War of Dragons 2: Act of Rebellion - Light - 2

Camp Black is for the most part, the most well hidden Camp in all of the Palace Lands. Though the Palace Landers seem to know that there is a Camp somewhere on their continent, its location is hidden behind a sizable illusion.

The issue for Camp Black is that Rosenheim is such a well defendable city. And so far, they've found no way to assail the location.

However, in recent days, they have found something else. The reason they've been within these very mountains, is because so many of them were made by the Gnomes of old. And the Gnomes of old often left unique things behind. Elemental Machines amongst them.

A recent trip using some ill-traveled passages has however uncovered something new.

The Adventurers today travel up along a passage, led by an older Lander Gnome. White curly hair, and a gnarled stick he's using to help himself continue onwards. Someone who has proven himself thoroughly and been vetted time and time again.

He halts outside of what looks like some kind of metal door with rusted metal on it. There's an ancient metalic door here, along with 'lines' in the stone to their sides, which look like they're made for small cart tracks. There's a few levers near the door as well, hinting to some kind of way of opening them. But the Gnome just grimaces at the handles.

"Some kind of puzzle, left by my forefathers." He croaks. "But it's this door that I find most curious. It says here: 'Observation Tower'."

    Merek walks along with the party, until they come across the door that the gnome shows them. While they do, he pulls up a bit of his magic to shimmer along each lever, to discern what the mechanism to complete them will be. He nods to the party, "It's weight based. You will need the levers on one side match the weight on the levers of the other side. Only problem is, there's nothing that really can be used to determine what the weights are, at least with a basic look. Anyone have any ideas?" he asks.

    Miyako walks along with the rest, subdued without her usual music - she doesn't want to make that much sound underground, not where it might echo and spread unpredictably. So she just hums to herself. When the party stops before the rust-streaked door, she rubs her chin while watching Merek examine the levers. "Sacks of coin," she proposes. "Coins have a known weight, and we can count how many are in each sack."

Since the battle had turned towards the Palace Lands, Rylen had invested himself in the process. However, much of his renown is firmly seated in the Ninetails Dominion, meaning that he doesn't have nearly so much sway or influence here. What he does have, is the ability to pull support to the process. Which means that supplies likely accompanied him on this journey.

The problem is, beyond that, Rylen is largely a person who leads by Charisma and Charm. He doesn't exactly lead with his brain. In this case, the Pooka looks at the door, the levers, the tracks, but mostly he stands back with his arms crossed.

"Not my area of expertise, but... if it needs a bit of percussive maintenance I could lend a hand." Rylen smirks, but he seems content enough to allow the others to take the lead and simply, stand there radiating confidence.

Nyanta begins to pass out bread that he had made before coming here. The puzzles... They were never his thing. He had always left those trifles to Shiroe. Instead, he ensures that everyone is not going hungry, including the elderly gnome. "Nya." He gives the lander a wink and a curry bread.

Soujiro Seta is notably a big ole dummy when it comes to puzzles. His brain isn't wired for what isn't directly in front of him, in the here and now, or possibly seconds into the future. "Also not my forte. I'm counting on Merek and Schneider to figure this part out." And thats it. He has already moved on to talking to the nearby Landers, Adventurers, or lacking all of the above in the immediate area finds creative exercise methods to keep sharp.

Schneider follows the group down, and when the gnome leads us to the mystery door, he will look at it. He just spent considerable time learning to judge things and see normally hidden tags and flavor text, this seems like a good idea to find out what we're dealing with, at least, and he chants Haru's spell softly, and lets the information flow into him, smirking to Merek as he says, "The door is hard rusted, well beyond its years, it's seen poor conditions in is time, but it's still solid and will take a considerable force to dislodge. The puzzle is as you say. I think it might be easier to excavate around the door, is there a reason we can't do that?" he asks the gnome.

    Merek seems to notice that Setsuna may be up to something in a moment, and he draws his hood back while he places his hands to each other, the Harmonics within him resonating with the Scale Emblem man. "Here's your crowbar, and your centre bit, your life preserver, you may want to hit. Your silent matches, your dark lantern seize, take your file, and your skeletonic keys. Tarantara! Tarantara!" o/¯ He might be handing the man random things to use that probably have no use whatsoever. Yes, motivation for the man.

