[Nexus] CURATOR I: The Evil Has Landed

[The Alexandrian]

[Lake]

Heave-ho! Down the middle pillar goes! It should have been quite difficult to budge. A tremendous ton of suction had held it in place. The room within was quite obviously pressurized, almost like an airlock on a naval vessel.

As expected, as soon as the seal is shoved aside, the lake begins to drain. It falls two or three feet, no less! A vortex of water forms above the entrance to the ancient complex, much like those of a bathtub after the stopper has been tugged out.

This might result in the brave adventurers being sucked into the shrine forcefully as the interior of the structure floods (unless Aurea is in her dragon form, in which case she might plug the entrance)! Liz spins down the black tunnel in terror and confusion!

The tunnel is smooth without grooves upon which to snag clothing or cause injury. It is curved sharply at points. A mechanical whirring can be heard blasting out of the trembling, strained material.

Where do the defilers emerge? The entrance tube empties into an enormous titanium chamber bathed in an alarming flashing red light and filled with about a half a foot of icy water. High-pitched emergency sirens wail above. The walls pulse with alien energies. There are two exits to this room. Both are metal hatches locked with horizontal crossbars that have sunk into the ceiling.

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[CURATOR HQ - PC/Computer Room]

Kenneth will likely catch sight of a little girl and a tiny lizard attempting to operate a computer console! The little girl hasn't noticed him yet. They appear to be intently examining a map being displayed on the computer screen.

The little girl, Lintha, speaks to the lizard,

"I don't know. This is a map, right? Doesn't that mean you need to go explore the area that is indicated by this map?"

[Reinholdt]

[Lake]

Eeep!
Reinholdt fights it for a little bit, but ends up being sucked in and deposited into the room.

He takes a moment to recover and reorient himself before glancing around and covering his ears.

His primary concerns right now are how high the room is and whether water continues to pour in after the adventurers get deposited. Hoping the sound stops is an optimistic secondary concern.

[Zefir]

[CURATOR HQ - PC/Computer Room]

Kenneth will likely catch sight of a little girl and a tiny lizard attempting to operate a computer console! The little girl hasn't noticed him yet. They appear to be intently examining a map being displayed on the computer screen.

The little girl, Lintha, speaks to the lizard,

"I don't know. This is a map, right? Doesn't that mean you need to go explore the area that is indicated by this map?"

[CURATOR HQ - PC/Computer Room]

"Yeah right. The boss could have told me more about you. I didn't thought of this by his mentions."

The lizard starts looking over the map he needs to save the map in his mind since his appereance wouldn't allow him to take the map. If there isn't any interruption he will go and start the adventure.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake]

Will is sucked in as well. Hopefully not dropping on anyone as he is; he's not thinking anywhere near clearly enough to fold his various spines and hooks into his carapace, so it would likely be quite painful if he did.

[FireFox]

[Lake]

Aurea reverts to her human form to facilitate her entry into the shrine. Unfortunately for her, she's now soaked. The young woman gets to her feet and inspects the pulsing walls. She's trying to maintain her dignified composure, but that's a little difficult when one's clothes are dripping water.

[The Alexandrian]

[Lake]

Inspecting the pulsing walls, eh? If Aurea draws close to one of the radiant walls, she might feel herself being yanked closer to it. It seems to have formed its own gravitational field separate from that of the earth and of equal magnitude.

Water does continue to pursue the hardy adventurers into the chamber. Inch by inch the chamber slowly begins to to fill. The ceiling is excessively high, so drowning won't be much of an issue. Hypothermia is the more pressing matter here.

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[CURATOR HQ - PC/Computer Room -to- Weathered Ruins]

Sand, sand all around but not a fragment of glass. A heap of stone slabs, chipped and battered by decades of exposure to the harsh desert elements rests before Mister C. There is a narrow hole in their center. Where it leads? It is a pathway into the temple which holds the relic Mister C seeks.

[Reinholdt]

[Lake]

Unlikely, seeing as how they got spells to keep them warm for a reason.

Reinholdt goes to fly up and investigate one of the two exit doors.

[FireFox]

Lake

Aurea is taken by surprise and is smacked into the wall. After a moment, she tries to reorient herself to stand on it. How did that quote from that book Father enjoys go? Ah yes, "The enemy's gate is down." Utilizing wry humor and literary references as effective coping measures against the unknown, she leans down to give the pulsations a closer look. She is specifically attempting to determine the function of these gravity walls.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake]

Will appears most intrigued, and attempts to use that rather handy datapad/multitool he has to pick up if the pulsing walls emit anything, at least that he can't see (so things other than human normal spectrum, and much of the UV and IR wavelengths.).

