Numenera: Stalled Sun (IC)

[Stan]

Tarym Postslar has travelled a long way. Figuratively, for he is old and accomplished. And literally, too, if he thought about it. He has been throughout the steadfast. Even to the edge of the Beyond. If he had his way, he would stay at home with his machine slave and his aerodrink maker. He travels for work. And what a collection of works it is. He is an Aeon Priest, pulling secrets out of history’s grave to make the local villagers clap in awe. Well, sometimes, more of a slow clap of amusement. It’s true that he would probably not live to see personal flying machines for everyone as he had dreamed in his fevered, newly ordained youth. But there have been true successes. He repaired the dance machine that made the village of Elo famous. He is most proud of putting together a series of parts from different eras to bring the rolling robots to life, putting them to work to make paths and roads without human effort. Not one to sit on his laurels (especially with his condition), Tarym believes that his best work is still ahead of him. His strong self-motivation has brought him into the Beyond, where anything could happen. He had to walk several hours from the closest village to get here. But he’s sure it’s going to be worth it. He is close enough to touch one of the only two known intact Blop Towers. From educated guesses of markings in a lost language, he believes that Blop Towers were for food distribution. He is giddy imagining the possibilities of a machine dropping mountains of food at his feet. A perceptive observer would realize that Tarym is not the most interesting man on the scene. This is the Beyond. It’s not safe to go alone. So, Tarym has a team with him, a group of assistants, guards, scouts, and secretaries. Some might consider the whole team heroes. Tarym considers them desperate enough to work for low pay and naïve enough not to expect their name on the discovery.

[Bounty Hunter]

Nakita Torgeski Mystical Jack who Explores Dark Places Whether or not there was actually a Blop Tower to be found hadn't crossed her mind; this rare opportunity had presented itself and she'd jumped on it. It was true, of course, that group work like this wasn't exactly the day-to-day style that Nakita preferred: she mostly worked alone and, when she couldn't, she tried to keep it to one or two associates. Still, this wouldn't be all that bad, she at least knew Horea and the others seemed to mostly have themselves together even if their benefactor were a little ... unique. She wondered what they might be thinking of her, if they even bothered to do so, considering she wasn't what most people would picture in their mind when you mentioned adventurer, archaeologist, or any other the other descriptors that befell those that sought out the numenera. Nakita stood several inches shy of a full six feet, though the thick, steel-toed, boots she was wearing compensated slightly. Her ebony skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat from the marching they had accomplished already today and it seemed to make the strange tattoos emblazoned upon her face even more bold. She reached in her belt pouch and removed a small cloth which had been folded neatly several times over and uses it to wipe her forehead. Luckily she'd put her hair in braids today to keep it out of her face; a thick braid of brown hair currently rested on each of her shoulders. Accompanying the braids were the straps to her loaded pack which rattled and jostled with the various pieces of gear she'd brought along. "So, what do we actually know about this site?" She asks no one in particular.

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 So... the old fool is looking for a Blop Tower? I wonder if Nakita, or any of the Nanos on the team, know anything about these towers? Ariana is keenly aware of the fact that she has very little understanding of numenera and the workings of ancient artifacts. She's worked very hard to get to the point where she doesn't feel a step behind, thanks to her issues with understanding new concepts. That's one of the reasons she was so sure she wanted Nakita and her friend, the AI Horea, on this mission. They have a lot more experience with this type of field work than she does. Even back when she was in the militia she didn't do much of this type of work. It was mostly patrols and staffing the local clinics. That was another bonus! Reconnecting with her old commander, Krysen. They hadn't seen each other for a long time, since they arrived in town really. Since it has been so long, she figured it was safe for the two of them to be around each other again. And an experience leader is always good to have around! Ariana stands just under or over six feet tall, depending on whether she's wearing high heels that day. The boots she is wearing are far more functional than fashionable, as is appropriate for a combat medic, which is her chosen profession despite her lack of employment in the field for much of the last few years. Her tight fitting black pants are tucked into the boots and have several pockets to keep gear she needs handy in them. She has a belt with a hook to hold her verred at her left hip and her quiver of crossbow bolts is over her left shoulder. Her first aid kit is slung across her body resting at her right hip. She appears ready to deal with either combat or a medical emergency. She is carrying her crossbow over her right shoulder in a relaxed manner, keeping it close to the ready instead of strapped to her back, but still trying to make sure the less combat oriented members of the team know that there is no threat imminent. She knows body language is important. Her copper-red, short hair is styled so she can literally just run her fingers through it and it will look decent, if she doesn't have the luxury of a professional dressing room, not that she's really cared about things like that for the past 10 years or so. She decided to let it go back to her natural color years ago, after having had blonde, blue, silver, and even multi-colored glowing hair at one point. Her pale skin and blue eyes are a throwback to a classic look. At least that's what her mother always said. She was always a bit confused at why her mother, who has dark skin and hair, not to mention violet colored eyes, ended up with a daughter who looked like her. But she never knew her father, so she always guessed that he was the answer to that riddle. She was mentally chiding herself for not following proper safety precautions at the moment. Her armored jacket, which looks like a normal jacket from the outside, but has an inner lining of chainmail and would shock any clerk at a theater coat check if you handed it to them because of the weight, was currently wide open, exposing her bare midriff and tight fitting tunic. If this were Krysen's militia unit, he would be reading her the riot act, but this isn't the militia. And it is hot as freakin' heck!

