>>1050738
Room beyond is almost as large, semicircular, with the just-opened door being in the center of the flat side. DANI recognizes it as the Inspector's Lounge. It's brightly lit and there are two other exits.
Of more immediate relevance, inside are eight creatures, each resembling a slightly different asymmetric mix of goat and human. Biggest one dives for a pile of junk where the vending machines used to be, digs through it, finds and brandishes something roughly the size and shape of a soup can, staring at you wild-eyed while making a big show of hooking a finger through the pull-pin in that mechanism on top. Two in the back continue having sex. Five others set down a card game and ready spears.
Gambling and overt sexual activity are considered higher-priority violations of the Employee And Visitor Code Of Conduct than brandishing unpowered melee weapons. Use of a fire extinguisher is not considered a violation at all, under the current conditions.

rolled 8, 18, 3, 10, 17, 12, 12, 20, 12, 18, 19, 10, 10, 16, 9, 19, 9, 20, 16, 5 = 263

---

>Melaina attempts to climb over the top, but the pebbled-looking texture turns out to be almost frictionless. Slips and falls, taking 2 Might damage and briefly (perhaps with Ivori's clandestine assistance) wearing a sludge-filled box as a hat.
Well, at least we learned nothing bad happens if you disturb the boxes!

>>1050842
After a beat of awkwardness with the noise of sex in the background, a wide eyed and blushing Melaina calls out "We come in peace!" and if that doesn't do anything about the weapons pointed her way, she's going to move away from the door, letting someone better armed and armored take point against the angry-to-be-interrupted abhumans.

Attempt at diplomacy to avert conflict, benefiting from training in positive social interaction. (And probably an understanding numenera roll to see if she recognizes the fire extinguisher for what it is, most likely training in understanding numenera cancelled out by her inability with confidence games).

rolled 20, 12, 10, 4, 10, 1, 2, 10, 6, 15, 20, 12, 8, 3, 14, 18, 6, 4, 19, 13 = 207

---

>>1050742

"Are you all right?" Melaina asks, concerned that corrupted memories might be migraine or headache inducing, or at the very least, distressing.

>>1050841

"There is no need to worry about anything like that." She was (at the very least trying) to be matter of fact enough that it hid that she didn't actually give an answer one way or the other.

>>1050819
> "I don't suppose y'can recall the details of this place in it's hayday can you? Everything it produced and the like. Totally just to see if it gives any clues on alternate ways out."

"That's a question best suited for a designated tour guide, but this place was - Greetings And Salutations, Director Lee!"

Immediately shifting tracks, there was a higher priority situation than any explanation in the form of visitors in flagrant abasement of the rules of conduct. Continuum of Force level updated to level 2. Internal weaponry off-line. Non-lethal forms of appreciation off-line. Only remaining strategy for escalation is updating to level 5. Caution -- blood stains should be cleaned as quickly as possible to avoid stains. Standing orders to radio janitorial staff with present location before moving on in any events where lethal force is used.

"Alert: This area is presently at an elevated biohazard contamination. These areas are closed to visitors until such time as the facility is in good repairs. Further, a strict professional dress code and a blanket ban on all... such... activities has been issued following the incidents. Order priority Alpha. Desist and please return to appropriate dress and proceed to the nearest exit."

DANI was delivering the first half to everyone, but the second half was clearly to the ones having sex. Though she waited for the space in the door to open up before she would take her place there to defend the civilian parties.

rolled 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 19, 16, 10, 7, 18, 5, 2, 13, 10, 15, 16, 7, 4, 11, 13 = 200

---

>wearing a sludge-filled box as a hat
Ivori shows no change in expression, yet she is currently not carrying a box filled with sludge.
Ivori quietly tallies a Chuckle Point in her headspace.

>>1050842
After cold-staring the goat creatures for a few seconds, Ivori calmly and casually walks back into the previous room, only to throw her back to the wall once she's out of sight. She plans to turn invisible and quickly backstab the farthest goat-

>>1050936
But it appears the android will convince the 'interns' to stand down after all. Still, it appears they will encounter further organic units in the very near-future. Or possibly in thirty seconds if her party acts incompetently and angers the goat creatures. Ivori decides to spend her initiative creating a unit of poison and slathers it over her tanto.

rolled 18, 16, 4, 1, 12, 14, 17, 19, 11, 18, 10, 6, 7, 13, 15, 6, 8, 6, 4, 16 = 221

---

>>1050866
Initially frowning in worry, Misha lets out a dry chuckle when Melaina doesn't appear to be badly hurt... or melting or anything.

>>1050842
>>1050936
Jumping slightly at the answer to her question being cut off with a shout, the wright groans and grumpily approaches the now-open doorway, peering around DANI to see and figure out what has caused the commotion. She raises an eyebrow at the goatpeople shenanigans, especially concerned at the item being brandished by the one in the scrap pile. She surreptitiously starts drawing her own weapon from behind DANI.

"What's the plan, Security?"

The last is directed towards the AI, who seems to have some command of the situation.

>>1050866
>rolled 8, 18
Marginal/mediocre result for diplomacy, decisive success at IDing the cypher. If activated, it would produce a cloud of butterflies made from animate ice who home in on nearby intense heat sources, blocking line-of-sight and rapidly extinguishing fires but presenting very little actual danger.

>>1050936
>rolled 20,
Spear aimed at DANI's chest is deflected with an open-handed parry, passing harmlessly just below her right armpit. Yank on the haft sends the margyr stumbling forward, left hand grabs a tuft of hair on his chest, lifts, and throws him back into the other spear-wielders, knocking two of them down.
>12,
They can't understand a word she's saying, but seem to figure out the broad strokes based on tone and gestures.
>10, 4
One of the other spearmen tags her right in the throat. When this fails to draw blood or even interrupt DANI's speech, there's visible shock.

