Labyrinth 2

The party awaken from their rest and see there are a few side passages. They agree to head back to the room with lockers. Down the corridor leading away is misty and cloudy, with dripping.

There is one fluorescent light in the middle. Sakiran creates Dancing Lights to follow along. Ezra asks where Cho-cho is and he drags himself along, having been fed too much by Ezra. Sakiran asks someone to go in front of her, not wanting to lead with Aria in tow. Leoric takes point. He advises that the party not breathe in. Sakiran ties a mask around Aria's face and everyone else. She conjures a Dancing Light above each party member, colour coded. Aria lifts her hand and a bright white light comes out. She shoots it towards Ezra, floating above Cho-cho's head.

Ezra casts a gust of wind. Energy coalesces into his hand and a crash of wind blows down the corridor, unveiling the floor. The mist was coming from a broken liquid pipe. The floor is littered with bones and a red laser tripwire. Leoric compliments him on his lungs.

There are litterings of lab coats on corpses across the corridor. Ezra throws a clipboard into the laser. Klaxons from down the hallway sound and things drop down from the ceiling. Six shots ring out from down the hallway. Leoric is pelted with fire though he dodges a few.

Leoric and Ezra take cover in the south while Sakiran, Aria and Tasu take cover in the north. They take chunks out of the masonry and wind down slightly. After ten seconds they start again. Ezra pities Leoric and apologises for his wounds, healing him somewhat.

The guns fire a burst every ten seconds. Leoric uses his rifle to shoot the southern turret. It takes a chunk out of the turret, but it fires back. Two bursts run at him, but both miss.

Sakiran tries to take the shot at the northern turret, but completely misses with the weight of Aria. She puts her down and takes the shot again. Her shot is true and she catches a gear. Its retaliation burst takes away some cover but it misses her.

Tasu runs up into the corridor, seeing a glimmer of another laser. He goes prone on the floor as two panels explode outwards. The mist is expelled again.

Ezra ducks out from behind the corner and unleashes a huge fireball down the corner. Both of the turrets are completely smashed and destroyed.

Ezra runs headfirst with his shield, charging down the corridor with reckless abandon. He is, however, fine. In the room ahead, he sees a desk, two sidelong doors, a large viewscreen and a locker either side.

Leoric examines the corpses on the way down the corridor. They died through bullet wounds. He picks up an identity tag. It has a picture of a female elf with tired eyes and a round monocle. There is some Elvish writing on it. He pockets it and tries to find any security cards. He picks up a labcoat and stuffs it into the broken pipe.

The room looks like a security junction. There are two lockers to the north and south of the room and a massive display on the back wall that is currently off.

Sakiran looks at the computer. It does not appear to be turned on. She sees within it the electricity and sees a break in a cable at the bottom. She connects them together and the entire room illuminates. Everything flickers into life, though damaged. On the screen, there are thousands of security reports of errors and breaches. She stops the data stream. It comes to the most recent one, camera footage. Tasu asks why their faces are on the screen. He asks if they can destroy it. She goes through the security footage. One is dated one hundred years ago. She sees what looks like a man with four arms with a trailing robe and walking with a hunch and dragging something along. She is unable to make out what it is.

Leoric examines the walls of the corridor itself. They are made of rough, stamped metal. There are blown out portions like a power source has blown. They are standard defence turrets with an eye in the centre, mixed with flesh. Each had two guns and they are completely destroyed. Ezra approaches him to boast about his handiwork.

Tasu and Ezra inspect the room. They see a small key-like object attached to a keyring, with a small cylinder with a diamond-like object inside. They also find a small bag containing 25 Altarnie coins.

Sakiran turns to look at the massive display, but it is damaged. She goes to the southern door and sees there is a panel there. It is a code panel with a number pad. She tries a random combination but it obviously does not work. Ezra knocks on the door and it is solid.

Ezra asks Leoric to shoot the keypad, though he waves it off. Leoric tries to access the computer. He resets the computer to the desktop.