[Stan]

Tarym sighs in relief and excitement as the Blop Tower comes into view. It looks like a shiny black bean stood on its end, extending about 100 feet into the air. There are no visible doors or windows but Tarym has assured everyone that there are secret access panels on the surface, which were more obvious on destroyed tower that he had examined. There are no other buildings or structures nearby.

[spinningdice]

Liviria Senesti An Efficient Nano who Makes Something from Nothing Liviria snaps back to attention - the group had stopped. She saw little reason to pay attention to her surroundings while travelling, there were professionals for that. Instead she visualised plans for tools and solutions to problems in her mind, leaving casual observation to the people more suited to it. She glanced around at the others, Krysen and Ariana were professionals, if there were danger they would be readying weapons and seemed to still be casual - not an attack then... Oh, the tower, we've arrived , a distracted smile touches upon her lips, this is what she's walked all the way here for. Liviria is small, especially compared to most of her companions. A smidgen over five-feet in height, and fairly compact. her defining feature was her overly red hair, brighter than any natural hair colour had a right to be, and even cut short it formed itself into wild busy shapes. Though unless it started getting in her way she barely spared it any thought. Her clothes were similarly haphazard, a single armoured glove padded knees for crawling around under machines and long jacket which she cut shorter so it wasn't in her way. And pockets, belts and tools conveniently to hand - no sense in getting caught out. "No Sense wasting time, we should take a closer look." though she does look to Krysen to lead the way.

[smuchmuch]

Horea
An artificially intelligent nano who figures things out

Though she may be as much an artificial creation as the drones employed by the Aeonn priest, with her humanoid form and obviously different design Horea stands out quite a bit, like a porcelain doll in the middle of bulldozers. She stands at an average size in fact technically rather small even if her long thin arm make her look higher, only covered in a green and red decorated with colorful pattern shawl and carrying bags around her shoulder, Her tall white smooth exposed shell reflect the sun rays as she stands on the walk around the path in silence. She usually stand near Nikita or occasionally may try to talk with the Aeon priest. Sometime she will stand still and stare at something. Her black unblinking eye glow of a different color, green, blue, red, for a few moments, then her cables at the end of the head light softly and she's done.

"So, what do we actually know about this site?"

Despite her apparent unconnected or distant behavior she must be paying attention to the people around her as she answers after a split second, without even turning her head to look at the person she talks to, apprently still starring in the distance. Her voice is

"The design show simple curves and shiny united colores aesthetics. Could belong to a number of tendencies from previous worlds but the language trail that led pour employer here means it is from partial known part of history. From our employer, I gathered some the faded runic language found on the trail that led him here is reminiscent of Mangnio-ith which could mean this was build somewhere at the zenith the first Zerth empire to one of the many revivals that happened in the following millennia. Walls are thick and durable, exact material cannot be determined at this distance.
Our employers believe this was part of a food distributing network, yet no roads or rails or anything that would hint as a transport network nor what could have been fields or glasshouses are visible; even as ruins, that would indicate that flying or matter transportation technology was used, or that our employer was wrong about the purpose of this building.

Perhaps of more pressing concern, the building seems intact despite having spent a long time in plain visibility, above ground and the name is at least known as rumor by the local population. While the remote location certainly play an isolation factor, as does the lack of visible doors, the fact is hasn't been apparently pierced by any would be scavengers or ruin explorers in such a long period of time is worrying. I see no traces of energies from there but these walls seem both thick and isolant. Presence of active harmful, numera, possibly defenses is a strong possibility."

Her voice takes a faint slightly eager undertone.
"Do you have a planned approach ?"

[Stan]

Tarym stops to listen to everything Horea has to say. At the end, he responds with, "That's a good girl." For reasons unknown to any of the others, Tarym apparently considers Horea to be an information dispensing puppy.

Tarym considers. "Well, all reports show the towers to be unresponsive. I also don't see any recent tracks of bandits or creatures. So, let's take the direct approach."

Tarym walks up to the tower and starts examining the surface.

