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?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 820):

You're worried about making nonsensical posts in one of my games?

Are you new here?

Don't worry about it.  I figure it might be the holidays.  Hope you got some sleep.

Hammer and Foot begin to squonk like they have never squonked before.

Really.  It's a cacophony of squonks.

Hammer seems to be trying to direct you to the table.  Foot seems to want you to come to the door with the Fire symbol on it.

“That's not helping!” Obviously frustrated, she added, “Couldn't you be like Llewelyn's bird and talk!?”

Shaking her head, she went to the table in a hurry, simply because it was closer. “Coming Foot.” The young apprentice looked at Hammer, “What should I push!?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 822):

There are two symbols that look promising.  In that they are both the most brightly lit.

One that could be the symbol for door

And next to it is the symbol for heat.  And it's flashing.

Ailith growled. “It would seriously help me if you indicated to me what I'm supposed to be doing you know!”

But, since no such help was coming, Ailith decided to first touch the flashing symbol. “And make that one stop please? I <i>know/i> there's a fire, it's not helping!”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 824):

You touch the heat symbol.

You foolish, foolish Aitzal you.

The moment you press the symbol it seems to sink into the panel it's sitting on.  Suddenly the lights in the room start flickering.  There's a lot of sound too.  A braying kind of buzzing sound  that is very, very LOUD!.  It doesn't stop either.  It just kind of dances on your eardrums.  One of those dances that involves a lot of hopping.

The room starts to shake.  Not much.  Not so you're thrown off your feet.  But probably enough to really unnerve you.  Or maybe not.

Foot nudges you towards the desk Hammer is hovering over.  They both seem to want to push you towards another array of symbols.  Hurray.  More symbols they seem to want you to figure out.

Fortunately, out of all the symbols, only a few are flashing.  Unluckily there are three of them.

One seems to be the symbol for Danger

There's one for Winter

And the last one Run Off.  Like snow melting and running off the mountain.

Ailith growled, both annoyed and…well…concerned might be a nice way to put it. “Foot, Hammer, SHOW me the symbol I must touch! Light one of them up, I know you can do that!”

“I don’t understand any of these!” The apprentice despaired a bit. And was particularly irritated by the danger symbol. “I know there’s danger! Should I push winter?” It couldn’t make a fire worse, could it?

On the other hand, she was two for two at the moment, so… Well, there was a reason she was pleading for the two drones - as Llewelyn called them - to help her make sense of it all…