Ezra looks at the locker, with a big lock clamped over it. He asks Tasu for help. Though his hands are shaky after the ordeal just then, he gets the lock off. They open the locker with a rusty squeak. They see some security uniforms, a few personal items that are rotting, a green stim and four bottles of a drink along with boots. He opens the bottle and downs the expired beers. He discovers it is quite sweet. He manages to keep drinking it, glugging it down.

Leoric looks through different sections of the computer, seeing it is the primary security office for the complex. THey were forced to abandon it after the war. They search for things to go with the keypad, but cannot find anything to do with the keypad on it.

Tasu tries to get Sakiran to do it, but she says that she doesn't know what she is doing, so it is better for him to do it. He succeeds in removing the Altarnie security hard drive, as well as an Altarnie power cell. He jams it into his chest, and his armour is now weightless.

Leoric expresses his irritation, but tries to look around the computer and see if there is anything that Tasu missed. He does not find anything valuable.

Sakiran pulls open the other locker and a foul stench greets her. She slams it shut again. She opens the door on the other side of the room. It reveals another room. Tasu jumps in front of Aria and Sakiran and scans for danger. He doesn't see any traps, but the floor is caved in. They see little bits of the floor remain. The rest is a mess of wiring, cables and jagged metal.

Ezra transforms into a raccoon and motions towards Sakiran. She throws him up. He is now within the ventilation system. He manages to get where he thinks is where he needs to be. He sees down through a grate and attempts to push it open. The grate is secure and thick. He can, however, see within the room a big glowing blue container. It is shining and lighting up the entire room. There is the corpse of a scientist laying at the other side of the room and a machine wandering and tending to the blue light. It looks humanoid, but running on quad legs. He tries to look at the dead body and sees that he looks dead. He goes back to the main room. The rest of the party hear echoed chittering as he tries to tell them what he sees, but he realises that he cannot speak.

He plomps down from the vent and is covered in dust in his raccoon form. He snuggles in Aria's arms.

Tasu and Leoric both take the opportunity to explore the room with broken floors. He jumps west while Leoric grapples over to the west. Tasu sees at the end of his room there is a barred off door. He finds a corpse with a pad gripped in its hand. He pulls it away and there are instructions for getting past the door.

They have discovered the order of lasers to deactivate are red, blue, red. He sees the corpse died through massive gunshot wounds. He turns off the opposite red to the corpse. He activates the northern blue and it blinks off. He activates the other red and it does not deactivate the traps. He presses the southern yellow and hits the blue next to him, then turns off the top yellow. The lasers disappear from the room. He heads into the storage room. Inside he finds a strength potion, a potion of cat's grace, a potion of will, two greater healing potions, 500 rands worth of valuables and a gauntlet of magic missile.

Ezra transforms into a pigeon to fly across the gap. He flies to the northern hallway and sees liquid pouring in a torrent down the corridor. He flies through. He sees prison cells in a room behind a locked door with a window. He flies back to Sakiran.

Leoric tells them to grab onto him. Sakiran calls him stupid since he can barely lift himself. He tries to prove her wrong, but struggles lifting them both at the same time. She reluctantly hands over Aria, who is very light. He gets her across and they land without incident. They see the collapsed roof with bits of running water. At the end of the room, there is a massive steel door with a danger symbol on it. At the side, there are two passkey scanners with a corpse at the far side of the room. He places Aria in a corner and pats her on the head. She casts Light on him as he moves over to the corpse. His corpse was obliterated by a punch. On his body, there is a passkey in his hand. He tried to close the doorway before he died. In a room in the far corner, he sees two stasis pods and two consoles either side. He sees a door at the back that has been barred and chained. His mind has been flooded with Elvish readouts and interfaces with the console. He sees a male named Ranji and a female named Trimi, who were twins and both had an important genetic abnormality that they needed. They are both in amber-red - unable to be revived. Recommend purge. He goes back towards Aria and shouts back to Sakiran. She jumps across each platform, though at the final platform she barely grabs onto the grappling hook as she stumbles. Leoric is bracing against the wall. She gets pulled over and smacks into the jagged sides. He manages to pull her straight up and she is bloody from the walls.