Apparent leader carefully sets the fire extinguisher back down on the floor, then throws a blanket over the... happy couple, still unresponsive to anything but each other. Two spearmen are backing off while maintaining a defensive stance, another is applying crude first aid to the one DANI threw, who's sprawled out on the floor groaning - that patch of fur she grabbed and tore took some skin along with it. Last one is kneeling and chanting with his eyes tightly shut.

rolled 17, 1, 10, 5, 4, 1, 18, 13, 14, 10, 5, 14, 11, 11, 1, 10, 3, 17, 8, 8 = 181

---

>>1051078
Okay, they're intimidated and they don't speak the Truth. That's okay, Melaina can handle this, charades is like shadow puppets, right? She's good at those.

The nano is going to try and, uh, negotiarade?, an end hostilities- peek our from behind DANI, friendly face, hand on the android's shoulder as if to hold her back, open palm towards the goat folk to show non-hostile intent. Just passing through, thank you for covering up... that. Let's spend 2 points on Intellect effort, too.

No dark matter, no need to spook em further.

The nano will nudge Misha. "Maybe help the one who got hurt, show them we aren't after them?"

>Last one is kneeling and chanting with his eyes tightly shut.
Sounds more like prayer than, say, a build up into an esotery, I hope?

No mushrooms coming up from behind, I hope?

rolled 12, 10, 20, 13, 9, 14, 10, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 15, 18, 8, 19, 2, 13, 3, 3 = 187

---

>>1051132
After a brief moment of deliberation, Misha heaves a sigh, nodding. "Alright alright."

She re-sheathes her dagger and emerges from behind DANI to approach the hurt goatman, along the way she spends a point of Intellect and Iotum on Right Tool for the Job to fashion an impromptu first-aid kit. She also makes sure to nab the patch of missing skin (that DANI presumably still has stuck to her hand) as she passes the AI.

Carefully holding up the makeshift medical tools and being as nonthreatening as possible, she'll scoot past the still-raised spears, then kneel down to examine and fix up the hurt margyr; antiseptic/anaesthetic gel and plasters to reattach and seal up the missing skin and soothe any other bumps or scrapes until the body can knit itself together. (2 trainings in healing + an asset from Right Tool)

The Wright's lack of bedside manner immediately resurfaces once she is done focusing on the task at hand, voice grumpy when she stands.
"Alright, boo-boos've been patched. Any further complaints; I'm gonna need to direct to yer mummy who should be able to do the requisite 'kissin it better'."

rolled 1, 20, 1, 14, 1, 20, 16, 5, 20, 8, 7, 16, 18, 15, 4, 16, 9, 18, 3, 1 = 213

---

>>1051078
With a clear sense of why DANI doesn't exactly mind them having weapons established, she will give the still holding their weapons people a sharp look and point to the ground, and afterwards go over to the happy couple, placing the spears near by, and go in to pick them off the ground and pull them and the blanket in two, only to pick up the reinforcing bar spears and attempt to non-consensually fashion the blanket halves into a sort of covering garment by wrapping the spears around their body like a pretzel to hold the blanket in place.

>>1051280
>rolled 1, 20, 1, 14, 1, 20
Process of separating and dressing the couple involves more torn-velcro noises and blood than expected, but otherwise achieves a swift and satisfactory result.

Apparent leader of the goat-people is outraged by this, howling and stabbing DANI though the back of the left knee. Core joint structure intact, but that's still five might damage, reduced to 2 by armor. The spearhead also slipped through the surrounding armored weave, overpenetrating far enough that it's now pinning her leg to the ground. Chief catches an elbow to the gut in response. He staggers away, disarmed and stunned.

>>1051267
>rolled 12, 10, 20
Turns out margyr crotch-parts involve more barbs than human equivalent, with a correspondingly slow and laborious procedure for safe disengagement, but femoral arteries are in approximately the same place. If there weren't a surgeon so close by, with just the right tools already in hand, one or both of the 'happy couple' likely would not have survived. Melaina manages to convey this information to the goat-people, positioning Misha as a benevolent force, balancing DANI's severity.

>>1051132
>rolled 17, 1
>No mushrooms coming up from behind, I hope?
Something did indeed follow you into the kite-shaped room. It's the size of two or three obese elephants fused end-to-end (easily wide enough to block the hallway) but has the texture - and eerie silence - of pillows or soap bubbles, with a movement pattern reminiscent of overflowing bread dough or some monstrous earthworm.

Praying margyr rises, sprints, dodging around Melaina, pivots and slides hooves-first under the conveyor belt just as the worm-blob is starting to crawl over it. Churning millipede legs lift him up into the mass of the beast he apparently summoned, then a puckered maw vomits him back out. From a resinous tether now anchored between his shoulderblades, coffee-colored smart-fluid flows, forming a thorny armored exoskeleton as if it were molten wax or metal filling an unseen mold.

rolled 10, 7, 1, 10, 9, 5, 4, 2, 8, 13, 19, 15, 5, 5, 5, 19, 3, 20, 2, 11 = 173

---

Ivori just finished coating her blade in a thin sheen of non-splattering sludge when the giant dough-fungus burst into the room she was in, forcing her to break concealment and run straight into the kite room.

>>1051287
Ivori quickly decides this encounter should have been evaded thirty seconds ago.
Ivori grabs Misha and escorts her to the left exit, giving it a quick scout for hazards before diving through and slamming the door behind them.

