke.
“Holy shit.” Edward said to no one in particular.
Early Frost Warning 