Tasu has gathered a lot of loot and his bag is quite heavy. He jumps over to join both of them with his suit's propulsion system. Leoric points out the elves in stasis. He says there is an icon on the screen. He sees it's dangerous to try and revive them. Sakiran asks if this is how they found Aria. He says it is. Tasu looks at it and sees they have been in there for two thousand years. They were taken into the facility to replicate the genetics they need. He notes that if they break them out, they die.

Sakiran asks Leoric what was special about Aria that she is still alive. He asks that they go to the door while he thinks of something. The door was bound by multiple chains. The door had been busted slightly as if something was trying to get out. There are three locks with keyholes in them. Tasu tries his key in the lock. He unlocks one of them. The second clicks, but the third gets stuck. Tasu searches the dead corpse. He finds a red keycard and finds another key deep in his pocket, though it is gunked up. He tests the key in the final lock and it opens. The chains fall away. Sakiran picks the chains up, made of a light, silvery metal. They have not rusted after all this time. She poses the idea to Tasu that he go flying. He asks if he means by the suit. She says no, faster, and throws him on the chain. He flies 35 feet and sticks the landing.

Leoric investigates the hallway. It is covered in long claw marks and he cautiously carries on down the hallway. He peeks around the corner and sees an empty hallway. He sees many numbers along the wall. Tasu, Sakiran and Aria follow along. Leoric peeks around the corner and sees a creature hunched along the wall. It is scratching into the wall. As it hears him step, it turns around and says "oh, welcome." Leoric greets it and it steps towards him, asking if it can help. He asks if it knows the combination in the main security room. He suggests 0451 4521 5218, many numbers. Leoric asks if he can tell him who he is. He introduces himself as Dr Ardelle. He introduces himself as Leoric Langley. It is a cold metallic being. Sakiran asks who he is talking to. Leoric tells her to give him a minute. It freezes as it tries to remember what it does. It has a rotten sample inside of a stasis container. There is writing all over the walls. Leoric asks how long he has been doing it for. He says over two thousand years. He says he killed the scientist in the hallway. Leoric asked why. Dr Ardelle said he was left in there, and requires more workspace. It starts trying to walk down the hallway, following Leoric in a janky motion. As it goes underneath the door frame, it stretches out and bladed fins on its back go outwards. He stands up and is about seven foot tall and spindly. He is a mix of metal and flesh. It is clearly a cyborg. It thanks Leoric and turns to continues its work. He goes towards the two containers, noting they are decayed. Leoric says they are twins. He says they need them for the dragonline system. Leoric asks if he can resuscitate them. It scratches its cheek. He says he would need more samples. They are ripped into the floor. Sakiran asks who he is. He explains he is part of a collective known as Dr Ardelle, where he fractured his personality into many and they work as a collective. Dr Ardelle asks what his clearance level is. He shows him the ID, and he says he must have forgotten. The Dragonline system takes souls when they die and it is a self-renewing planet. Sakiran explains that the afterlife has been part of their culture for hundreds of years. Dr Ardelle says that it is interesting that the Drow have an offshoot, and that they came from those who went to the surface. Sakiran becomes indignant, but Leoric shushes her, pretending she is his assistant. Dr Ardelle said it was an experiment where each race had their part to play. The longer they ran the system, people did not die and enter the dragonline. The humans became wilful, lived longer, and they had to poison. They were meant to be 30 years old. Drow were meant to die at 50. They activate the termination chip to kill them. Sakiran tells him to try it. He brushes her hair aside and notes she does not have a chip. He asks if they have seen Aria Mirelle, since he needs samples from her because she is resistant to nanophage. Sakiran says no. Dr Ardelle walks away and out. They go back to the large door that needs keycards. They both insert a card at the same time. The red is correct, but the blue is not.