[Bounty Hunter]

Nakita Torgeski Mystical Jack who Explores Dark Places "Thank you Horea." She says as the artificial woman dolls out quite a sizeable bit of data on the strange structure that had just begun to crest into view. Nakita didn't particularly concern herself with whether some of the others in their little band were bothered by Horea's information dump though she was a little curious as to how Tarym reacted to it. Some of the information was the obvious sort of stuff one would ask themselves before delving into a ruin, a temple, or some structure from a bygone age; other points were the sorts of things that some crusty scholar locked away in a library might feel was important to note about a site--but together they helped to better cement what exactly it was they were walking into here. Still, a lot of mystery remained... and they hadn't even approached the thing yet. Satisfied with that the site didn't exhibit any glaring dangers, Nakita hustles to catch up to Liviria and walks alongside her up to the Blop Tower. "Certainly is an odd thing isn't it?" She asks the other woman while giving the strange facility a better look over as they get closer and closer. She manages to pry her eyes away from it eventually and turns them toward the ground; if others had been here recently or whoever had created this thing had left any defense to protect it, she wanted to know as soon as she possibly could--no sense walking into a trap. "I wonder why this one survived intact if there are others that he'd found that were destroyed to such a degree." As Tarym and any of the others who had kept to his slower pace arrive she decides to start examining the actual surface of the object closer: she looks for any signs of access panels, seams in the construction or any other items of interest. She also tries to gauge what sort of material the tower is crafted from, though she doesn't brave touching it bare handed yet. 'Wouldn't want to end up like Rhys.' She thinks as she dons a pair of black padded gloves with hardened knuckles.

[spinningdice]

Liviria Senesti An Efficient Nano who Makes Something from Nothing "If it conforms to the same patterns Tarym has seen before we should at least know where the entrances are. Even if it isn't what we expect, it should still be interesting." Not one to let someone else start work before she does, Liviria runs her hand across the surface, similarly cautiously avoiding touching it with bare skin, relying on her thick gloves forge-working gloves to protect her from any conductive defences.

[infoweasel]

Krysen Brun
A Tough Glaive who Leads

Krysen's halberd bounces across his back as he walks at a brisk, long-legged pace at the front of the group, bow strung and quiver bouncing at his hip. It's been a while since he's been out in his element at the head of a group, and it feels good to have competent folk backing him up again. Finding time to be with Ariana again has helped him feel more in sorts, she the soldier and he the leader, for what good it does. Since the coup and the need to separate for safety, Krysen's been quite out of his element in a city full of strangers, so it's good luck - or the will of the Truth, depending on your worldview - that he happened into her. Laying low had been harder on him than on her, and it was a relief both to rediscover a friendly face and have a set task to accomplish.

With the halberd nearly fully as tall as his 6 foot frame, it juts out over one shoulder where it's strapped across his armored frame. Some design of a previous world glows dully in the daylight where it's inset into the blade. Squinting slightly, the creases at the corners of his eyes are exaggerated as he examines the horizon. When the distance to the tower diminishes, so too does his distance from the group, dropping from a dozen or so paces ahead to just next to Ariana. The glow in his weapon's blade describes a bluish arc as he turns to face the rest of the group. "I'll scout the permiter. Be right back."

At a light jog, Krysen circles around the base of whatever this place is. Yet another alien leftover of a previous world, like so many strewn across the Beyond, Krysen regards it with little interest. His role here is to provide security, and his own goals of establish rapport with the Aeon priest and Ariana's newfound allies are far more important than contemplating the unknowable purpose of some ancient nano's haven, or whatever this thing is. Attempting to understand the purpose of the detritus of ancient kingdom is a pointless exercise, and Krysen has long ago made peace with the fact that there is enough mundane nonsense to deal with in life and has no desire to waste brainpower figuring out the Numenera.


Completing his circuit in extremely good time for a middle aged warrior, he huffs a little sigh as his breath catches back up to him and he with the group. "Whatever this thing is, seems like we're the only ones interested in it, for better or worse. No signs of company." Having departed just as the group was beginning to examine the bean-shaped tower, he assumed they made an examination in his absence. He completely missed the facts that Horea presented, but even if he heard her it would have made little difference to him, it's doubtful he would have made anything of the jumble of information. "Any luck finding a way in?"