    Setsuna had been hanging out more and more in the palace lands, perhaps it is because he is trying to get away from the tournament hype. So here he is, playing amateur archeologist, sadly without any graves to rob. They do find a nice heavy door though, and a mention of a tower. Mention of towers always perk Setsuna's moon right up.

     Watching a few of the others look at the door, Setsuna walks up to the levers and begins to give each one a tug here and there. Again and again he does this, so it is fortunate they are not booby trapped. Still he keeps doing this as if looking for something but can't find it. It is only the benefit of the vibrations from the harmonics that he feels it. "Ah HA!" With the positions found he summons up a mass amount of skeleton workers, one for each lever and has them each hold the lever at a precise point before looking at the door with expectations. "That should do it."

As Setsuna works the levers and weights behind the door, it takes a bit of time. But eventually, the gate begins to open. Rusted, grinding, it begins to be 'lifted' off of the ground by a complex set of mechanical devices hidden in the walls themselves. It makes it about half-way up before it stops due to old age. Enough for the Gnome to comfortably walk through, but anyone taller than four foot nothing is going to have to bend over or crawl.

They soon arrive in what looks to be a really old outpost of sorts. There's thick glass that has been broken by some kind of event, or perhaps a monster. There's glass strewn inwards, suggesting the invaders came from outside. But it gives them a nice view on the ocean northwards.

There's various metalic desks that are left empty for the most part. However, there are also some devices here that look like they are not Gnome made. A few that bear Undine markings, and a couple that look Machina in make. A few of them still glowing on a few workstations strewn about the place.

There's notably a few hatches, leading up from the chamber by means of some wall-stairs - and one room on either side which have closed metalic doors. So rusted, they'd be hard to budge.

Soujiro Seta continues along with the party. Where there are ruins, there are monsters. Where there are monsters, there are fights. Samurai ready to rumble.

    Setsuna moves into the main room of the outposts and whistles, "Somewhere Uta is regretting missing the boat this time." Slowly he wanders through the outpost, not really stopping to look at one thing or another, perhaps he will grab a souviner on the way out though. Stopping at the stairs for a moment he looks at the others,"Hey where do you think these stairs lead?" It is a rhetorical question before Setsuna goes where the stairs lead, which is up.

"Stair lead up," Soujiro answers Setsuna, "though they can also lead down." These are the deep questions. "So up or down, Setsuna!"

Nyanta nods sagely, thumb and forefinger on his chin, "One should always strive to raise oneself above, but the greatest treasures are always in the depths. Truly a difficult choice."

Schneider will follow along, bending double, nearly crawling on hands and knees to get under the door, then gawking at all the old Stuff we see. "Uta will be sad she missed this," he murmurs aloud, but isn't sure which part holds the most mysterious mystery. He scans the room, taking it all in.

    Merek nods a bit to people that mention Uta, "I will find a few souveniers for her, that said... It looks like it's time to look for things." The man begins to appraise things, looking for interesting machina equipment and anything that might have any languages written on them. He does eventually, look to a few of the doors, and walks to one of them.

Stepping through the door is a bit off-putting for Rylen. He isn't quite used to seeing more modern looking surroundings in the setting of the game. The Pooka runs a hand along the walls, making sure not to touch any buttons, but still showing an appreciation none-the-less.

Seeing a couple of the doors appear to be rusted, Rylen looks to the group and then cracks his knuckles. "Let's see if I can make any headway on these. Stand back." He warns.

There is a slight rumble that is isolated to just around the door he chooses, the vibration meant to knock off some of the rust. Then, Rylen tries to wedge a piece of lose metal into the crack, levering the door open with what amounts to raw strength. Well, raw strength amplified by magical enhancements, but still...

There is a creaking sound as he starts to wrench the door to the left open.

