“Sorry,” Ailith grimaced, obviously not terribly comfortable, “I really thought you’d have been informed beforehand and didn’t think it pertinent to talk about it.”

“But I’m afraid not going is not really an option, it’s something Master Matah expects of us. And don’t worry,” she looked north for a brief moment, but she didn’t seem worried: not long after the drivers would leave, she’d be aboard Llewelyn’s shuttle: no northern fanatic was going to find her then! “It’ll be alright.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 796):

The drivers make nervous glances at each other.  But they can't rally tell you no.   You and Coq are soon on the way.

Llewelyn is waiting where he said he would be.  He leads you down stream and around the base of a small hill.  His shudd-dle is sitting there, waiting.

Coq stops and looks at it nervously.  "This is safe...right?"

Foot and Hammer are excitedly squonking.  They seem to understand they are finally heading for the moon.

Any questions before we begin your trip to the moon?

Thanks

Nothing that comes to mind no.

Ailith looked at Coq, then at the shuddle for a second, then back at Coq. “I guess?” She shrugged, “They travel through the stars in things like that... Well, much bigger than that but same idea. So...”

Being away from other observers, Ailith freed Foot and Hammer to fly around as they willed. “Yes, we're going.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 798):

A few minutes later, Coq has his face almost literally stuck to the window.

He points at the sun.  "Is that really..?"

He points at your world.  "Is that really..?"

<grya>"Yes!"</gray>  Llewelyn sounds a little irritated.  Though to be fair, Coq has asked the same questions about five times in the last two minutes.

Llewelyn waves a hand in the air, trying to shoo away Hammer and Foot who are hovering around his console, squonking at him.

"Ailith.  Can you keep your comps under control?  Thanks."

You notice Llewelyn is guiding the shud-del away from the moon.

"We still have my people on the moon.  If I come too close, they will know we're there.  Though I still haven't figured out how they haven't picked up the signals your comps are zoning in on."

He swings wide around your world.  You can see it below you, twirling like a globe at the end of a string.  Coq is too flabbergasted to say much else.

Finally, the moon comes into view.  On the window, a small section of the moon suddenly lights up.

"That's where we're going.  There's a crater there.  The signal is coming from inside it."

The surface of the moon seems like the low mountains in the dry lands.  Craggy.  Reddish.  Nothing but stones.  But there's no sky.  It's all just the dark of night.

The shud-del slips into a small canyon like feature.  Lights flick on outside.

"This has ahtmo." Llewelyn mutters.  He points at one spot in the dark.  There's a dim red light.  "There's some kind of structure there.  It's a door.  I think it's an entry that people would use to get inside where there's air.  We can't walk over there because there's no air between where I'm going to land us and where the door is.  It's also very cold.

"I don't know if we can open the door either.  I'm going to go over there first.  I'll take one of your comps with me.  Hammer or Foot.  Your choice.  Maybe they can open the door.

"Once we get it open, we'll figure out how to get you and Coq over.

"Sound fair?"

Ailith grinned, amused by Coq's antics...but was too busy watching herself to really pay attention to much else. Though she did call Foot and Hammer back when Llewelyn asked not wanting them to cause the Interloper to crash on anything.

“Uh, alright.” she agreed to Llewelyn's plan...what else was she supposed to do? “Why can't we just hold our breath and run though? It's not that far.” She pointed at the red light and where Llewelyn though a door was.

Ailith didn't decide which of the two drones would go with the Interloper though, instead turned to them, “Which one of you wants to go with Llewelyn to open the door and figure out a way for Coq and I to go in?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 800):

Llewelyn makes that sound he makes when he's tried to explain something to you a few times but you can't quite seem to get what he's talking about.

"It's really, really cold.  So cold you guys would probably freeze to death before you got ten steps.  Also...it's hard to explain to you about pressure...Just trust me on this."

Hammer and Foot squonk at each other.  Hammer floats forward and pushes at Foot.  Foot squonks harder.  Hammer pushes him forward again.  Finally, Foot floats towards Llewelyn, not without turning back and glaring at Hammer a few times.  Or at least that's what it looks like.

Llewelyn goes to a cabinet and pulls out some kind of elaborate shroud.  He wraps it around his body so it covers him completely.  You can see his face through a clear window in the shroud.  It's very...odd.

"The two of you stay in your chairs.  Don't touch anything."

