STORY - Learn about the Core

 

To more research oriented members of the expedition, Vinta mentions that there is still one major task left to accomplish. Normally they would take on the task themself, but they are still recovering from the fight and also need to remain behind to give orders to those helping with the preliminary construction efforts.

With this in mind, they decide to assign another group the task of locating the core’s controls. Unfortunately, there is little briefing to be given. When asked, Vinta admits he wishes he could tell you more, but he isn’t actually sure of what lies ahead. This place was so heavily guarded by King that it had been impossible for the College to actually get an accurate map, and even with the preparations Vinta made it was obvious what maps they did have did not match anything within the chambers that housed the core.

Proceed with caution are the words they spoke to you and the others with great earnest

The investigation takes you fairly far from the base camp, although you and the small group accompanying you are still located in the core chamber. What Vinta had tasked you with researching appears to be on the opposite end of the massive hole in the center, and the most you can do is look around to see if you can find anything of interest. For those onlooking, it may have appeared to be an easy task, but it quickly turned out to be otherwise. Nothing seemed to give information away easily, and the massive rotating ball of energy nearby meant magical insights, abilities, and devices were disrupted more often than not.

It takes some time, but you are able to discover something - there is a section of flooring where the dark iridescent floors curve, their surfaces embedded with colorful grooves that all seem to point in one direction. You glance upwards, noticing that it all leads to a small panel near the wall that appears to be made of the same stone as the towers you deactivated outside. The same colorful runes cover it’s surface, a soft glow emanating that is hard to detect in the presence of something so much larger and brighter in the center of the room.

You walk over, a quick once over making it clear that whatever this is still happens to be powered. A button catches your attention, and despite the murmurs of hesitation from others behind you, you lift a hand and press it. You can feel yourself on edge as you prepare for something disastrous to happen, but quite the opposite! Instead, a large staircase slowly appears before you, seeming to manifest out of thin air and sharing the same radiant glow as the core itself. It continues to appear, higher and higher until it starts to weave towards the odd buildings constructed across the ceiling. A tinge of excitement swells within you, and you find yourself moving forward to follow it with a growing hope that there may be something important wherever it is going. That, and you also notice it appears to be taking you closer to the core.

The wondrous light staircase twists and turns for some time, your attention so fixated on it’s path and the buildings around you that you find yourself stopping abruptly as you realize in no time at all you are standing at the very center of the room, far in the air above the core itself. Before you is a large platform, and from each side spans a staircase similar to the one you are on (making four total) and a beacon next to them. In the center of this platform sits another panel, yet again having a striking resemblance to the beacons in both material and glowing colorations. You hop off the stairs and onto the platform, slowly walking forward until you start to get a feeling of unease. There’s something strange about this panel, and it doesn’t take long for you to notice that there is a sizable chunk of perfectly cut crystal floating above it. It is colored a bright, blood red shade and crackles with an eerie energy that is unfamiliar to you or any of the others who have followed you this far.

You approach slowly, eyes lingering on the crystal for some time before you glance down at everything before you. It appears that this console works as some sort of controller, a large display spanning before you with various commands and symbols sprawled across it. Being curious in nature, you attempt to touch it, but find that each time a small bolt of energy lashes out from the suspended crystal to zap you. You yank your hand back reflexively, but the zap, if it was meant to deter someone, is little more than a simple shock. A few moments pass while you decide if you should keep trying, or if you should return back to camp to tell Vinta about what you have found.

And, on top of that, there’s still the crystal in the air. You can’t shake the feeling it gives you, but you also have a hunch that whatever this is, is bad news. The way the display is flickering leads you to believe that it must have something to do with it being frozen and unresponsive, and with how out of place it appears you wonder if someone happened to put it there. Vinta also didn’t mention anything about a red crystal powering the place, so… it wouldn’t hurt to remove it, right?

You reach up, one hand touching the gem with great care as you take your time attempting to remove it from whatever invisible force is keeping it in place. It doesn’t take much effort to remove it, but the moment you do, you find yourself greeted by a massive tremor. A sound of surprise escapes you as you find yourself falling backwards, the gem flying out of your grasp and clattering across the platform before rolling off the side. You scramble to your knees and rush to the side of the platform, peering off as the quakes continue and watching as the eerie red stone falls farther and farther below, until you can no longer tell where it might have ended up.

If you were going to show any signs of frustration, another quake wracks the room and you look up at the sound of machinery. Something ancient seems to be awakening, whirling and rumbling above you with an energy unlike anything you’ve ever felt. The four beacons at the edges of the platform start to fill with light, a pulse escaping them as pillars of light shoot up into the sky. You continued to watch in awe as the light continued upward, and then miraculously arched around to feed into the ball of energy at the center of the room. One last burst of light fills the room as the beams connect with the core, forcing you to raise a hand at the sheer brilliance of it all.

And then it fades, as quickly as it had come.

With the ground no longer shaking, you and your group slowly stand and check on one another before agreeing that there was no time for delays. Vinta would want to know about this as soon as possible, and you all quickly rush to start heading back.

 

Return to the camp.