Revision as of 23:31, 20 January 2019

Participants

• Aleera
• Jendayi
• Lyas
• Terry
• Zalthar

Date

20/1/482

Log

A faint, distant screech catches their attention, distracting them momentarily from the presence of the dead otter being. They don't know yet what he had been trying to stop, which creature or monster he'd been trying to prevent from escaping this place with him, but they may not have to wonder for much longer..

Walking backwards to lead Aleera towards the well-lit room, Lyas pauses. There's a disturbing noise issuing from that direction - certainly not something he wants to walk blindly into. Sodden tail flicking, the tabby listens, head cocked to one side. He gives Aleera's hand a squeeze, fingers creeping to his blade... then drifting to his gun... then back to the blade. Yes, definitely the blade. There's something much more comforting about holding a metre of sharp steel than a compact block of it.

"Hold on," he murmurs to the group, not wanting to draw the creature's attention. "Sommat might need its ass kicking up ahead." He draws his sword in a lazy sweep, giving Aleera a smile. "Would droppin' a few bullets in whatever that is make you feel better, Firework?" He gives a nod to the other two, signalling he's ready to move forward. One step forward - he's willing to take the lead, if needed.

Zalthar nods at Lyas in return. Turning to face the source of the sound, she grins a little bit, almost hungrily, drawing her hooked cane as dark mathematics softly pulsate around it, distorting its shape slightly. Quietly, and carefully, she advances, peering ahead in catlike curiosity, crouched low in predatory instinct.

Aleera's ears perk a bit when she hears Lyas's reassurance, though her grip on him doesn't so much as loosen for even a second. Still, thanks to his encouragement, the siamese does actually start to breathe again. A deep breath in and a deep breath out, again and again, while she tries to ignore the fact that the very air in this corridor feels oppressive.... Her eyes crack open slightly, just long enough to see the doorway ahead before she squeezes them shut again. Still, she readily follows the tabby, moving towards the light and fresh air with his guidance....

And... once they do reach it, she breathes in a deep, labored, gasping breath, filling her lungs up with fresher air once more. She finally opens her eyes up again after a moment, glancing about the room, quickly examining it.... Really the dead body doesn't even seem to bother her all that much. She's just happy to be in somewhere that's open and well lit. That screetching noise, however, is... less reassuring, and as Lyas pops his question, she offers him a weak smile and... reluctantly releases him from her embrace. "I... I reckon it will, aye...," she shoulders her musket once more, taking up a position... only a bit more than arm's reach behind him, "Just... don't get too far away from me, luv." Putting a shooter so close to the person taking the lead might make for a... strange formation, but either of their companions would likely have a lot of trouble getting Aleera away from Lyas at the moment.

Jendayi furrows her brow, holding up a paw towards the others. "It, errr, cooould be a machine, yes? I could calm it..." She purses her lips. "In case it is NOT, however," she trails off, taking her divine shield out of the pouch she's stored it in, deploying the field and dropping it to the ground so it can roll alongside the group. She holds out a paw towards it and smiles broadly. "See? There are ways to prepare for every situation that don't JUST involve shooting things. ... But. Uh. By all means, please shoot things if they start killing me." With that, she does her best to maintain her composture as she advances on the noise.

The corridor ahead looks pristine white, almost unnaturally so. The room is long and narrow, a functional corridor connecting to deeper areas of the facility. Pipes and cables run across the flat ceiling, and an idle hum can be heard on the background as some machinery is still functioning, albiet at low power.

As the four felines step into the room, that screeching noise manifests itself once more. It clearly came from ahead of them, one of the more distant rooms. Curiously, only some of the rooms seem to be barred with those sliding doors, while the most distant ones are flung open. Strange scrawlings and scribblings dot various parts of the corridor, near doors and across pipework, not immediately identifiable as any language of Promise.