>>1051297
Ivori leaves the dark, kite-shaped room with the conveyor belt and the exultant mycelimancer, flees through the brightly lit semicircular "inspector's lounge" where the margyr and most of the other PCs (and some piles of potentially salvageable debris) are, then departs via the wider of the two available exits, perpendicular to the way she came in.

Unfortunately it's an open archway, there's no door to slam. After dashing down that hall, Ivori reaches a room maybe 15 meters square. Floating in the center of that room, roughly the size and height of a human head, is a hole in space. Flickering aura around it leaves the room dimly lit.

Two other possible exits from there. To the left, a spherical room is visible, like an enormous inside-out pearl, but the way is blocked by a transparent panel - difficulty 5 intellect task to open it nonviolently.

Directly on the opposite side of the hole in space (relative to where you came in), another hallway, with narrow-beam lights set into the walls every few meters around shin height and a distant whirring-rotor sort of noise echoing from the far end.

rolled 14, 5, 13, 5, 14, 15, 18, 5, 19, 15, 5, 11, 5, 16, 20, 16, 4, 17, 10, 7 = 234

---

>>1051287
Well, giant monsters attacking and swallowing visitors is in no way acceptable as of the "Guidelines to ensure minimum liability" and should be promptly dealt with as swiftly as possible. Spending 2 Might on an Effort to free herself from the rebar spear by snapping it in twain (coincidentally making it useless as a spear) before taking a sword that by all rights looks nigh impossible for a human to use and swinging it directly through the centipede monster.

rolled 20, 1, 6, 13, 7, 11, 12, 1, 16, 19, 16, 2, 8, 2, 1, 9, 1, 19, 12, 12 = 188

---

Mel is starting to wonder if the explorers met the locals in the wrong order, though it's a little late to do anything about that.

In the mist of the chaos (Ivori running by, DANI breaking free) she gestures for the darkness to slow down the biggest apparent threat, dropping a casting of Ribbons of Dark Matter such that both mycelimancer and myceliminion are in the radius.

Let's ah, step back from Misha's patients so as to not loom over or be seen as threatening the injured, and stay well away from the two wary ones still standing with spears. Any furniture intact enough to act as cover in case one of them decides to try spear throwing again?

rolled 17, 17, 10, 11, 4, 7, 15, 5, 4, 20, 10, 16, 18, 10, 19, 9, 1, 3, 4, 3 = 203

---

As Ivori catches her breath, she realizes she yanked off one of Misha's articles of clothing instead of pulling her away from the margyr. A very... important article of clothing.

After pranking the door frame with said clothing, Ivori decides to open the pearl door to maximize the number of potential exits the party has - well, if they survive that goatshroom monster.

Lockpick the pearl door, Intellect (Effort 1)

rolled 5, 6, 18, 16, 17, 5, 6, 7, 16, 15, 19, 9, 19, 15, 15, 11, 11, 5, 8, 3 = 226

---

>>1051287
Stoically wading through her surprise introduction to margyr reproductive anatomy and the fixing thereof, Misha finishes her work and decides not to waste further words that won't be understood on her recent patients, starts eyeing the scarp pile.

"Now that nobody's bleeding out anymore, let's see if these guys have any other interesting trinkets lying aroun-"

>>1051297
>>1051300
>>1051407
Misha blinks as the awareness of unexpected airflow around her chest causes her to glance down, then stare deadpan daggers into the retreating Jack's back, tone flat and unamused.
"Asshole, the heck was that for?"

She turns, about to complain about whatever new nonsense caused this to happen but shuts up as soon as she claps eyes on the creeping blob monster. Her irritation and concern are quickly replaced with feverish wonder, however, at witnessing how it interacts with the mycelimancer, who she peppers with questions he's unlikely to be able to meaningfully answer.
"Whoa, wait that looks ingenious. Is that a construct in it's own right that's responding to and assisting ye or are ya just interfacing with the material directly?"

Caution (and decency) apparently some distant double digit on the list of things on her mind now, the wright approaches the hideous mass to experimentally prod and examine it.

>>1051407
Stronglass panel slides out of the way with a soft pneumatic hiss, but there's no apparent other exit from the pearl room, just a skinless humanoid corpse laying in the center of the floor.

>>1051396
Melaina evokes a mass of entangling shadows, then takes cover in the lounge, squeezed between a section of wall (next to the door she came in through) and a sturdy-looking boxy thing about one meter wide and two high.
>>1051387
DANI gets tangled in shadow ribbons, halfheartedly throws the broken length of rebar, but it gets deflected in midair.
Esculant worm pulls its front end out of the dark matter thicket, twisting to the left, slurps up the resinous tether just in time to yank mycelimancer out of DANI's melee range.
Once she wrestles through the snare herself, two mighty blows from DANI's sword cleave the worm in half lengthwise - or would have, if it were only the size of one elephant. It's at 12/22 health, one of the split ends is recongealing into a mouth to bite at her, while the other is gulping up boxes from the conveyor belt and advancing toward the mud spigot.
Meanwhile the mycelimancer's spear has been reconfigured into a rapid-fire pneumatic dart launcher.
>>1051410
Misha's exposed biomass manages to distract both beast and summoner: 3 damage from the first volley of darts, plus 5 from the worm's toothless bite, and will be taking five more damage per round while stuck to the fungal mass.
>rolled 18
>inability at understanding numenera
>trained at resisting pain
Process of having skin digested is unpleasant, but surprisingly productive from a scientific standpoint. What do you want to know?
>>1051396
Melaina's cover turns out to be a mostly intact vending machine which was, at some point, rotated to face the wall. Clear synth window shows an interior space filled with small items hanging on metal corkscrews. Interface panel chirps like a overstimulated songbird and displays glitchy scrolling text.
Seems to recognize her, and is attempting to make small talk as part of convincing her to buy things, but can't manage to spell her name the same way twice, and the offered news and gossip doesn't make any sense. Octarine hat locksmith found a zero day in the Un-Versity of Nibov's ethical calculus but they've issued a patch, courier cognomen "tusk" or something is nearby with your prescription medications.
Mechanically speaking, limited salvage can be attempted in combat time at the cost of 1d6 shins per roll - feed the machine something shiny and vaguely coin-shaped, see what it's willing to give you in exchange.