    Stepping into the workroom, Miyako steps aside to let others through before pausing to look around. "That she will," she comments, nodding to Schneider. "I wish Ko-chan was with us too." She walks over to the base of one of the stairways, and reaches a hand into the shadows within. A brief glow, like the runic inscriptions she uses for spell-casting, can be seen before she withdraws her hand. "Definitely some sort of observation point," she muses. "Even money the others are the same. Looking..." She turns slightly and points. "That way."

As Rylen puts in a significant amount of work, the door begins to slowly be pushed aside. Unlike the door at the entrance, this one at least pushes sideways. The violent sound of metal on metal creaks and groans and possibly shatters some eardrums, until he finally reveals... a table.

A table with what looks like a model on it. A very particular model.

https://imgur.com/a/pqDJbzf

There is however no 'scale' next to it to suggest just what this might be.

    Setsuna climbs the stairs up to the outlook along with Miyako and has to admit this place is quite impressive. "We should convince Camp Black to occupy this place at the very least. It would be a great way to track ship movement and things in and out of Rosenheim." The observation tower is quite interesting but a view is only a view for so long. Instead he wonders back down the stairs and does note to Soujiro, "If you wish to have tea with an ocean view, the room upstairs is your choice location. Kinda reminds me of a tower in Shibuya Sky, that place had hell of a view."Setsuna makes a rare reference to the real world as he then moves around to see what others have found.

    Merek looks to the others that are choosing the doors, and anyone that is not doing anything really at the moment. He does speak to people, "Hey, when you all have a moment, I think that I found something interesting. It has a button, I am going to press the button." The man then will press the device on it, with the hopes that others will see it from whichever door they're working at. He does look through to the door that's being opened by Rylen. He walks that way, for the time being letting the hologram emitter do whatever it will do.

Giving a grunt of final effort as the door is wrestled out of the way, Rylen takes a moment to look inside. What he sees is something far beyond his personal understanding. So, he calls out, "Someone with a bit more of a head for these things should come take a look at this."

However, Merek's comment about pressing buttons has him turning around, as if slightly worried that something might be about to explode. There is a resaon why 'No Merek!' has become a meme.

Looking to Setsuna, he gives a small nod. "If nothing else, we should make sure this place is kept out of the hands of the enemy. Goddesses know what they would do with something like this."

    "Merek, don't you know better than to just go randomly smashing buttons by this point?" Miyako asks, tetchy and waspish of a sudden. "For all you know that could be the security alarm."

@emit Actually climbing the stairs, Setsuna will find that there's a <telescope> in the location. It's old and rusted, and some of the glass is cracked. It would need some serious repairs by some people. But it's not a Relic - just a well made Gnomish invention. So it's within the domain of Adventurers and Landers to work on.

The actual observation area is on the small side of things. Maybe three people could be in here uncomfortably. It's also made for Gnomes. So it's really short.

Downstairs, in the meantime, Merek notices the device that Rylen has revealed. For most, there is no context there. But for Merek, its shape scratches an itch. He remembers a drawing, or a description at some point by a particular foxy friend who went through a mirror and stepped out 'onto the moon', and saw a massive larger-than-city structure like that on the Green Moon.

Not a moment later, Merek presses buttons.

And suddenly a beautiful man appears in the middle of the room. Wearing robes that manage to just barely not reveal anything, in that kind of roman kind of style... an Alv. Beautiful wings, multi-colored hair, and eyes that could see through time. The kind of vision of a man that captivates even those who might not have an attraction - in a more 'artistic' kind of way.

"What is the meaning of this?" The man seems to ask, standing before what looks like two small Machina that are holding their weapon-arms towards the Alv. A small group of Gnomes shouting something and trying to get behind benches.

"This is how you lesser races repay our work?"

tThe telescope was interesting and is definately going to need work, but even Setsuna thinks with enough time and spare parts something could be done, it will all depend on who is working to help improve this camp. As he is downstairs though the sound of a new voice pulls his attention toward tge ab with wings? For the first time in years Setsuna gets the chance to watch TV and it is some sci-fi action movie, totally was lucking out today. " So I know I am new to the show but it looks like the old man there is in quite a predictament."

    Miyako nods, staring fascinatedly at the show. "Yes," she agrees with Setsuna. "It's a period of history some of us have been very interested in." She produces a piece of paper and starts taking notes on what's visible.