"Aurea, what is the method by which you are standing on the wall?"

[Zefir]

[CURATOR HQ - PC/Computer Room -to- Weathered Ruins]

"Sand szenarios. Big worms, high chances of undead... No NO NO NO don't think that way just go on."

And Mr C starts flying through the hole. He keeps an eye open for every thing around, you can't drop down your defense in such a place.

[The Alexandrian]

[Lake]

As I do recall, the party also has a spell or two manufacturing air for them. Therefore, if Aurea's magic supply were to suddenly run nearly dry, the allocation of the magical assets she so prudently kept in reserve would likely lead to an increased hazard of hypothermia and a comparatively low risk of suffocation, initially, at least. Even then, assuming that the chamber is properly sealed, a layer of air has a good chance of forming and remaining at the top of the room for a considerable amount of time.

Thus, neither drowning nor hypothermia are worth worrying about right now.

As Reinholdt approaches one of the metal exit hatches, he might be able to hear a grinding of metal against metal. A moment later, a clang sounds from behind the door, as though something is pounding on it with a weighty steel beam. Better not tarry here. There's something behind that door that probably isn't very nice, kind, or welcoming in terms of its disposition!

The other door is another hatch. A hatch with a circular crank rooted in its center, much like the other. This door sounds perfectly safe and secure, thankfully!

About those gravity walls...

Aurea will find that the wall is divided into a grid comprised of three foot by three foot squares by shallow grooves cut into the surface of the metal by some sort of industrial instrument. No human could be so uniform in his or her marking of the metal sheet. Even the most meticulous creature couldn't be so exact, could it?

Mountains of dust have settled on the walls. Aurea might find a footprint outlined in this grime. If she has been paying attention, she should be able to determine that the footprint is similar to Liz's in many ways. The most pronounced difference is the size of the newly discovered footprint as opposed to the size of Liz's footprint. The footprint marking on the wall dwarfs Liz's footprint (or it would if Liz had made a visible footprint to check it against in this hold), and Liz's feet are by no means tiny!

Will shouldn't be picking up any unusual optical/light readings with that fancy-dancy spectrometer of his. There is a sticky, sweet liquid streaming down the interior of the walls that is being zapped with significant portions of energy resulting in the observed distortion of gravity, however. His tricorder-esque tool might detect that!

-------
[Weathered Ruins]

Zip! Mister C should enter a maze! But normal mazes aren't fun to roleplay at all! So let's spice it up (and shorten it up) a little bit!

As Mister C enters the maze, he might hear a deep, full voice thunder,

"History is written by the victors. It logically follows that what's 'right' is 'left' and what's 'left' is 'right' in the 'eyes' of history. What's 'left' is life. Life isn't the route you should take. What direction should you proceed in, historically speaking? Follow that walkway to its end."

Mister C might be at a fork in the path. One path leads right. The other leads left. Conundrums! Yay!

[Reinholdt]

[Lake]

Reinholdt investigates the PERFECTLY SAFE door for traps even though in no way IT'S A TRAP. After doing that he tries to open the door in a way that won't TOTALLY BACKFIRE in his face.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake]

Indeed it does.

And so, after a slight manipulation of the controls, the tool opens at one end, extending a small vacuum, with which he tries to take a sample of the grav-syrup, to be analyzed in various ways within.

[Zefir]

[Weathered Ruins]

((Ahh sorry I got the post in mind, but technologie isn't so far to write my thoughts down.))

Mr C thinks a moment. at first directions where changed then he was said to walk left, but left is life and life is wrong. That means if he has to go right he has to go the wway on the left side and there he is going to head.

On another way he thinks ist may also mean he has to go right left left right eyes left, but that's a bit to much for just hearing someone.

[FireFox]

[Lake]

I offer a tentative hypothesis that we are dealing with a technologically advanced location, as opposed to the typical magic one may expect to find in a temple rumoured to be populated with the undead... Aurea muses, mostly to herself, as she inspects the grid and the footprint.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake]

"Humanoid robots share certain characteristics of walking corpses, especially if their internal structures are similar to those of a person - depending on the technological and anatomical expertise of the person examining them, and how closely they were able to observe them, perhaps even enough to confuse the two," Will points out emotionlessly. "And that would certainly fit a technologically advanced area."

[The Alexandrian]

[Lake]

A boulder drops down from the ceiling as Reinholdt opens the door, squishing him underneath a ton or so of stone! Reinholdt will locate no traps on the door! Only a terrible excuse for a boss of a profitable...whatever this place was would pay someone to trap the entrance to the structure!