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 A slight grin appears on Ariana's face as her old commanding officer, friend, and mentor heads out to scout around the tower. It feels good to be out in the field again! No matter how many shins she pulls in by singing in club; performing elaborate illusion and dance routines; or even if she could find a legitimate theater and actually do some acting again she wouldn't want to trade it for this lifestyle. If you would have asked her 12 year-old self if she would ever want to be out trudging through the beyond like this, she would have told you you're crazy! She was a bit worried when we were first approaching and Liviria seemed like she might just head straight to the tower without proper security measures, but she obviously deferred to Krysen. Speaking of which, Ariana slings her crossbow around her back and presses a series of buttons on the front of her jacket to close up the front, causing the magnetic seals slide together. Horea answers Nakita's casual question about the site in far greater detail than Ariana thought possible, which elicits another grin. That is one impressive lady! Damn! Then Tarym treats her like some sort of well behaved house-pet with a database interface or something. Ariana rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and sighs. That pompous old blowhard! I know I should be grateful, but... Oh well... Somebody else's problem... Just do your freakin' job Ariana! You're not on stage being ogled at or having guys making rude suggestions about about any other professions you might practice just because you work in the same part of town as the red light district! You're doing what you want to do again! You can deal with an arrogant windbag who thinks he's actually paying you enough to make it worth your time... I wish! I hope we find enough numenera and artifacts to make it worthwhile for everyone! Otherwise I'll really feel bad. As Tarym, Nakita, and Liviria start examining the tower, Ariana takes position so she can see them out of the corner of her eye and watch their backs at the same time and starts walking a slow patrol route about twenty yards away from the tower, covering about a quarter of the circumference of the tower with each pass. After only two passes, Krysen returns and reports: "Whatever this thing is, seems like we're the only ones interested in it, for better or worse. No signs of company. Any luck finding a way in?" "Not yet, but those three are looking. Horea is concerned that there may be active defensive numera, since this place is in one piece and the others that Tarym has found haven't been. Have to admit... the logic is sound... There must be a reason why this one is still standing? I was just trying to keep them in view and keep an eye out for any unwelcome visitors, just like you taught me." She winks and bumps him with her shoulder. "Damn! I've missed this... and you! It gets in your blood, doesn't it."

[Stan]

The team gets started on what is often a long slog through many failed options. Understanding a major artifact could take years. Different civilizations in many different eras had vastly different thought processes of how something should be put together. Even basic things take time to tease out. Does that wire conduct electricity, conduct light within its hollow core, shunt away heat, hold parts together, block interfering waves, or there for aesthetic reasons? Languages and alphabets varied tremendously; good luck also trying to understand context and idiom. The best that can usually be hoped for is figuring out things like “this triangular stud makes things happen”, “that symbol like a bird with an open beak is a warning”, and “don’t sever the yellow tubes or it will never work again.”

Luckily, Tarym had spent a season with a nearly identical Blop Tower that had been sliced or burned through several times in the distant past, with multiple sections left lying on the ground. Exposure of the insides had resulted in oxidation and degradation. A few million years of dust had filled in areas and solidified to stone. Tarym had really studied a fossilized Blop Tower corpse. Nonetheless, Tarym felt confident that he had learned enough to merit spending time with an intact Tower. The expected result was a test of any internal power source and whether any internal access could be gained. The Tower was close enough to civilized areas that it had doubtlessly been explored several times before and those explorers must have failed and moved on. Tarym was counting on experience with the other Tower to enable him to succeed where others had failed. This discovery could make him known through the ages for something even bigger than the Elo dance machine.

With this expectation, the team has brought supplies for a week’s stay for an initial foray to see if the tower would be worth the effort to set up for a semi-permanent stay. An initial look over reveals a shiny black surface that has only tiny scratches and minor pitting after standing up to the elements for epochs. That and the fully intact shell or outside gives hope that the insides will have secrets to reveal.

With everyone full of the initial thrill of the unknown, work proceeds exceptionally quickly and smoothly. Things happen so quickly that no one has yet started unpacking for a longer stay. Tarym tells Horea what to look for and, within an hour of scanning and recalibrating, she finds an oval on the surface with differing static electrical properties from the surrounding area. With Horea’s direction, Tarym marks the oval’s outline with chalk. After another hour, Tarym and Liviria think that they have determined how the oval is held in place. Eventually, Nakita applies a bit of hedge magic to the exact right spot and a panel swings open. It’s a small victory but it’s far more than anyone else has accomplished with a Blop Tower.

Everyone takes in the wonders of the interior. The device inside looks like a collection of colorful sea shells interlocking into something larger. The complexity of just this one section is almost too much to take in and might take a great deal of time to map out.

After studying the symbology, Tarym risks touching the device and turning a shell. In rapid series, he exclaims, “Ah ha!” “Hmmm?” then “Oh Dear!”

Tarym is bathed in a red light. Blue beams fly out and strike everyone else.


Everything is drowned in light and thunder. After a moment’s confusion, the team realizes that they are the source of the light and thunder. The tower is gone. Discordant piles of, stuff, are everywhere. The thunder and light was the shockwave of their arrival. Except Tarym who is nowhere.