They go back to the security office and enter the correct combination, 5218. Leoric enters the room carefully. Sakiran places Aria down, then follows him and Tasu. The core in the centre of the room fires off energy. Two beams come out. Everything they touch, they scorch. The machine is unaffected by it. The entire room is covered by it. Leoric waits until it passes over the corpse. He investigates the body. Leoric follows the beam in its rotation. He tries to pull out an energy core. The beam dims. Leoric asks what they both think. Sakiran believes they should take the cores, even if it powers down the facility.

Tasu trusts their opinion and Leoric moves to attract the attention of the robot. It looks at him then looks back to the console. She conjures a Dancing Light in front of its eyes. It stops typing as it has errors. Leoric ducks in front of it and tries to take the power cell. He grabbed it, fumbled and the beam came too close. He tries to push the robot out of the way but it does not move. It grabs him by the hand with its claw. Sakiran sees the machine has grabbed Leoric. She tries to break its grip. She slams down with her elbow and buckles its hand. It looks at her with its camera eye.

Sakiran makes to punch the camera eye but it only hurts her knuckle. She conjures another dancing light in its eye, taking its attention. Leoric tries to beat it out of the way, but failed to so much as push it. Sakiran manages to tip it right over as it spouts warnings and errors. Tasu runs in and performs a sneak attack. Leoric is finally able to access the display and sees it is the secondary power core. The main reactor's heat is critical and load has been routed to this one. It is venting out extra heat. Leoric understands that he can vent it out of the top. He makes a few changes as the beam shuts off and the facility hums. Steam rises up as it is vented through the top.

They have a look around the room. The walls have all been scorched in the pattern, the dead scientist was blasted with heat. The bones look melted. Different displays in the room are on, one says containment breach. It points towards a certain section of the map and they get a full map of the facility. They see certain things have been annotated with containment breach.

They agreed to head west and north to where they hadn't explored before. They head back into the room where the cultists were. They see a few people covered in cloaks praying towards the chained up thing in the centre. They scramble back into tents towards each side of the room. They look at the creature ahead of them. It looks feminine but it has been taken apart. It does not have obvious corruption and appears to be mounted to the ceiling. They see the machine is Altarnie make with hooks and wires to the ceiling. It has flesh cut off of people draped over it. It has a necklace of internal organs and is currently looking down towards the floor.

They have carved runes and symbols into its withered body. One arm has been removed and in its place are bones and viscera. It looks up at the party as they approach. They have painted on its face with blood and looks up at it with cold dead eyes. It tilts its head slightly. Leoric greets it. The machine says he speaks. Sakiran asks what they did to her. She lifts up the disgusting arm and says they ruined her. The stump of what used to be her arm fell.

Leoric asks who it is. It looks vacant, speaking in a low metallic voice and introduces itself as Unit 1, designed as a weapon. He asks how long it has been here for. It doesn't know. It says it was sent to clear the area for reclamation, clearing everything. Aria has regained her sight. She is looking in horror at everything around her. Sakiran asks what it is and starts writing, explaining the Silver Guardians. Sakiran asks what they are. They were made out of metal and were unkillable.

They have a discussion as Sakiran believes they should kill her out of mercy. Leoric reminds Sakiran that she didn't want to be saved, either. Aria writes that killing and suicide are both wrong. The machine says all she was designed for was destruction. Sakiran smiles knowingly.

They clean her once she falls down, washing off the blood and viscera. The dull silver underneath shows through. Aria shifts towards it and rests her bony hand on it. She mouths a prayer. Eventually unit 1 stands up. It is unsteady. It says it has no purpose. Leoric says it does, and says it will know this facility. It asks that they kill everything within it and make them pay. Sakiran says they will without mercy.

The women and children cower. The machine tells her to kill them. Aria shrugs. Leoric tells Sakiran to take Aria away. She repeats no mercy and says their lives are meaningless without their goddess. Leoric heads into the tent and shoots them quickly one by one, putting down the mutated women and children.