The door opens with a discomforting hiss. Within is a combination control station locker room! Metal paneled walls surround rows of rudimentary metal footlockers, an old, green, mold-filled shower, and six deactivated, rectangular, plain crystal prisms setup behind white marble counters with normal-sized chairs attached to them!

And the sirens in this room are blaring as well. Drat!

Will might not want to try method of taking a sample of the gravity paste to analyze. The channel within the wall is pressurized, and I'm sure that the gravity paste would not be fun to breath. It is also in the wall, which is quite hard to penetrate!

-------

[Weathered Ruins]

((Ahh sorry I got the post in mind, but technologie isn't so far to write my thoughts down.))

Mr C thinks a moment. at first directions where changed then he was said to walk left, but left is life and life is wrong. That means if he has to go right he has to go the wway on the left side and there he is going to head.

On another way he thinks ist may also mean he has to go right left left right eyes left, but that's a bit to much for just hearing someone.

[Weathered Ruins]

Yep! Mister C solved the first puzzle correctly!

Mister C will likely enter a dimly lit room, illuminated only by a hole in the ceiling. He will find that the path leading deeper into the temple is blocked by a rough stone wall. A simple metal control panel lies on the floor before him. Five red buttons glow in the darkness. Mister C's body weight, however small, should be enough to activate them.

[Reinholdt]

[Lake]

"Zombies can infest spaceships too. It's a popular theme even." Reinholdt calls down, before flying inside the control station room. Stopping, he pops his head up through the doorway.

"Anyone here good with crystal array set-ups?" He asks. If the overall answer is no, he'll just shrug and go see if he can't turn one on.

[Zefir]

[Weathered Ruins]

Pressing buttons at random? No. Mr C will go and check the room, his attention lays on everything that will in sum appear as 5 or less things.

[The Alexandrian]

[Weathered Ruins]

Good news! I finally finished up the puzzle for Mister C to complete! The bad news is that it is kinda difficult to solve. As that is the case, I have provided clues that will help Mister C immensely during this game!

Mister C's search of the chamber will reveal five metal plates nailed into the wall to the right of the entrance of the room inside of an small niche! The Latin letters "Alpha" and "Omega" have been neatly carved into two of the metal sheets with terrifically artistic, flowing strokes. The words on the other panels are illegible as prolonged exposure to the elements has worn the metal down as the centuries have passed.

There's nothing left to do in here except for button pressing.

[Reinholdt]

[Lake]

"Anyone here good with crystal array set-ups?" He asks. If the overall answer is no, he'll just shrug and go see if he can't turn one on.

[Lake]

Reinholdt shrugs and goes to see if he can't turn one on somehow.

[Zefir]

[Weathered Ruins]

Good news! I finally finished up the puzzle for Mister C to complete! The bad news is that it is kinda difficult to solve. As that is the case, I have provided clues that will help Mister C immensely during this game!

Mister C's search of the chamber will reveal five metal plates nailed into the wall to the right of the entrance of the room inside of an small niche! The Latin letters "Alpha" and "Omega" have been neatly carved into two of the metal sheets with terrifically artistic, flowing strokes. The words on the other panels are illegible as prolonged exposure to the elements has worn the metal down as the centuries have passed.

There's nothing left to do in here except for button pressing.

[Weathered Ruins]

And suddendly Mr C wears clothes like Indiana Jones. ((This is his camonflage. I think it's funny that way.^^))

"Alpha and Omega. Beginning and Ending. I'm sure that I have to ptess these buttons as the first and the last one. That leaves me six different order for the remaining three. Actually I have not much more so I could already start."

With that he flies over to the buttons observing them as well. If there isn't anything of note he will start press the button with the same position as the metal plate with "Alpha" writen on it.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake]

Will is completely and utterly unfamiliar with crystal arrays, but follows Reinholdt anyway, as they sound interesting.

[FireFox]

[Lake]

Aurea carefully tries to see if the roof has the same gravity altering property as the wall. If it does, she will walk on it and climb through the hatch to watch Reinholdt work the crystal arrays.

[The Alexandrian]

((I owe you guys way more posts than I've been producing. >.< Therefore, I am going to prioritize my responses to this thread.))

[Weathered Ruins]

Stop! Puzzle time!

Hint:

Spoiler

Show

Not all numbers are utilized in the solution to this puzzle!

Let's label these buttons for convenience. From left to right, the buttons are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, for simplicity's sake. Mister C pushed button one in his last post. What does this action result in?