Everyone finds themselves standing on a mirrored surface that rocks precariously. They are about 50 feet off of the ground; exact distance is hard to tell as the ground is covered with things of all manner. The world around them is a maze of piles of mismatched items, as if a surreal artist was trying to demonstrate the cacophony of change across the ages. A ribcage juts a hundred feet into the air behind them. An assortment of very large beetles can be seen in the distance. A burned out humanoid battle machine makes up much of the pile that they are standing on. Bones and dust are mixed in with everything.

It is hot. A bright sun burns in a tan sky. The time is apparently mid-morning, not the late afternoon it was moments ago. An orange cube with pipes or tentacles jutting out in all directions floats by lazily in the distance.

This place is certainly unlike anything any of the team has seen before. They are likely far from any place they have been and it is questionable whether they will ever see home again.

[Bounty Hunter]

Nakita Torgeski Mystical Jack who Explores Dark Places In a knee-jerk reaction Nakita holds up one had and blue light from above bathes her from above; she didn't actually expect her arm to shield her from anything but the motion was purely reflex. Thunder booms and lights flash and suddenly she realizes the light has changed from a cold blue to a warm dull orange. She lowers her hand to see the low-hanging orb of the sun in the sky and quickly begins to turn to see where the structure had gone only to realize that it hadn't--they had. "Wha...?" Her mind begins to race, confusion and excitement pump through her at tenfold what it had as they entered the tower. She turns her gaze down and studies the piles of ...well... everything apparently. It wasn't all junk per say, it just seemed to be a completely random assortment of things that had been gathered and simply left here. She turns her attention to the mirrored surface upon which they are now balancing and tries to gauge whether it is free floating or appears to be resting atop something. "What happened to Tarym?" She asks eventually, though she assumed the others knew just a little as she. "Horea, what is this place?" She had been poking around old ruins and other sites for nearly all her life and never had she had something seemingly teleport her somewhere else. 'Was it teleportation?' She wonders to herself as she begins to try and figure out other possibilities; time travel and the like.

[Stan]

After vision returns from being luminescent, more details emerge. Everyone is standing on a rectangular, shiny, plate of some sort that is roughly 30' by 40'. The way it rocks when anyone moves suggests that it is resting on top of a pile but is not secured in any way. A wrong move might start a sled ride that ends in a thud.

Looking around shows a landscape of irregular hills. Focusing on the hills, each is made of more things. The landscape, as far as can be seen, is irregular piles from 10' to 100' tall on what might be a flat surface underneath.

The orange cube, the only visible object in the air other than the sun, is still visible, drifting slowly, as if on the wind. There is zero wind. Without a reference, its size and distance are hard to tell. It is likely hundreds of feet up and at least a hundred feet across.

[smuchmuch]

Horea
An artificially intelligent nano who figures things out

"YY..I.. _Y;..i"
There is a long mometn after the telportation where Horea is completely still and silent. Only the soft light behind her yes blinking furiously and small erratic sounds that one could asociate as glitching.

"Yes. Given the complete change of surroundings, teleportation seems the most likely, possibly dimension shifting may be involved as well, it is unclear at this point. Whether we activated a sytem of the tower or a defense fromt he tower, a telporting trap, I do not know. "
Her voice is flat. she sounds unshaken as one would expect from an emotionless automation. It is not so. She is as surprised and lost as everyone else. And scared. She simply do not show it, not does it influence her in the same ways, once her 'glitch' is over."Privilege" of her robotic state. In truth she has deliberately put out fo mind the full impact of what happened.. denial makes dealing with the imediate so much easier sometime.
"Hypothesis number 1: The wreckage we are standing on ,suggest this could be a landfill. A dump. The platform we are standing seems installed to receive things, which indicates that thing are transported here on purpose rather than being some of teleporting Bermuda triangle. However the complete heterogeneity of our surroundings could indicates multiple points of origins. A graveyard of teleportation accident ? Perhaps both or something else. it is yet too early to tell.

Lastly for now I notice organic residue below, bones at least. Unless local conditions are unfavorable to corpse decomposition, this would indicates that living creatures have been sent here, close enough in time that their bones have not turned to dust. And died here. At second though, considering the unstabiltiy of the platform we are in, indicating some riging, it is possible that it was isntalled by previous telportees, this would be a good thing as it indicates they lives long enough for this kind of work. yet everything seems dead."

Horea gives a couple of foot tap on the platform they're on, testing the instability.

"While our employer was in a ray of light, he was not teleported with us. There is a chance, however slim it may be, that he is still in the tower and might be able to bring us back, at which point staying in place is the best course of action. Finaly if previous unwilling telportees installed this platfom it is possible we may be eventualy reched by a 'welcome comitee', whether this is a good or bad thing is unknown. However should we be standing around for a long time, I see no water or edible food around, everything seems dead? therefore it will be encessary to move at some point to search for food and water.
I choose to stand here for now, I trust Master Postslar to do what he can, if he can."