rolled 4, 14, 9, 18, 6, 14, 5, 3, 1, 18, 4, 15, 9, 6, 3, 9, 14, 17, 15, 11 = 195

---

>>1051515
Well, um, it couldn't hurt, and it would be rude to say no, right? And shopping is supposed to be good for the soul, maybe. It's a little awkward to maneuver between the wall and the machine, but Mel will manage.

Rolling for shin-funded salvage!

rolled 4 = 4

---

>>1051525
And rolling 1d6 for shins.

rolled 1, 3, 16, 5, 14, 5, 13, 15, 7, 12, 19, 13, 10, 15, 16, 10, 3, 15, 18, 5 = 215

---

>>1051515
Well, still at 16/20 Might, going to power through and keep whacking the damn flesh monster, slicing and dicing until it does, not willing to push herself further until a certified technician was available to do repairs.

>>1051525
>rolled 4, 14
There's a sad-sounding beep, and the scrolling text says something about "invalid selection." Second attempt gets you two identical pint-sized cans of... well, you're not exactly sure yet. Exterior is aluminum, pull-tab to open. Weighs a kilogram each, so whatever's inside must be averaging about twice as dense as water.

Luridly colorful painted-on label has lots of writing in some unfamiliar language, but also a prominent stylized image of a praying mantis eating meat off the disarticulated leg-bone of some animal much larger than itself.

rolled 7, 13, 14, 3, 4, 10, 4, 3, 3, 12, 18, 16, 4, 1, 14, 13, 12, 11, 15, 4 = 181

---

Huh. Mantis chow? Nutritional supplements? Mel's sure that will come in handy eventually! Thank you, datasphere songbird sales-automaton.

Peeking out from behind cover, the Nano takes note of Misha's plight, stuck to a fungal worm that seems to have dissolved clothing and has starting working on what lies underneath. The nano responds with an Onslaught of shadows, attempting to knock wright and worm apart. Preventing a teammate from melting seems important, so she'll spend 3 points on Intellect Effort.

rolled 17, 20, 7, 19, 12, 20, 17, 17, 2, 9, 14, 4, 16, 10, 14, 8, 10, 11, 17, 20 = 264

---

Ivori stares at the mummified corpse in silent respect.

Then she takes out her tanto and ensures they're dead, stabbing the corpse through the jaw and into the brain cavity (using up the poison charge), followed by repeated stabs through the neck before ripping the head off.

rolled 8, 18, 3, 4, 8, 4, 5, 17, 15, 12, 4, 3, 17, 10, 8, 18, 8, 3, 14, 9 = 188

---

>>1051515
"OW, FUCK!"
Misha bites back a scream as she experiences a number of fascinatingly and complex biochemical
processes that the creature has to offer in a way most never consider: directly.

>>1051527
>>1051639
Not that it doesn't yield results; gritting her teeth she puts her mind towards using this abrupt connection as well as her allies' attempts to help as an opportunity to leverage the creature somewhat, attempting to make it release it's grip on everything it is touching which if successful should both free herself and perhaps also sever the connection it has with the Margyr Nano, even if only temporarily (using 3 points of intellect on effort for the attempt)

If she manages to get free she'll try to put as much distance and cover between herself and the hostiles as possible, hissing curses under her breath all the while.

>>1051775
>rolled 8
Misha pulls away from the engulfing fungal mass, but it stretches like bubblegum. Motile digestive pattern seems to be preferentially targeting blood vessels (rather than nerves, wires, bone, or muscle), and the main mass of the thing clearly had an aversive reaction to the shadow-thicket, so Misha grabs a stray strand of dark matter. Threaded through a shunt near her elbow, shadowstuff infiltrates the veins of her engulfed limb.

>>1051639
>rolled 7, 13
Finding this red soup suddenly foul, and its feeding pseudopod under attack, the worm lets go.

>rolled 18, 3
Misha slips the dark matter strand back out of her forearm and sprints toward the light spilling through the lounge door. Still catches another 3 damage pneumatic dart before finding herself standing alongside Melaina once again, short of breath and bleeding in several places but mostly functional.

>>1051527
>rolled 1, 3, 16, 5, 14, 5, 13, 15
DANI methodically hacks the worm to pieces. Some of it splashes, clogging a tertiary heat vent - two more Might damage past armor - and a lucky hit from a dart unravels the tensile element of her heavy crossbow, but the main mass of the fungal beast is inert and visibly decomposing. Only portion still alive, attached to the mycelimancer's shoulder tether, is apparently crawling up inside the mud spigot.
So, DANI and the mycelimancer are both standing atop the conveyor belt, having a surprisingly close approximation of a formal duel. Mycelimancer's spear and darts mostly can't penetrate DANI's armor, and while DANI's sword can reliably inflict bruises and scratches through that smart-fluid shell (damage 7 vs. armor 5), the margyr sorcerer-priest apparently has some sort of rapid healing factor in there too. Shell seems like it won't last more than another few minutes... but that might be long enough for a competent or lucky nano to come up with a new plan. Or, given how the day's been so far, possibly for something else completely unrelated to go wrong.