The corridor ahead is even stranger than the first room, and if Lyas was a more finicky Being, he might have felt awkward about tracking mud all through it. Not this Cat, though. He lazily knocks mud from his boots, the muck sloughing to the pristine white floor. He checks his equipment over quickly, fingers flitting along his belt. Lyas then starts to prowl ahead, taking point - but quickly pulls himself up, realising Aleera is sticking close behind. He drops back a step, falling behind Jendayi, and twines his tail around the siamese's. His grip on his blade is easy, relaxed - a calm grip is better than a tense one, in a fight. He throws a grin at Jendayi as he makes a shooing motion, gesturing for her to move forward. "Looks like we two're a package deal today. But don't worry, we'll still fight things if you need."

Zalthar's slipping ahead down the corridor, and once she gets into the next room, starts making her way towards the door that the sounds are coming from. Holding back, however, she waits for Jendayi to make her way in, leaning against a spot of solid wall.

"Would it be possible for you to be able to dim the lights up ahead from here?" Zalthar asks, looking deeper in. "I can scout ahead. Not like I'll be missed if I go missing."

Considering how itchy Aleera's trigger finger gets at times like these, Jendayi is kind of lucky that the siamese didn't just shoot at whatever device she just dropped. But... thankfully, the feline simply shies away from it instead. "That's... some kinda fancy Creator gadget, eh? What's it do, exactly?" she asks, continuing to follow along with Lyas even while he moves further backwards, "Whatever it is, it don't seem as fun as just shootin' instead." She offers the sphinx a cheeky grin, although it's... hard to tell how much she's actually joking. A bit of her spirit is returning, it seems....

Or, well. It is right up until the point that she's greeted by a long, narrow corridor, anyways. Her grip on her rifle tenses up and Lyas can feel her tail twining around his a bit tighter, but the circumstances aren't... /quite/ as bad this time around. She's able to advance without needing someone to lead her this time, at least. "I can still shoot things, aye...," she assures, fingers flexing around her weapon. Zalthar's suggestion to dim the lights earns her an uncomfortable look from the siamese, but she doesn't seem intent on voicing any agreement or disagreement for the moment.

Jendayi bites her lower lip while she gazes ahead, rubbing at the back of her neck. "Dim them? Err, maybe. It is more likely I'm able to turn them off, but that's assuming the switch exists in the same room, even. Creator designs are..." She puffs up her cheeks, shaking her head and holding her hands up before she lets all her breath out in a long sigh. "Schizophrenic at best, to be perfectly honest. I am sure this is simply a matter of my limited perspective, of course." The sphinx glances between Lyas and Aleera, quirking an eyebrow. "It is a Divine Shield, one of the devices commonly used by the machine priesthood, of which I am a proudly ordained member! The glimmer it projects will act as an extra layer of armor for us. I would still rely more heavily on the layers on your person, were I you, but the extra help is there now." With that, she shrugs broadly at Zalthar one more time before advancing towards the source of the screeching.

As they advance further, the screeching becomes ever closer. Creator designs are as intrascible as ever, even for the ordained and trained machine priest, perhaps the one best equipped to deal with this situation. As they pass the first set of doors, one on each side, they can see they're clearly sealed, and without any window or panel that allows them to see through to the other side. A mechanism sits on the side of that door, glowing with a very faint light that is barely perceptible under the diffuse illumination that bathes the corridor.

More of these doors lie further ahead, eight in total, with two of them being currently open.

The loud screeching of metal on metal is heard again, along with a sound that evokes thoughts of great pressure being exerted, of metal buckling under immense stress.

Lyas gives Zalthar a long, unreadable look as she comments that no-one would miss her were she to disappear. When he looks away, he speaks instead to Aleera, waving his blade at Jendayi's Divine Shield. "Expensive lookin' little thing, ain't that?" There's the edge of a taunt in his voice, aimed at Jendayi. "If we find naught else in here, I know how we could still turn a profit!" It's... probably best not to antagonise the machine priest, much less take her things, but few people have ever accused Lyas of taking the /best/ actions available.