Horea atempt to move a side of the platform, as close as she can without destabilizing it then sit in a lotus like position as she looks in the distance. at the outlandish background, had she breath it would take it away, in a vaina tempt to glimpse the rules, of this new place. Any details to go on would do.
For now she's looking at the beetle like things, standing, (very slowly crawling ? no movement sqhe can see), around in the distance, along with the orange floating cube they stand out the most.

Spoiler: OOC side note

Show

(I do apologize if Horea seems very long winded to say very little but this is alway a risk when playing such characters.
Either it seems they are just stating the obvious; or to seems they are pulling conclusion out of their a.. thin air Since first posts in a Pbp game are kinda important to give first impression about her character, I prefer to risk the former rather than the later.
In the future, I intend her reasoning to be more silent as well as having more emotions in her narration (mostly because i'm still sort of tweaking how i want to play her personality )

I will spend a round to observe the beetles.
Even if I don't get the bonus from applied observation, just extra info would be nice

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 When Nakita gets the panel open, Ariana sees that Krysen has also noticed and nods toward the group looking into the now open tower. "Doesn't look like we're getting any company here. I'm gonna see what's up? Maybe they could use a fresh pair of eyes if they can't figure something out, not that mine are likely to be them." She walks over toward the tower and peers into the interior along with the others. It is far too confusing to make any sense to her. Sea shells? Why the heck would there be things that look like sea shells? She turns toward Liviria to ask if she understands why they are shaped that way and realizes that it really doesn't matter, having drawn her attention, she is embarrassed not to say anything to her companion... she hadn't really gotten to know her much yet, since she was the one person other than herself who she knew was here specifically because of Tarym and not someone she recruited. Kinda pretty... I wonder if she'd let me try to do something with her hair sometime? Whoa... stay on task girl! Krysen would have my head! Damn... When did I become a ditz? She clears her throat. "Kinda pretty... Those shell things... Any clue what they do?" Ariana tries to not seem like an idiot about these things, but she's pretty sure that Nakita would be laughing at her if she heard her. At least I think she knows that I have trouble understanding this type of stuff... Just then she sees movement out of the corner of her eye and turns to see Tarym reach out and turn one of the shells. What the heck does he think he's... “Ah ha!” “Hmmm?” “Oh Dear!” Tarym is bathed in a red light. "Oh for cryin'..." Ariana's vision is filled with blue light and all she can hear is the crack of thunder. "...out loud!" It takes a moment to realize what just happened, but before long Ariana has pieced together at least a portion of their predicament. That arrogant old fool! He activated the tower in some way and it was some sort of a device that transported things... Us to be specific... But where the HELL are we? This doesn't look like anywhere I've ever been... She leans to start moving toward Krysen and feels the inherent instability of whatever they are standing on. "Stay still, people! Whatever we're on doesn't feel stable. But first things first, is everybody alright?"

[Stan]

Spoiler: Minor correction and images

Show

The beetles are sitting in the distance, some on top of each other. None of them are flying or moving.

Examples.

edit: don't worry about post length early on - it's important to establish character the first few posts.

[infoweasel]

Since he was facing away from the grandiose artifact the scholars were studying, the sudden conflagration of light from the thing catches him more with greater surprise than the rest of the group. Despite the nearly blinding brightness, habit from years of combat experience causes him to reflexively close only one eye as the whatever-it-is does whatever the hell it's doing. In theory, keeping one eye closed when a bright source of light suddenly appears helps preserve night vision, or at least help one adjust more easily to the new lighting conditions. Seems it's a pointless exercise, since the new environment's light source is a distasteful shade of orange and just as bright as where they came from.

Throwing out an arm to balance himself at first, he falls into a bent-kneed stance that seems like it would be at home on the field or on the practice floor, letting him easily adjust to the swaying of whatever this platform is. Not even bothering to look up - assuming the orange to just be a shade of sunlight that's different - he scans the immediate surroundings. Jaw set in a grim frown, the presence of the myriad beetles registers as threat numero uno on his mental radar. Watching them as he half-hears the nano's flood of hypotheses, he's only just finished assessing their numbers, distance, and behavior when the one relevant observation Horea makes prompts a verbal response from him.

"We only have enough food and water for a week at best. Here's what's going to happen: Horea, Liviria, spend the next hour using whatever nanotech and learning you have to put together some observations about this place from up here. Ariana and I will make a security assessment during the same time, priority number one is getting down from this platform safely, then avoiding whatever the hell those things are, and lastly getting out of here and towards some sort of water source. If the old man is coming back, he has an hour to do it. After that, we have to look after ourselves."