>>1051662
>rolled 17, 20
Crude autopsy reveals that it isn't mummified. Still pretty juicy, in fact. Margyr, dead within the past few days but hasn't decayed much due to a cold and sterile environment. Entire skin removed pre-mortem but surprisingly few other injuries. Cause of death was exsanguination, yet there's barely any puddle on the pearlescent floor, and major blood vessels in all the obvious places are intact - or they were until Ivori crafted a grisly, yet expertly articulated, hand-puppet. Even figured out ways to make the tongue and eyes move.

rolled 19, 15, 13, 14, 5, 19, 7, 16, 14, 14, 16, 16, 20, 13, 15, 17, 18, 5, 9, 20 = 285

---

Melaina doesn't have a chance to be embarrassed by Misha's joining her hiding place in a state of undress, as the wright being partially digested is a lot more attention-grabbing. DANI seems to be holding her own, applying some first aid seems prudent!

Hedge magic might be able to help clean slime off of things, there was cloth in here that could be used for bandages, right? Uh, hedge magic might be needed to clean those too. Fortunately (if we can say that), Misha already doing surgery earlier, and this is bleeding as badly.

>>1052132
Six damage healed, any potentially infectious slime removed, and available clothes reallocated between the two of you. Resulting outfits aren't particularly stylish, but at least cover the essentials and look reasonably intentional.

rolled 20, 6, 8, 9, 20, 13, 5, 19, 4, 19, 17, 1, 12, 18, 4, 19, 15, 9, 8, 10 = 236

---

>>1051955
Panting, Misha starts pulling darts from her flesh and looking for some appropriate tools for cleaning and patching her injuries-

>>1052132
-but Melaina has her covered, (literally too after some cloth trading). With a relieved sigh the Wright gives the Nano a small but grateful smile.
"Much obliged, was almost worried fr'a sec there."

She casts a furtive glance back towards the ongoing battle, grimacing at the state now being one of attrition. A detail catches her eye however; the main mass of the fungus beast may be lying in inert heaps but the tether to the margyr nano is still active, now dangling from the sludge dispenser.

Risking getting shot again, Misha peeks from behind cover and shouts out to the robot, even pointing, to dubiously helpful effect.
"Oi, Security! Th'bloody monster is still connected to yer dance partner, sever that line if you can!"

Ducking back into cover, she turns to Melaina.
"Alright I'm not gonna be much use in what's left of the fight as things stands, I'm gonna go see of that pile o' parts has anything that might change that. Yell if things get worse."

With that she scoots off to see if she can quickly scrounge up anything useful from the pile of scrap from earlier.

>>1052237
Salvage successful: seven shins, four units of Parts, and a surprisingly lightweight device almost exactly the size and shape of a bowling ball. You realize it's a potent nonlethal energy weapon, but will only function in total darkness.

The other margyr seem to have gathered up most of their stuff and departed through a different exit than the one Ivori took.

rolled 4, 1, 11, 1, 13, 19, 2, 6, 8, 2, 18, 16, 7, 17, 17, 11, 6, 16, 1, 11 = 187

---

Melania peeks out from behind cover to see how the rest of the abhumans are faring.

>The other margyr seem to have gathered up most of their stuff and departed through a different exit than the one Ivori took.
On the one hand, she's relieved it looks like there won't be more fighting coming from that direction, but on the other hand, it's kind of rude of them to leave their friend behind isn't it? Then again, on the dark matter tentacle, it's good to see the injured are apparently well enough to move.

The nano wonders if she should tell the mycelimancer he's being left behind (maybe that would get him to withdraw as well?) but then she remembers they don't share a language and she's probably not going to be able to get him to focus on charades while concentrating on a duel. Best to try and stop things before anyone else gets hurt.

>"Oi, Security! Th'bloody monster is still connected to yer dance partner, sever that line if you can!"
Well, DANI is occupied trying to hit a moving target that can defend itself and strike back, but the tether is a stationary target, or at least the end of it coming out of the goo-dispenser is.

"Hiya!" From her cover, Melania strikes out at the tether with a dark matter onslaught, applying a level of Effort to increase damage.

>>1052239
Bolt of dark matter misses the tether, but then bends in midair and turns back for another pass. Mycelimancer reaches to catch it, but steps in a sludge-filled box at exactly the wrong moment. Orbiting shadowbolt elongates into a helix, tightening around the resinous tether. Once it snaps, the fight's over.

DANI has her blade's edge in contact with the margyr sorcerer-priest's neck, remaining smart-fluid armor too unstable to effectively interfere. Now what?

rolled 4, 13, 19, 6, 10, 16, 11, 2, 8, 5, 7, 10, 16, 6, 18, 15, 20, 17, 13, 1 = 217

---

"Are you all right?" Melaina calls out to their mechanical companion as the fighting comes to stop, and the ribbons of shadow-stuff fade.

The Nano will also stick her head out the door Ivori (seemingly) left through and call out that it's safe now, and she can come back. Though it's possible the Jack's already here, somewhere. She's sneaky like that. If she doesn't show up they'll have to go looking for her.

Any salvage points left in the office? Misha's already seen to the fungus monster and Mel's already fed shins into the vending machine (she's not sure she has enough coin to go again- had to dip into what Ivori salvaged the first time. But maybe the others are willing to take a spin?). Did the margyr leave anything notable behind in their hurry, like a map, supplies, or that fire-supression numenera?

rolled 6, 2, 2, 1, 16, 14, 9, 8, 14, 15, 12, 5, 17, 4, 7, 7, 6, 6, 11, 12 = 174

---

"...Don't go left."
Ivori appears right behind Misha.
It took some time to wrap and store the meat puppet in her pack. But there was enough to climb the walls and land softly behind Misha.