    Merek looks up to the device and hologram after looking to the display which is revealed by Rylan. He pulls up his hood while he listens, and nods a bit. "Alv... And, Machina. I wonder what that could mean," he says. Then he speaks to everyone. "There's no reason for me not to tell you all. That device, that one shown in the picture. I've seen it before, or heard of that... That thing, it stands on the Moon. The Green Moon. I don't know what it does. I know Estelle had seen it though, that is most likely what it is." Then he waits to see if more of the ologram will play for them.

Schneider is not sure what to think of the telescope, or in fact the observatory itself. Or the Holocron. He's entirely confused by things moving so fast without a clear goal, and he says, "Is this a place we can use to spy on things?" He looks at what Merek's found. If that's not the Alvish version of Honeymooners, he will need someone to explain it, but there is a good view here, a protected view. And a telescope. "Can we use this to look at the city?" he wonders.

"Well hello there." Rylen raises his white eyebrows, obviously appreciating the aesthetics of the holographic man that appears before them. It's all completely artistic appreciation! Okay no, the Pooka is flat out oogling some ancient Alv and is unashamed of this fact. Don't tell Xander.

Lowering his voice, as if worried he might be interrupting, Rylen asks, "So... anyone want to fill me in on what this is?" He hasn't really been one of those individuals who tracks down 'lore'. No, the Beastmaster tends to live in the moment and not really concern himself too much with the past of the game.

And then Merek starts talking about the moon, which gets a completely perplexed expression, "I don't even want to know how your people know what is on the moon." Nope, Rylen very much is not a 'lore' guy, and yet he is here. Talk about wrong place at the wrong time.  

It is notable that the Machina, Guardians of the Root Cities, seem almost out of place. Like standing up against the Alv seems... wrong. Both charge their weapons - well known by some to be able to annihilate square kilometers of area, and fire at the Alv...

Only for the assault to go through some kind of 'portal' he summons in front of him, and the beam goes past behind him. There's words that don't get captured right in the recording, almost like they are distorting it, and not a moment later, the Machina's heads suddenly twist to the side, their bodies cracking and shifting, like they are being compacted by invisible walls, until they lay crushed upon the ground and shatter into light.

"Sure, Clustania was a failure. Tears in the engines after that failed start... a few of your people died. But it's all in the name of science. My new vessel will succeed where Clustania failed!" He motions his hand as if this were nothing, as he casually lifts a finger, a cutting 'laser' rippling across one of the Gnomes in the recording, shattering them instantly.

"And I will ensure that you will not be able to interfere with Project Soreil." Followed by the recording ending.

    Setsuna tilts his head, "If that is an Alv, this thing is hella old. I wonder how it still has power." Setsuna wanders around where it is standing for a moment, perhaps there is an Alv power source in there. His attention is pulled back to the hologram when the action kicks in and just kinda blinks at what happens from here on out. Slowly he watches and tilts his head, " Ok so after watching another moment I would like to revise my idea. I think he is a bad guy, and those poor cops and innocent dwarflings died by the evilness. This guy just needs a goatee." Yep Setsuna is going to continue to judge books by the covers, and then tilts his head toward the stairs where Schneider is, "Yeah, Schneider, you can see Rosenheim from there. The telescope needs work though. Whoever occupies this place will havea bit of a fixer upper."

Nyanta strokes his chin, "I think with some lacy curtains and purrhaps some wallpaper, this place could be rather homey, nya. It already has a home entertainment system, nya."

It looks like Schneider will not be finding out anything abut the city today, if the telescope needs work, and he's no optical engineer. Optometrist? So he watches the hologram, cringing at how easily the man destroys a pair of machina with ease. "Well, -that- is a data point," he agrees. He has no clue what it means beyond the Alv being superhuman, which we kind of already knew. "Anyone know what he's talking about, Clustania and Soreil?"

Seeing the figure turn into a figure if death may very well alter Rylen's previous assessment. "Well, that was something." He comments, silver eyes looking around at the others, obviously expecting most of them to have far more of an understanding of what they'd just seen.