With that warning, Llewelyn steps to a door and through it, pulling it firmly shut behind him after Foot floats after him.

The minutes drag.  And drag somemore.

Coq finally looks over at you.  "Are we allowed to talk to each other?"

It feels like forever, but there's a sudden screeching sound.  The shud-del<blue> shakes.  Hammer starts sqonking excitedly.

The door Llewelyn went through opens up. The Interloper sticks his head in, his shroud gone.

"It's okay.  Come on.  You guys should see this."

There's a long tube that connects the <blue>shud-del to the door in the side of the rock.  Where the tube came from you aren't sure. But it looks like it extended out from the walls.  Like a hallway hastily built just for you to walk down.

At the end of the long tube/hall is the door.  It's much larger than you thought it was.  Well above your head.  Taller in fact than a hut in the village.

The door is made of some odd metal.  It's cut with grooves that seem to form some kind of pattern, but what the pattern is precisely you can't tell.

Hammer and Foot begin to fly around each other, squonking.

Llewelyn looks at them.  "Foot knew exactly how to extend...make the tunnel you walked down come out of the wall.  But he wouldn't do anything about the door.  I think he was waiting for you guys."

There are words cut into the metal of the door.  You can read them, though they appear to be sort of archaic.

Survey Doth Moon Some symbol you've never seen before One.  Door Eight

Hammer floats to a small pedestal set on one side.  It lands on the pedestal.  After a moment, the door starts to part, like someone inside is pushing each side of it into the wall.

The door yawns partway open.  Beyond it is just dark.

Llewelyn gestures.  "After you."

Ailith watched, amused, as Foot and Hammer 'negotiated' who was going to go with Llewelyn, then lifted her hands when the latter instructed both Coq and her to not touch anything, “No touching, no touching.”

Still, while she did stay in her chair, she tried to do her best to see anything of what was happening outside, distractedly answering Coq's question, “Well sure we can talk, why wouldn't we?”

The movement of the shuddle worried her at first, but seeing Hammer apparently excited and not worried, Ailith relaxed visibly and she jumped on her feet as soon as Llewelyn gave her the go-ahead. “Good work Foot!”

Before she went in though, Ailith turned to Coq and poked the unknown symbol, “Do you know what that means?” Once she got the answer, she nodded, then turned to Foot and Hammer, “Can you make some light?” She waved forward and stepped through the door.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 802):

Coq shakes his head at the symbol, which he's been staring at.  "It kinda looks like the symbol that means search.  But...it's not right."

Both Foot and Hammer start shining rays of light.

Past the metal door is a short room.  It's also got walls of metal, though these seem to be banded and without the weird etchings.  There's what you think is a door on the other side.

"This looks like it's a...what would be called an ahr lahk.  It's for when you come outside.  You need a barrier of sorts between the outside and inside of one of these vessels."

Hammer floats over to the what-you-think-is-a-door and does something.  Suddenly the door seems to peel open, the insides spiraling outwards until the doorway sort of folds into the wall.

Llewelyn moves past you and the doorway.

You are in a much larger room.  It might be larger than Master Matah's house.  There is odd debris around.  You think it's the remains of old furniter.  A skeleton is collapsed in one corner.  Other doors like the weird one line the wall.

The light in the room has a bluish kind of tinge to it.  It's flashing.  Like someone is opening and shutting the curtains very quickly.

Llewelyn stares at the skeleton a moment.  And then looks back at you.  "I can't be sure.  But I think there's some kind of danger."

Ailith looked around curiously, but the skeleton stopped her in her tracks. When Llewelyn suggested that there may be danger, she looked at him for a second as if to say 'No, you think?' but soon enough she shrugged. “Whatever killed him did so a long time ago. It's probably fine now.”

Though... She might try to convince herself more than anything else. Still looking at Foot and Hammer, she asked, “So, what now? And, uh, do you know of any danger? Or any way to deal with danger?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 804):

Llewelyn shakes his head.  "I'm not talking about what killed that one..."  He gestures towards the skeleton.  "There may be...guardians.  We should be careful."

He waves at Hammer and Foot.  "They should know where we're going.  I'm assuming there's some kind of beacon going off here on the wreck.  Tell them to take us to it."

Hammer and Foot don't wait for your order.  They fly to a door.  Just different ones.

Hammer is hovering in front of a bluish colored door.

Foot is hovering in front of a silvery colored one.

They are squonking furiously at each other.