Doffing his pack, he pulls out two small numenera. One is a leather bracer with a piece of glass attached to the top, which he slips on with ease born of practice. The other is a handle with a small protrusion made of synth and metal [ OOC: Think hypospray from Star Trek. ] "Oh, one other thing. I need each of you put this at the base of your neck and then push this symbol." Turning the handle so everyone can see, he displays it to the group. "Once you do, this cypher will show me where you are at all times, so we can't get separated." Holding it out for anyone who wants to grab it first, he adds, "And, uh...it's not pleasant. Feels like being bitten by a snake, but it only lasts a moment."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

What kind of task, if any, would it be to

a) try to figure out what the best way down off this thing would be, and

b) assess how many of / how far away / how dangerous the beetles are?

[smuchmuch]

Horea
An artificially intelligent nano who figures things out

"then avoiding whatever the hell those things are, and lastly getting out of here and towards some sort of water source."

"So far I have seen no movement, they seem perfectly innert. It is possible they are resting. Or as dead as the rest of the organic remains around this place.
... However should they be organic and still alive... I'm aware you might find the idea unpleasant but wouldn't it make sense they would be near the closest sopurce of water and organic food ? If not a source of it themselves, should none other be found"

Horea looks at the little cypher the man handed to her then clasping it around and into one of her back cables.

"May i ask where did you found these ? I have in my possession a pair of somewhat similar. It enable a soundless long range communication for one hour. I assume it would be usefull should we have to split for scouting or exploration purpose. I wonder where they wmade by similar purpose ? Do they use similar technology ?"

[Bounty Hunter]

Nakita Torgeski Mystical Jack who Explores Dark Places "My vote goes for getting off the balancing piece of metal fifty foot in the sky before placing any injectors into my neck." Nakita comments as she likewise doffs her pack and sets it down near the center of the platform. She wanted as much weight as possible to be centered before people started moving around too much and sent the whole things sledding down the side of an enormous pile of rusted junk. She studies the platform itself to see if it was a single piece of metal or whether it had been constructed of smaller pieces as if it had been built then placed here or built in place. She then makes her way toward the edge exactly opposite of where Horea has settled, and attempts to gauge whether there was a foreseeable way down. "Certainly we shouldn't move to far from this point initially, in case there was to be a chance at returning. But we can't sit here in the open and playing the balancing game for too long...especially not under this damned sun."

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 "It really isn't that bad. The pain goes away pretty quickly... At least it did when I was tagged back in the day... If anybody has lingering pain I have some analgesics in my med kit." Ariana looks out over the horizon, trying to see if there is anyplace that looks like a decent shelter or a reasonable place free of debris to make camp. "Don't forget to be careful with movement up here. We don't want to find our was down off of this platform the hard way!"

[Stan]

Examination of the mirror-like platform show that it is a single inch thick sheet of synth. Regular series of small holes show where it used to be attached to something. It is warped slightly from being on an irregular surface. Most of it is about 10 degrees off from horizontal.

Horea and Krysen determine that the beetles have not moved for some time. They have dust and debris on them. It's not clear whether they are mechanical or biomechanical but they are likely designed to be vehicles, most likely a type of tank or war vehicle.

Horea's scan reveals a great deal of variety. There are metals, synth, plastics, composite materials, bone, shell, and other materials but not much wood. The humanoid robotic warrior would have been over 40 feet tall. It's empty missile rack and destroyed gun imply that it would have been terrifying when it was operational. Nothing in the immediate area has power, unless it is very well shielded. The robot is missing an eye and there are wires coming out of the eye and draped along its face.
(ooc: spending points tends to give better results and Scan is a specific chose ability.)

The floating orange cube remains a mystery.

[spinningdice]

Liviria Senesti An Efficient Nano who Makes Something from Nothing Liviria offers no resistance against the Numenera monitoring device, this is not the situation to show a lack of trust in her colleagues. "I can likely get down myself, I'm not sure how many I can carry" Liviria indicates a bulky ring on her right middle finger. "This generates a bubble which ascends or descends at the wearer's indication, I believe it will only work for 10 minutes, and cannot be disabled once activated until the ten minutes expire. I know it will work around the wearer, I'm not sure how many others they can carry?" Or maybe I can put something together, don't want to destabilise the platform while I'm working though...

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 Ariana nods at Liviria. "It's probably too risky to try to carry multiple people inside it if you aren't positive it will hold them... But maybe we could rig some ropes to put over the bubble and we could make foot and handholds with knots and loops at the ends so we could ride down? We would only need two long sections of rope. I'd expect between Krysen and I we can handle most of the gear if we can tie it into bundles that can be carried on our backs, or we could use a third rope and tie it up the same way. OH! But we'd have to balance weight... Dang, I hate to ask, Horea, but... how much DO you weigh? Maybe we'd need to counter you with some of the gear if you're heavy, being an AI and all? I don't know... Maybe you're made of lightweight material... Anyway, sound like a plan folks?" A huge grin spreads across her face. "If we all plunge to the ground I promise to patch you up!" She looks over at Horea. "Well, I can't help you much, I guess, I'm a medic, not a mechanic." She winks, "So we better make it work, right?" She turns to Nakita and asks, "You always seem to be able to figure out how these things work. What do you think? Would it be able to carry extra people like that or are we asking for trouble?"