"Alas, the hot ones are always evil. Alas, I am resigned to my fate." Rylen can't exactly take what they'd seen in a completely joking manner, but some of that humor might just be part of how he chooses to handle his own uncertanties.

"I'm assuming this means something to one of you?" Like Schneider, he has honed in on a few words, but they mean little to him.

    "I mean... I don't, but I will be able to look into it more. That said, we have someone who has been to the moon," Merek mentions to Rylen. Then he nods to all of the people, "Would anyone mind if I keep this hologram with me? I want to show it to people that I think will know more, and I want to reverse engineer it to see if we can record anything else, once we've received all the information we can from it. I won't do it unless you all are okay with that," he says. "I will keep you informed of anything we learn."

Nyanta changes his mind as he makes a rectangle with this thumbs & forefingers and looks through them, "Purrhaps stain glass instead, nya. Lacy curtains would look positively GARISH, nya."

Schneider can only shrug to Rylen. He's studied ancient stuff, but nothing like any of this. His knowledge of ancient writings totally doesn't deal with anything here, and other than pointing out, "This seems important, anyone?" in regards to the comment on the Engine, he's kind of lost. "I wouldn't mind fixing the telescope for a way to spy on Rosenheim, though."

    Setsuna looks over to Schneider and then Rylen, "The words sound familiar but the context is escaping me at the moment. Unfortunately the walking encyclapedia is back home with her slimes so we will have to remember the information and deliver it..." Setsuna trails off at the suggestion of Merek taking the hologram. There is a momentary hesitation as he thinks for a second on the suggestion, "Only if you take it to Uta, Merek. I'd suggest involving the ducks as well, but Proteus seems busy. Still if the LOONs are involved I will feel comfortable with you taking it. However don't touch it for now before we have cleared everything." Setsuna says as he motions ot the unopened door and then towards Rylen and then does his best miss piggy-esque impersonation, "Oh if only there was someone strong and muscly to help us with this door too." There is even an eye flutter, which with the butterfly hairpin and all, probably leads to questions. Still what is done is done.

     Once his plea is given he moves around more looking at the tools and trying to piece it all together as he looks at the model in the room that was open. "You know, if this is the model for what is on the moon and they were... what if Rosenheim is not originally a city but something else. I think we may have found something super important here today. I think beneath Rosenheim is still the enginesthat broke that crazy old man was talking about. If they are damaged , it may be a way in. "

    "Uta is the first person I really planned to show it too," Merek admits, "And aye. After we're done here. I feel like there are important things to learn from the information. The question is, why would the Machina fight the Alv? I recall some information that they worked closely together." He does nod to Setsuna, "You know. We never find any information that validates us. It just... Leads to more questions. You ever really think we'll reach the point where it all starts coming together? What it all really means?" The man sighs a little bit, "Would anyone like to look at the other things that are here? I only looked at the Machina, there's probably old Gnomish things to see."

Oh, the look that Rylen gives to Setsuna in that moment. That side-eye. Then, Rylen rolls his shoulders, grabbing the same piece of metal and walking over to the remaining door. Turning at the last moment, he aims a finger at the Setsuna, "You owe me a drink."

And then, Rylen is wedging the big of metal into the door and hefting again. The dust and debris from around them of a rock-like nature starts to form around his hands, giving extra leverage as he physically muscles the remaining door to open.

Schneider says to Setsuna, "So, I mean, that place," he points to Rosenheim's capital, Naval Monte, visible in the distanbce, "used to ne called Clustania. So does that mean that Naval Monte is a failure? Or that they rebuilt and corrected everything?" He is interrupted by Rylen being manly, so he will look and see what has been revealed.

As Rylen begins to push open the second door, this one sticks a bit more. The metal is warped, and shows signs of denting and battle. But, he manages to push it open, revealing...

Old gnomish tools. Yet, if anyone were to inspect them, they'd notice that they've gone entirely untarnished. It'd take a great Metalworker to even recognize the metal used in them, but even now they still have their sheen.

    Miyako hrms softly and worries her lip, staring at the space where the Alv's image had been projected. "Something about that... I could swear I've seen something.... if I could just remember where..." She frowns and hmms softly. "Maybe...."