Ivori does some light scavenging while the party waits, looking for jewelry or crafting materials rather than anything particularly valuable.

>>1052238
Grinning, Misha scoops up the goodies and carefully hefts the techno-orb, into something roughly resembling a grip she can aim with.

>>1052246
Having found an artifact that looks like it can be used like a weapon, Misha whirls, eager now to get back into the fray and thinking of ways to activate the device.

>>1052292
>>1052299
Not only for the fight to already be over but also to bump directly into Ivori mid sneak, causing the Wright to jump.
"Gah! Oh for the love of- where did you come from, or slink off to in the first place?"

Not even waiting for a reply, she frowns and adds:
"-And where's m'damn chestwrap?"

>>1052302
"..."
Ivori looks down to see that the chestwrap fell off the support she hung it from. Strange, she could have sworn it was a crude leather bra...

Ivori picks up the wrappings and gingerly binds Misha's bust back together.
Gingerly, because she takes care to prevent Misha from realizing Ivori wrote "My fetishes include [CENSORED]" on the portions that are seen from the back.

>>1052292
>>1052299
You don't find maps, valuables, or the fire-suppression cypher. Looks like the margyr took the best stuff they knew about along with them. There's a wicker basket full of questionably-fresh fruit, clear synth bag wrapped around the outside, sitting in the middle of the hallway they departed through, apparently positioned as an offering.

Pile of junk near the couches is a level 4 salvage source, but it has already been successfully salvaged once (for the bowling ball) so subsequent attempts are hindered. Neither of you beat the difficulty, but Ivori still manages to find a unit of parts, including a spool of copper wire and some glassy bits that could be recycled into cheap jewelry. Assorted furniture, laundry, and garbage (blurry lines between those here) could be harvested as raw materials for appropriate commonplace crafting projects, provided you're willing to work at it for hours and don't mind the smell of goat.

rolled 6, 9, 11, 1, 5, 8, 8, 10, 12, 16, 12, 19, 18, 2, 4, 17, 15, 2, 17, 1 = 193

---

>>1052246
Well, it might be that Lethal force is authorized because of malfunctions in in-built non-lethal combat systems built for containing belligerents. However, this is one of the many reasons for which there might be to build a sentient robot for all of your security needs, as DANI would grab the snapped rebar spear and twist it like a pretzel into a make shift pair of hand-cuffs, tying the goat person's hands behind his back and leaves him where he is as she calls over her (not actually connected to anything functional anymore) radio for another officer for processing so she can go about continuing her existing duties.

> "Are you all right?" Melaina calls out to their mechanical companion as the fighting comes to stop, and the ribbons of shadow-stuff fade.

"Maintenance of active combat systems are designated as due for service before further deployment."

>>1052456
Crafted restraints are level 3, and prevent the gestures needed for esotery use, so mycelimancer is only level 2 for purposes of escape attempts and thus will not be succeeding without outside help. Can still stand and walk but only an immediate distance per round.
Apparently knows a few garbled words of Truth, calling out as you start to leave: "I am lost and taken! To whom [wedded/welded]? When is my name?"

rolled 15, 16, 14, 4, 16, 14, 20, 19, 20, 7, 9, 17, 3, 13, 1, 14, 13, 9, 3, 5 = 232

---

>>1052457
>Defeat means Marriage
Ivori immediately zips back through the doorway and to the exit she found to the right before the others even think about choosing her.

Her morbid taxidermy of the corpse has washed her blade clean of toxins. She concentrates and re-poisons her tanto. (intellect)

Finally, she concentrates and looks into the next area for anything scarier than a goat-fungus monster asking her hand in marriage.

>>1052499
Hallway with the shin-high narrow-beam lights continues for about thirty meters. There's a dark passage to the left near the halfway point. The whirring noise is coming from up ahead.

A triangular space, roughly as large as the lounge or pearl room, has several dead-and-gutted machines, and one that still functions: an arch over the only other exit, with dozens of articulated metal arms coiled inside. It's high and wide enough to drive a wagon through...
>rolled 15
...but will probably do something surgical to anyone or anything passing under it.

>marriage
>rolled 16
The sorcerer-priest isn't actually expecting to marry any specific individual, just to be integrated into your tribe, initially as a low-status worker, after having been captured in a raid.

rolled 12, 17, 20, 19, 19, 12, 10, 11, 9, 4, 12, 12, 16, 12, 15, 16, 1, 2, 16, 2 = 237

---

>"Maintenance of active combat systems are designated as due for service before further deployment."
"We might be better off finding a more secure location first? We upset the previous occupants of this room, who still know where we are, and it's still pretty close to that biohazard you mentioned. And the chopped up fungusaur."

>There's a wicker basket full of questionably-fresh fruit, clear synth bag wrapped around the outside, sitting in the middle of the hallway they departed through, apparently positioned as an offering.
How thoughtful! One fruit basket, get.

>Apparently knows a few garbled words of Truth, calling out as you start to leave: "I am lost and taken! To whom [wedded/welded]? When is my name?"
>The sorcerer-priest isn't actually expecting to marry any specific individual, just to be integrated into your tribe, initially as a low-status worker, after having been captured in a raid.
Melaina brightens. "Oh, we can do an induction ceremony! We didn't do anything for DANI, so can do both at once."

