The Center of Time

[doghead]

Wisco, a Tough Nano who lives in the Wilderness

"If you can see into my mind, as you claim," Echo replied testily, "Then you'd know that this is far from without thought on my part. We're having to make decisions with very little information or access to information, which makes maintaining the status quo the sens...why am I justifying myself to you?!"

She pulled her hand away from Duncan and composed herself, then re-established contact, touching him again.

"We don't know the consequences. Either of this cycle of theirs repeating again, or of it failing to repeat. My goal is, and always has been, to learn more. If that means cooperating with them for the moment, so be it. At the very least we don't have the capability to physically stop them if they decide we're an obstacle. So we know what THEY want us to do. What do YOU propose?"

"YOU HAVE MORE *UNKNOWN* POWER THAN YOU KNOW. WHAT I WANT, KEYHOLDER, KNOWLEDGE-SEEKER, IS THE *UNKNOWN* WELLSPRING OF MY PEOPLE GUARDED, NOT USURPED FOR THESE THIEVES." It turns its head slightly, looking right at Father Seren. Or rather, at the lever Father Seren had found. "CUT OFF THE FLOW, AND LET THIS PLACE, AND THESE THIEVES, WITHER AND DIE. GO AND FIND THE PLACE THAT IS BROKEN, AND USE YOUR SKILLS TO FIX IT. THE *UNKNOWN* MAP WILL GUIDE YOU - IT WAS MADE BY THE *UNKNOWN*, WELL BEFORE WE KNEW SPEECH."

Wisco stands at the entrance to the chamber. He had come down to pass on what he had learnt from the ab-humans (which wasn't much). While he hadn't heard everything, he had heard enough to understand.

He glances over at the lever in question. Such a small hook on which hung such weighty decisions. He steps across the room and pulls the lever.

"I think we have made a decision. Its time to take our fate into our own hands."

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Wisco goes and grabs the lever, pulling on it, but it barely budges. It's going to take some serious strength and effort to move it, but you think it could be done.

However, when you begin to test the handle, there's an ungodly loud wailing from up above, and suddenly you hear screams, and the pounding of running feet. They're getting closer every second.

[sblock=OOC]OOC: DL 5 Might task (target number 15) to move the lever. Also, the rest of you have a round to react to... whatever it is that's going on.[/sblock]

---

Antor, you were waiting for Wisco to return when an incredibly loud noise cleaves the air. The abhumans scream in fear and rage, and you see the entire crop of remaining pods start to split and spill their burdens onto the ground. Most of them are not ready yet, and their half-grown forms are grotesque. The abhumans begin to run for the mosaic door, most of them thrashing in pain as they cross the invisible boundary by the spring. Yet despite their agony, they keep running.

"Save us!" they scream in one voice. "Save the cycle, save us! They're going to kill us!"

 

[fireinthedust]

Duncan moves fast, impossibly fast, up from the Originator and to the lever. He wraps his hand around the handle and cranks it down as hard as he can, as he would hammer home his greatsword on some beast.

[roll0]

(will burn Int if needed)

 

[fireinthedust]

"I'm willing to take this one at his word, for now. He could have exploded our minds while talking if he'd thought a little harder. It means he attempted non-lethal contact first. These abhumans... until we know more, you know my thoughts on letting an army cross overland. I won't take that chance until we learn all the secrets of this place."

Duncan looks at the stair, makes sure he's armed with his greatsword, and stands in front of the doorway to bottleneck the abhumans coming in, yet allowing others to fire at range from the sides.

 

[doghead]

Wisco, a Tough Nano who Lives in the Wilderness

Wisco goes and grabs the lever, pulling on it, but it barely budges. It's going to take some serious strength and effort to move it, but you think it could be done.

Wisco takes a moment to shift his position to get better leverage. Then suddenly Duncan is there.

Duncan moves fast, impossibly fast, up from the Originator and to the lever. He wraps his hand around the handle and cranks it down as hard as he can, as he would hammer home his greatsword on some beast.

The mechanised Glaive makes sort work of the task.

As Duncan departs just a quickly as he came, Wisco looks around the room. The howl from above makes it fairly obvious what is coming next. Wisco looks at the Originator, bound on the floor, then up at Xiaon standing over the captive. Xiaon nods.

Wisco pats his dagger to ensure it is where it should be and pulls his dart thrower. Meagre enough weapons, but Wisco has others. Mindslice, while it may be less lethal, may have the added effect of disrupting the ab-humans' connection with the machine and each other.

[sblock=OOC]1 INT to activate. Wisco has 1 INT Edge. Will boost attack with additional INT (Effort 1) if its possible.[/sblock]

 

[doghead]

Xiaon, a Strong Willed Glaive who Focuses Mind over Matter

Xiaon watches a Wisco with Duncan's help, drop the lever. The howl from the top of the stairs makes clear that the action has not gone unnoticed.

Xiaon gestures for the Originator to 'give me you hands'. The Glaive unlashes the rope binding the Originator. No one deserves to meet an enemy with their hands bound.

If there is time Xiaon will recover his crossbow and take a position to cover Duncan. If not, he moves swiftly to support Duncan.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Duncan crashes down upon the handle with all his weight and strength, and the handle moves with a loud grinding sound. Metal plates suddenly swing into place just below the ring of crystals, cutting off the Wellspring as well as the source of light. The room plunges into near-total darkness and silence, the only light some spilling down from above, and some from the crystals around the former spring. The Originator stays still as Xaion cuts the bonds on its hands, and remains still, sitting against the wall where it had been propped.

Up above, Antor can see the abhumans going from running to crawling desperately, wailing as suddenly the rock-rimmed spring stops its flow. The river of fluid begins to run dry almost immediately. The abhumans slither down the staircase, clawed hands or stinging tails helping to pull themselves along. They seem to become more and more distressed the further they go down the staircase, as if their very breath pains them.

In the lower chamber, a few abhumans ooze into view, hauling themselves down the staircase of their bellies, their eyes focused on one thing and one thing only - the lever. They ignore the group, even ignore the Originator, and seem to be ready to crawl across the floor, an inch at a time if necessary, to reach it.

The Originator lurches it its knees and reaches out a hand towards the ring of crystals, drawing another wail of pain from the crawling abhumans.

 

[Shayuri]

Though Echo would have preferred to talk it over with the group first...the die had been cast. She went to the lever to help make sure no one got to throw it back. She wasn't deaf to the abhuman's cries, but it seemed that no option in this case lacked victims.

She did regret that it seemed they wouldn't be seeing the inverted mountain, or seeing a 'city outside of time.' Without this energy, it would likely finish whatever decay this cycle was meant to stop, or reverse... And in any event, without the abhumans to guide them, its ever-changing location meant they might not find it even with the map.

She hoped it was worth the price that was being paid.

 

[Tashtego]

Seregal leans against the wall, cradling his fingers together, watching the sequence of events quietly and carefully. When things get violent, he quietly assembles his bow and turns around to the Originator.

"There wouldn't be a handy back door or secret exit around here, would there?" he asks, carefully casting his eyes around the room in case he missed something the first time.

 

[doghead]

Wisco, a Tough Nano who Lives in the Wilderness

Wisco watches in horrified fascination as the dissolving ab-humans spill from the light into the darkness of the chamber below. The air suddenly seems thick and cloying.

"I think that I am ready to leave this place," he says quietly, to no one in particular. "Which might be easier said than done," he adds, noting the lack of power.

"You have no objections I trust," he says to the Originator.

Despite his words however, Wisco remains where he is until the ab-humans have finally fallen still.