“Hmm, well… Yes…?” Ailith answered, a bit confused: she hadn’t planned on strolling into the place without a care in the world after all. Though… Maybe the things that dream had been about would help her? She didn’t really know - she hadn’t really had the time much less the head-space to really think about it - but surely it couldn’t hurt?

The new concert of squonks briefly disconcerted Ailith, but she didn’t let that stop her for long. “Alright, so… If they both know where to go, and don’t agree… I guess that means there are two possible paths?” She looked at the two drones in turn, and asked “Unless one of you wants to go somewhere else first for whatever reason?”

“If that’s not the case, and you can’t get to an agreement…” she paused to see if they would then she shrugged, “Well, Foot you got to open the door, I guess it’s Hammer’s turn then.” It wasn’t like it would be worse than picking randomly, and in the absence of any other way to figure what path would be the right one… “But please, try to come to a consensus…”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 806):

More squonks follow.  But Foot's door whooshes open...WHOOSH!!!...and you are looking into a corridor that seems to head down a ways.

Hammer opens his door...WHOOSH!!!...and it's another hallway.  Though this one seems to come to a T juncture not far away.

Both hallways are lit.

Hammer and Foot seem to not be giving any ground to each other in their argument.

“Hoy come on...” Ailith rubbed her eyes tiredly, “do I have to pick at random?” She shook her head, “because we're certainly not going to split here...”

“Can you at least try to explain why you think your direction is the best one? Are you even trying to go to the same place?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 808):

Hammer and Foot start to squonk quite a bit.  Then they stop, apparently realizing it isn't helping.

They seem to squonk at each other.  Then Foot emits a light that forms a picture.

A large metal looking desk of some kind.  There is something on it blinking.

Hammer then makes a picture too.  A large door with some kind of severe looking decoration on it.  Across it are some words too.  The only one you can read is DANGER

Coq can't read anything else either.

Llewellyn considers.  He points at Foot.  "Foot seems us to want to go to some kind of...uh...how do I explain this...control.  A place like the controls on my shud del where we can...uh...make something happen."

He shrugs, giving you an expression which must mean embarrassment over not being able to explain things better.

He then points at Hammer

"I think he wants us to go to...well.  That door.  I don't know what it is.  But it looks...serious.  Because it's thick, it probably is meant to contain something very dangerous.  Hammer may want us to deal with whatever it is.  But..."

He shakes his head.  "I'd have to see both of them to try to figure things out."

“Uh, alright.” Ailith said, obviously not too sure about anything. After some time, she asked the two drones. “Is what we need to deal with behind that door, Hammer?”

She turned to Foot then, “But first we should go to that, uh, 'control station', to, uh, maybe open the door or something?” In which case at least the order of operations seemed quite obvious. At least Ailith hoped so, because she didn't see a way to pick one over the other...

In reply to Ailith (msg # 810):

There's squonking.  And they both seem to nod, although Foot is a little more hesitant.

“Ha!” Ailith gladly exclaimed, “Great, then let's go to that control thing to, uh, well...do whatever you do in control rooms.”

“And then we'll go deal with whatever is behind that door that we're supposed to deal with.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 812):

The hallway beyond Foot's door is long and skinny.  You have to walk down it single file.

Foot shines a light ahead to light up the darkness.  Hammer follows Coq, squonking to make the youngest apprentice hurry up.

"There should be power here.  Why aren't the lights coming on?" Llewelyn mutters.

There's a small stairwell leading up to a large open room.  Shelves with little dots of crystal line the walls.  There are a few chairs but...they look weird.  A little too low.  A little too wide.

You can see the winking light Foot showed you.  It's flashing a light bluish color.

Llewelyn walks over and studies it.  "They pow urt don but this..."  He shrugs.  "I can't tell what it is exactly. I can try to figure it out.  I'd have to take apart the...table...here.  Or we can just press it and see what happens.  Who knows? Might be fun."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 04:00, Sat 17 Dec 2022.

Ailith looked around curiously, even going to sit in one of the chairs and testing it a few times. “Weird and not very good.” She judged with a sniff.

When Llewelyn spoke, she turned in his direction, glanced at the button... then pushed it. “Sure!” After all, if Llewelyn said they should do it, he who was often worried about lots of things, it had to be safe right?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:06, Sat 17 Dec 2022.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 814):

Llewelyn's face makes an expression you've never seen it make before.