Community rituals seem like they'd fall under a nano's purview, and they definitely fall under positive social interaction. Hedge magic could be used (changing color and appearance) of some of the debris around here to make some colorful temporary decorations, and she can say a blessing under the light of the silmaril.

rolled 4 + 1 = 5

---

As the android is busy... getting married to a stuffed mushroom... nope, Ivori's mind can't handle the stupid.

She sits on the muddy dirt, centering her thoughts and recalling one of her classic pranks:

Seven years ago, Ivori was busy reaming the rafters of a duke's mansion while Embri was mingling below at the lavish party. The garish aristocrat had giant white letters spelling out (in disgustingly inaccurate and superfluous terms) his egotistic achievements held in place with a series of simple pulleys, all made out of materials meant for the local city's defensive artifact regimen of tanks, resources that were stolen in the night and never reclaimed. Then Ivori spotted a witty opportunity.
Acting quickly, she placed cakes and candies from the staff's hazardously placed break 'room' on specific ropes, taking care not to pull down the letters herself. When the duke's and his guests' spoiled brats poured in two hours later, they quickly discovered the sweets and impulsively pulled down the ropes connected to the candies and cakes and those specific letters and pulled them all down. According to Embri, one girl in particular, wearing a red feather headdress for some reason, latched on to her rope and rubbed herself all over it. With the letters removed, the nobles gasped in abject horror at the new, grotesquely teenage phrase scrawled over high quality 7th-age military steel:
"[I'm Lard Swiney Mactoddler, and this is my favorite brothel in the city.]"
There were unjust executions. They made assassinating the duke oh-so-easy.

She wonders what happened to that little songbird. Oh well.

rolled 11, 16, 10, 16, 1, 19, 5, 20, 13, 17, 10, 4, 8, 11, 20, 18, 20, 13, 14, 14 = 260

---

>>1052304
Looking incredibly put-upon, Misha nonetheless grudgingly accepts the assistance in replacing the swiped garment, unaware of the new 'design' on the back.

>>1052457
The wright scowls at hearing some Truth come from the now-captive Margyr, starting to grumble to nobody in particular.
"Oh now 'e understands us. I see how it is. Y'try and ask some genuine questions about an interesting new material and get it sicced on ye, but clap the same bloody goat in irons and suddenly it's it's all pet names and binding oaths."

She sits herself down near the others and starts working the broken Trail Blazer's mechanical components from her heel, still grumbling but now almost entirely to herself.
"What the heck was I thinking? 'Hey guys I got th'portal installation workin', let's just do a quick scouting expedition! Anything goes wrong we just use this panic button cypher to zip right back. In and Out, 20 minutes adventure. tops.' Genius. Don't take any of yer better workshop tools or materials or even any protective gear, nooo, it's just a quick peek after all, grab whatever."

>>1052535
"Well since it looks like we're together for the long haul..."

Finally detaching the broken cypher's mechanism, she set it to the side, raising her voice and pointing to the Margyr.
"Oi, numpty, y'know anything useful about this place or was the mushroom also the brains'o the operation?"

At the mention of the last she gives a little glance to the spigot for any sign of the creature returning.

>>1052535
Melaina arranges debris into a ceremonial circle, cleanses ill scents from the air and tweaks the spectrum of ambient light, then teaches the group a song. First few passes are a struggle just to remember the elegant-sounding but deeply foreign lyrics while staying in tune, then something clicks and it all comes together. Initially simple melody is repeated, offset, folded over itself to spontaneously interlock in dozens of harmonious variations, almost as if one mind had five voices.

After an hour of that, along with a (mildly intoxicating) shared meal and ordinary stuff like introductions, the group's cohesion has greatly improved.

>>1052728
>y'know anything useful about this place
This room is the edge of the territory of a larger community of margyr. Or, rather, it was - clearly you've staked a claim on it now, remains to be seen where the new border will end up. Mycelimancer attributes much of his former tribe's success to their control of a pair of pre-existing numenera installations, the "geyser of shameful weakness" and the "gate of eventually," which enabled... something to do with internal dispute resolution and an unassailable defense against raids by rival groups. Limited shared vocabulary means you're definitely missing a lot of important cultural context.

They've never been able to open the door you came through, not once across several generations of living memory. Quite a bit of mythology built up around it. Some of those stories were validated, others called into question, and new ones will soon be told. Personal participation in history has filled him with a roiling blend of gratitude, awe, and terror.

Down the other path, where Ivori scouted, are three machines of significance. The first will allow humble petitioners to pass, but none have fought it and lived. The second is harmless, even beneficial for those willing to learn. The third is vigilant and vindictive, inflicting some unspeakable disfigurement which is beyond the margyr tribe's ability to fix - which, if you're understanding right, somehow puts it in a worse category than actual severed limbs and some types of brain and spinal cord damage. Results are very consistent, though, not capricious like the Iron Wind.

rolled 3, 12, 5, 4, 18, 12, 14, 5, 7, 16, 4, 5, 17, 20, 9, 9, 6, 9, 11, 8 = 194

---

>>1052851
DANI has personally little intentions on taking the Margyr as a prisoner, initially intending to just have other security personnel come to handle escorting them off site. However, with evidence that this is apparently something of a lingering infestation of people, as opposed to anything particularly small, that seems more and more unlikely.

However, from the poetic and tribal descriptions of the installations, does DANI know anything about these so called geyser of shameful weakness or Gate of Eventuality, or the devices discovered by Ivori?

Also, while DANI is willing to abide by the strange ritual and participate even if she doesn't particularly understand it, she is alas unable to eat or feel intoxicated on account of still being a robot.