[Bounty Hunter]

Nakita Torgeski Mystical Jack who Explores Dark Places M: 10/10/0 | S: 14/14/1 | I: 14/14/0 | E: 1 It wasn't that she didn't trust her companions, she knew full well that they were each more than experts in their particular areas of skill, but she didn't enjoy some of the ideas that were being toss around one bit. With a slight grunt Nakita lowers herself to the ground and lays in a prone position. He black gloves and leather armor sparing her skin from what she assumed was a quite warm sheet of mirrored metal that had been heated by the sun for several hours minimum. "Though I trust your skills to patch us up, I think I'd rather just avoid the injury in the first place eh?" She jokes and then, using her gloved palms, slides herself partially over the edge of the platform. Trying her best to ensure her grip on the edge holds tight she tries to get a better look at what it was sitting on, how it was fastened there, and whether she could justifiably descend in a mostly safe manner. If she feels she can safely reach somewhere with her feet or mostly reach and then drop, she will spin herself around on her stomach to allow for feet first decent. Spoiler: Actions Show I want to know a way off this platform... I'm trying to find a decent enough spot where climbing over the edge and down is doable. If that is absolutely not possible please let me know. If there is anything you need me to roll let me know.

[spinningdice]

Liviria Senesti An Efficient Nano who Makes Something from Nothing MIGHT: 8/8/0 | SPEED: 13/13/0 | INTELLECT: 15/15/1 |EFFORT: 1 "If we can rig a net, it will be better, I'm not entirely sure how large the bubble is, though I beleive it will generate a sphere large enough to encompass the wearer, so working with an approximate six foot sphere... Anybody have any rope, or cables? Liviria takes a look around to see what's in reach that she can work with, and barely registers that anyone else is there.

[Stan]

OOC: I'll just roll this time.

Spoiler: rolls to find good path down.

Show

Krysen needs a 6 because of skill (1d20)[9]
Nakita needs a 9 (1d20)[19]

There look to be some stable paths down. The key seems to be to get everyone to stop off of the shiny sheet in such a way that it doesn't become a sled.

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 Ariana lowers herself gently to one knee and takes her pack off her back. "I have 50 feet of rope here, Liviria. Will that be enough for what you need? Talk to us... What are you thinking..." She watches as Nakita carefully looks for a way to climb over down, then glances toward Horea. Can she manage a climb like that? She looks so thin, but I know she's made of pretty sturdy material. I just don't know her physical capabilities... I suppose Nakita knows her best, so if she thinks the she's found a safe route, Horea should be able to handle it... But maybe... "You know... I'm no expert or anything, but I can probably hold my own climbing down if you find a safe way. Do you think that cypher would hold one person? You and Horea are both pretty small, size wise at least. You might be able to fit together inside, then the rest of us could split the gear and climb down, presuming these two capable individuals find a safe way!" She flashes a smile toward both Nakita and Krysen. "What's it lookin' like down there?"

[smuchmuch]

Horea

An artifialy inteligent nano who figures things out
Might 10/10, Speed 14/14, Intelect 18/20

"From the variety of meterials I feel under us, cables could probaly be found in the wreck under us if someoene is nimble enought to take the risk to climb down and search.
This platform we are standing on is not only not fastened to the support under us but also present multiple small holes around it's rim. If we have anough cables for a 'net', could we not smiply attach link the edges of the patform to your bubble, using it to provide lift for a slow fall while the platform would provide a solid 'basket'."

[Zensunni42]

Ariana Haiden Charming Jack who Crafts Illusions MIGHT: 12/12/0 | SPEED: 11/10/0 | INTELLECT: 16/16/1 | EFFORT: 1 | XP: 1 Ariana smiles and shakes her head. "Horea! Has anyone ever told you that you are a genius! Wait, what am I saying! Of course someone has, because it's obvious! But we don't even need to get cables. We just need one more rope! This platform isn't that big and the bubble shouldn't be that tall. If we tie two ropes together at their centers, we should be able to secure each edge of the platform with two ropes! If you really want to be safe, get a couple more, but I'm sure Krysen has one, and I'd be SHOCKED if Nikita didn't have at least one length of rope in her pack! The only problem is how to secure the ropes to the holes so they won't come loose until we get down." Spoiler Show Not my character's purview, but I did the math. We need less than 50' of rope to cover both hypotenuses from one side to the other.