The Center of Time

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Echo, as to what the abhuman is telling you, I seemed to be responding to Father Seren's question as to its orders. He asked it what its orders were. It made a gesture of something large getting bigger. You surmise it means, "expansion." And since it isn't getting any bigger, and you know the jungle has been growing since Sevar Trimm has been here last, you believe it means its orders are to expand territory.

As to the chime sound, the sound occurred when you pulled out the map, and that's when the abhumans began to stare at you. The map seems to have connection to this place, and holds some significance to the creatures within it.

 

[fireinthedust]

Duncan watches the progress of the Jacks, letting them analyse the technology and the creatures, instead of charging in to attack. He feels no tension, his cybernetically enhanced body simply being in one of many positions of readiness to spring into action: a step and swing of his blade.

"The antenna looks like a communication device to me. If attacked, we slay the leader and pick off the others." He rumbles quietly to the others.

"If you can't control them, I can't let them harm us. Can we send them out of here with those controls, teleport them to the surface? I'd rather not have to kill them."

 

[Tashtego]

Seregal tries to see if he can figure out what the abhuman is communicating to him.

1d20=8

 

[Shayuri]

Echo stares at the creatures. They didn't react at all when she lowered her hands. Not to her, then to who? She glances at the Father and connects the dots.

"Duncan, I don't think they're hostile. They're trying to communicate." She nods at Father Seregal. "It was trying to answer you. They're creating that jungle on the surface. Making it grow."

Echo imitates its 'expanding' gesture.

"I expect they attack people going through either for food, or...to defend their territory."

She opens the map again, moving slowly enough that she'll be able to watch their reactions. Assuming they don't intercede, she begins inputting the symbols that appear on that paper-that-is-not-paper into the control panel.

"Where did you say you got this map again?"

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Seregal, you believe, considering the question you asked, that the abhuman is saying its orders are to expand its territory. That jives with what you've heard from the mercenaries in town.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

She opens the map again, moving slowly enough that she'll be able to watch their reactions. Assuming they don't intercede, she begins inputting the symbols that appear on that paper-that-is-not-paper into the control panel.

"Where did you say you got this map again?"

Echo carefully puts in the numbers into the control panel, and gets access to a different level of commands. There are levels of production, of particular traits, fluid levels, expansion rates, communication matrix, asset distribution, and supplementary environmental enrichment.

The abhuman makes another strange chiming sound, a series of tones that rise and fall like speech. Symbols appear briefly on the map as it does, and Echo can translate them. They translate to, "Is it time?"

 

[Tashtego]

Seregal says, "Echo, I think that they're interested in expanding their territory. Any way to tell them 'no'?" He scratches at his beard. "I wonder if we can give them orders directly - think of how safe this expedition would be if we could persuade these fine specimens to be our escorts! We could use them to make a great profit, I mean, to set up infrastructure in order to protect pilgrims and travellers and the like. Oh, the map? From a dying numenera hunter, like I said. I'm actually not sure where he found it exactly; maybe it was in that lost city he was searching for. That Augur we're trying to find might give us further insight."

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Over two dozen abhumans had come in with Xiaon and Wisco. They march into the room and past the three plate, into the space beyond. Anyone going to look can see several dimly-lit spots on the floor in a regular gridlike pattern. The abhumans each stand on a spot, lining up as if in formation, the spots under their feet becoming brighter as they stand.

The group of abhumans that had been "born" just after the group had come up continue to wait, looking at Echo, Seregal, and Antor. The power in the room begins to build again, and the abhumans the group had been "talking" to suddenly move to just in front of the middle plate, then freeze again. Their muscles seem to quiver in a way that Duncan recognizes. It's the tenseness he's seen in some gladiators before a fight, or some athletes before a race, a tension of anticipation, desire to move, waiting for the bell or gong or shout to set them free.

 

[Shayuri]

"I think their 'orders' were built into them," Echo says, trying to divide her attention between the abhumans and the map. "What I don't understand is that these new ones came here from outside. So wherever they're going...it's not there. Otherwise why come back here?"

She looks back at the controls. "There are functions here...about communication though. And distribution. Maybe we can change their orders from here."

With one hand holding up the map so she can see any new images that appear on it, Echo starts trying to manipulate the communication controls, hoping to gain access to more information about what the creatures' purpose was, and what was about to happen.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

(OOC: Echo, we will consider that an Intellect difficulty task 4 - Numenera, specifically)