Numerical Key:

Each of the five buttons possesses a corresponding green light which shines out of it when the numbered gate it is associated with is open. Likewise, a red light radiating from the button designates that the gate it is associated with is closed. The goal of this game is to open all gates, upon which the path ahead shall open for Mister C. Activating a gate once opens the gate. Activating a gate twice closes the gate. Activating a gate thrice opens the gate and so on and so forth.

Buttons: Gates Activated When Button Is Pressed:
1 1, 2, 5
2 3, 4, 1
3 2, 5, 4
4 5, 3, 1
5 3, 1, 2

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[Lake]

The ceiling is indeed under the influence of the gravity manipulating fluid, yes.

Dual puzzle time! The door leading further into this facility is locked with by an elaborate arrangement of locks. The crystal arrays shall power up as they are contacted physically. They project holographic interfaces out of them! What's this? There is an assortment of basic colors on the screen painted onto separate subsections of a control designed in the shape of a spinning wheel. Poking the space of the interface where a particular color resides activates that color. Here is a list of the colors currently available for selection:

Yellow
Green
White
Red
Blue

A box displayed upon the security terminal is colored black! Hmm...

[Reinholdt]

[Lake]

Reinholdt taps the yellow, red, and blue sections to activate those colours. Tap, tap, tap!

[Hattish Thing]

Lobby

A drow shade tries to walk in, Excuse me I would like to sign up.

[Zefir]

[Weathered Ruins]

Stop! Puzzle time!

Hint:

Spoiler

Show

Not all numbers are utilized in the solution to this puzzle!

Let's label these buttons for convenience. From left to right, the buttons are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, for simplicity's sake. Mister C pushed button one in his last post. What does this action result in?

Numerical Key:

Each of the five buttons possesses a corresponding green light which shines out of it when the numbered gate it is associated with is open. Likewise, a red light radiating from the button designates that the gate it is associated with is closed. The goal of this game is to open all gates, upon which the path ahead shall open for Mister C. Activating a gate once opens the gate. Activating a gate twice closes the gate. Activating a gate thrice opens the gate and so on and so forth.

Buttons: Gates Activated When Button Is Pressed:
1 1, 2, 5
2 3, 4, 1
3 2, 5, 4
4 5, 3, 1
5 3, 1, 2

[Weathered Ruins]

Mr C thinks and thinks. And it needs him a few minutes to figure out whats going on. Then he uses his camonflage to look like Sherlock Homes... or better Scherlock C.

"That is a fine peace of a riddle. Don't you think Dr. C Watson?"

Mr C Walks up a few inches changin again to a Mr C version od Dr. Watson.

"Yes Sherlock, but your brilliant spirit will solve this. Am I right?"

"Indeed! And I have done it already. In fact the only thing you need to think of is how often do I neeed to change a door to solve this."

"I don't understand what you mean Sherlock."

"Just think about it Watson. Every portal is closed. That means we have to push a button one time to open it. To make it short we need to fin a combination of the buttons resolving in a uneven use of each portal."

"Just brilliant."

Mr C changes back looking a little depressed.

"I really need some friends."

Then he starts pushing the buttons 1-5-2-4-1.

[The Alexandrian]

[Weathered Ruins]

The harsh grinding of rock against rock rumbles through the chamber as the circular slab of rock before him rolls aside. Pneumatic machines hiss ahead as light floods into the room from this new tunnel. In the center of the adjoining area, a fist-sized white crystal pulses upon the top of an old black, iron pedestal. Three oak doors with tiny chinks in them, large enough that Mister C might squeeze through, stand in the wall to the left, right, and front.

Exploration time, perhaps?

------
[Lake Temple]

As the interface is interacted with, three tones ring out through the air. There's a C sharp note followed by an A flat note quickly trailed by a plain D.

A metal panel wooshes open in the wall, revealing a well-lit, soundproofed "Jeffery's tube" of sorts. There's a insulated metal ladder leading up to a chamber above and down to a chamber below.

Of course, Reinholdt probably won't want to venture out of this room without checking those secure lockers over that-a-ways. They could contain something indispensable to the mission!

Then again, there's a banging on a wall nearby punctuated with large dents being hammered into it.

That's no good.

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[Lobby]

Well, well, well! Look at that! There's nobody here. Not a soul. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And all that jazz.

Why? Because CURATOR is understaffed.

Is that a chirping echoing out of one of the many pitch-black corners of the room? No. Couldn't be. If someone was there, they'd likely greet the drow-shade.

'Tis not a someone we're dealing with here. 'Tis a something.

[Hattish Thing]

Lobby

Excuse me? It's important..... . The incorporeal drow rasps.