As he starts to open his mouth, the room shakes.  Sort of like when Llewelyn's shud del is getting ready to go flying.  But this is on a much, much larger scale.

Llewelyn and Coq both fall over.  Hammer and Foot begin squonking like they have never squonked before.  You think you see Hammer slap Foot with one of it's sides, but you can't be sure as your chair seems to be spinning with you in it.

The room settles down.  And then the lights come on.

The tables and their crystal buttons light up in all sorts of colors.  You suddenly feel a breeze blowing across the top of your head.

And there's a voice.  It's low and kind of fuzzy sounding.  But you can hear it.  And...they seem to be saying stuff you kind of understand.

Please recall the iz'ik aiah in turning and unturning.  Zone blue is for all those with arms to wait for the avalanche.

Well.  At least you can understand most of the words it's saying.  Even if they don't make sense.

"Hey."  Coq has gotten to his knees.  He's hunched over Llewelyn, who's not getting up.  "I think the Interloper is broken."

I was so hoping you'd push the button

Well, of course she was going to push it if not told to not do it ^^

Ailith was very glad she had been sitting when she pushed the button, as it prevented her from falling over like Coq or Llewelyn. When things finally settled down and the whole room stopped spinning, she looked around for a second or two, mumbling, “_{Well, I don't know about fun, but it was exciting...}”

She paused for a second on all the lights, then with a frown looked up to see where the wind was coming from, but before she could spend too long thinking about it, first a voice spoke to say some weird stuff, but Coq announced that Llewelyn seemed broken.

“Broken?” She looked at the Interloper with concern. “Uh oh...” After a brief hesitation, she stood then approached to see if she could do something.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 816):

The breeze seems to be coming from a small opening overhead.  Several of them.  Air is blowing out of them.  It doesn't smell quite right.  A littel stale almost.  But you do notice it's easier to breathe.

Llewelyn is making small groaning sounds.  His bird is making squawking noises. But that's nothing new.

The voice changes.  All u'sulu'e.  Please taste the heat inside the hulsh m'sawlo

The voice sounds a bit stern.

Hammer is suddenly nudging you from behind, seeming to be pushing you towards the door you came in.

A bit overwhelmed, Ailith looked at Llewelyn, Hammer, Coq, then back again. “Alright, alright, I’m coming!” She said to the drone, letting him push her while she looked back at Coq, “Try to wake Llewelyn up, and tell him I went to, uh 'taste the heat'?”

For some reason, she had no idea what that meant. Who needed to 'taste the heat'? What did that even mean?

She supposed she was going to have her answer soon enough but that was still super weird and she’d have liked to have Llewelyn and Coq with her for this. Though on second thought…maybe it was best to let Llewelyn wake up without being around…

“Alright, lead the way Hammer.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 818):

Hammer and Foot wing their way back towards the door Hammer wanted you to take originally.

It's now better lit.  Small strips of white light shine within the walls and floor, illuminating the hallway in a weird and frankly eerie kind of way.  The two droids seem immune to such concern.  They head down the left hand side of the juncture, still squonking at each other furiously.

You can't hear the voice right now.  If it weren't for the sqonking, things would be quiet.  Disturbingly quiet and eerily lit.  What a wonderful combination in decor.

The left hand hall ends in an open archway.  Beyond it is a room that may be as large as your village's market square.  There are kinds of doors and large metal columns lining the walls.  In the center of the room is a long table with those winking buttons and odd displays that have become such a constant in your life these days.

Hammer floats towards the table and beams something at it.  Lights flicker on it.  One of the doors suddenly starts to glow red.  You recognize it as the door Hammer showed you before.

Foot floats up to you, sqonks, and then turns to the door.  He floats back to it and squonks some more.  He stops and hovers over one section of it.  A pictogram is painted on it.

It's the image for fire.  It seems...redder...than the rest of the door.

Sorry, I didn't really sleep last week for some reason, I didn't want to subject you to the nonsensical posts that would have resulted from that :o

“It's soooo big!” Exclaimed Ailith as she looked around the huge room. “Why would they need something that large?” She asked then, rather pointlessly since there was no one to answer her questions, and that didn't prevent her from following Foot and Hammer to the table.

“Fire!?” She yelled, obviously distressed, “Did I make something burn again!? _{Llewelyn is going to kill me...}” Looking at Foot, she asked “How can I stop it? Do I need to stop it?”