Lyas knocks on the closed doors as they pass them, not expecting a response - more just testing, to see if they will swing open. He stops short of the open doorways - if there is a creature in there, waiting to pounce, he doesn't want to present himself to it. "Hold up," the Cat mutters to the group, groping in his belt pouch. "What've I got... ah." He pulls out a half-carved figure, the size of the palm of his hand, and tosses it in the air once. Catching it by the base, he flicks his gaze to the doorway. "I don't know what's through there, but let's check if it's sommat that likes to pounce, aright?" He lobs the figurine into the doorway. A Being more versed in Creator tech might have begun to suspect that it's machinery, rather than a monster, causing the mechanical squeals, but this feline is working on limited knowledge!

The small figurine clanks and clatters on the floor, sliding to a stop. No other sound emerges from this specific room, bar that everpresent hum and that distant, occasional screeching.

Zalthar shrugs and listens for any sounds after the figurine, but not hearing any, slips into the next room with barely any sound. She keeps herself primed to pull a 180 on a scepter, scouting out ahead. "So far so quiet..." she says to herself, stopping to guage the directions of various sounds and movements again.

Contrary to the brightly lit corridor, the room Zalthar slips into is dimly and distantly illuminated. As she takes on her surroundings they remind her of what a clockmaker's or tinker's workshop might look like back in Firmament. Discarded parts and bits of machinery litter the floor. Shelves stacked as high as the ceiling lay mostly bare, with the occasional mostly-depleted container of metal or chemical samples.

The room itself is in a state of disrepair. From the looks of the ceiling the overhead lighting itself may be completely inoperable. The only existing light illuminates what looks like a misshapen statue from afar, in the middle of a bed of assorted parts and pieces of junk that look like the same kind may have been used for its construction.

"Extra armor, eh? That seems useful 'en, aye," Aleera offers, the explanation seemingly making her a bit less uncomfortable around the device. In fact, she's apparently comfortable enough to talk about stealing it now, because Lyas's comments on that manage to make her grin and chuckle a bit. "I dunno about that, luv.... I don't think most folk would even know what that is," a short pause, "But knowin' you, you could probably convince 'em to buy it anyway." Surely they... wouldn't actually try to steal Creator tech. Surely....

For her part, Aleera sticks close to the rear of the party, but her tail being twinned with Lyas's does ensure that she never ends up falling too far behind. She keeps her musket at the ready for the moment, even raising it up and pointing it at that doorway when Lyas tosses in that figurine.... She holds her breath, waiting.... But when Zal ducks in, she simply lowers her weapon once more. "I guess it ain't," she murmurs, stepping forward, peeking around that corner a bit, "Recognize... whatever that big metal lump is, miss priest?"

The huge sphinx puts on her best 'serious Creator' face and straightens her back, turning to stare Lyas dead in the eyes. "These were once gifts from the Creators themselves, to help better guard us from the horrors of the world. They were brought in bulk. To steal mine would be little more than spitting in the face of not only me, but our original Creators, and the protection they lent. All for the transient pleasures of some crowns." She leaaans her weight forwards just enough to loom. "I am SURE you would not want to do that."

With that, the sphinx spins on her heel and carries onwards, following behind Zalthar. When she sees the statue, it takes her a couple of moments of squinting at it before she slaps her pawhands over her mouth. She lets them slide back down, revealing her slackjawed expression of surprise and frustration. "Whuh... Wha... Who- who?! Who would do such a foolish thing!" She sputters like that for just a moment more 'til she continues, "Those are Servitors, four... Maybe five of them, I cannot tell with them in this sorry state! Some headsmacked idiot-of-a-genius made a golem out of them! What happened here...?" Without thinking too hard about it, she steps towards the statue, all but radiating fuming anger. "What a horrible thing to do to machine spirits..."