>>1052938
>on account of still being a robot.
>rolled 3
No organic neurochemistry for ethanol-tainted overripe fruit to engage with, but DANI somehow manages to get a little bit buzzed just by thinking too hard about the music.

>does DANI know anything about these so called geyser of shameful weakness
Sounds like it's producing anagathic gel. Flask the size of a tennis ball sells on the black market for (last you heard) at least five times as much as a baseline human could save up in a decade of moderately-skilled hard labor, so theft is... a concern, to put it mildly.
>or Gate of Eventuality,
No data.
>or the devices discovered by Ivori?
That's just the mail room. Envelope sorters, skate courier maintenance, that sort of thing. Should be fairly harmless, short of absurdly idiotic industrial accidents like, say, somebody sticking their bare hand in the risk-of-hazmat unboxer.

rolled 10, 1, 9, 8, 11, 8, 6, 10, 5, 14, 16, 15, 20, 9, 1, 14, 8, 12, 10, 19 = 206

---

>what do
Okay, bonding complete, let's explore down the path Ivori scouted.

First room past, uh, Inspector Li's Lounge. Any notable changed since any of us last laid eyes on it in >>1051300 ?

>Floating in the center of that room, roughly the size and height of a human head, is a hole in space.

So the mycelimancer describes this device as allowing person to pass, but none have fought it and lived. But as DANI remembers... this is part of a communication apparatus?

Understanding numenera check, I think. Observation only, no poking the void that leaves no survivors.

>>1052947
Tossing a small piece of fruit into the hole (from a respectful distance) sees it sucked in, only to reappear and drop to the floor a moment later over in the 'pearl room,' minus the peel and most of the juice.

rolled 16, 6, 20, 10, 15, 11, 13, 9, 11, 19, 15, 7, 5, 1, 9, 3, 12, 19, 14, 13 = 228

---

Internally, Ivori chafes from her sore throat. What the hell was that incantation? She hasn't said so many words in a day since she was caught by a drunk guard and forced to sing along with her sister in an impromptu flash mob musical.
That... might have bonded her to the very person she has considered assassinating. Pity. A contract this mysteriously profitable only comes once a decade, regardless of whether or not it is trustworthy. Ivori is a professional - but will that stop her from retrieving her advance pay, stored in various dead drops? Most likely, unfortunately.

>Mail Room
Perhaps there's an answer to be found in the abrupt deceleration of communications.
Ivori attempts to access the mail archive's last packet of non-emergency messages, to get a general idea of what kind of cataclysm caused the plant to shut down entirely.

>>1052949
Looks like some of the gutted machines in the triangular room may have originally been used for sorting mail, while another used a combination of magnetic coils and compressed air to propel small packages through tubes inside the walls.

Aided by DANI's description of the room's original function, Ivori obtains a plan seed, and an oddity: a postcard with text in an unfamiliar language on one side, photorealistic image filling the other. Picture conveys an illusion of depth, and by looking at it from different angles you can actually see things which were out of frame in the straight-on view. Focus is three humanoids bearing a family resemblance to DANI, posing around an inactive Dread Destroyer.

At least a day or two of work to turn the seed concept into a ready-to-use plan, and probably a week per set to build, but once you do here's what it will be:

EXPRESS TUBE
Minimum Crafting Level: 2
Kind: Installation
Iotum: Io (1d6 units); responsive synth (10 units); synthsteel (1 unit); mimetic gel (4 units)
Parts: 20 units
Specifications: This plan produces two 3-foot (1 m) cubes of synth and metal connected by a synth tube up to 1 mile (1.5 km) long, as well as five synth canisters about 20 inches (50 cm) long and 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter. A canister placed in one of the cubes is transported along the synth tube at about 30 miles per hour (50 kph) and arrives at the other cube. There are switching stations along the length of the cube that allow canisters to pass each other in either direction. The tubes are usually buried or elevated to keep them out of the way of human activity.
Connecting multiple express tubes together creates a transportation network with controls on the cubes directing each canister to the correct end point.
Depletion: 1 in d20 (check per month of use)

rolled 17, 12, 5, 20, 17, 10, 15, 3, 17, 17, 18, 7, 4, 8, 3, 16, 15, 20, 3, 8 = 235

---

>>1052948
In her current state of mild inebriation, Melaina finds this very funny. A fruit peeler!

>>1052981
So this would be the machine the mycelimancer "harmless, even beneficial for those willing to learn." A means of transmitting messages at a distance could have been very useful (what with being lost and all) but if the equipment is gutted, it probably can't help us much without repairs. (Similarly, sounds like local value for salvage has probably been exhausted). The plan seed sounds useful, though!

Looking onto the next area then...

>>1052509
The "vigilant and vindictive" numenera the mycelimancer warned of is in the direction of the triangular space and the whirring noise, yes?

>Hallway with the shin-high narrow-beam lights continues for about thirty meters. There's a dark passage to the left near the halfway point.
Let's check the less-reportedly-deadly side passage first. Anything show up in the dark if Mel takes her light-on-a-stick in?

>>1053013
>The "vigilant and vindictive" numenera the mycelimancer warned of is in the direction of the triangular space and the whirring noise, yes?
>rolled 17
Yes. It's actually the source of the whirring noise, and the only other large-enough-to-be-useful exit from that room passes through its engagement range.
>Let's check the less-reportedly-deadly side passage first. Anything show up in the dark if Mel takes her light-on-a-stick in?
>rolled 12, 5, 20
First thing you see is an image of yourself, earlier, walking down the hallway past those knee-high lights. It moves as you did but more slowly, and in intervals of shadow your two-minute-younger self's skeleton is dimly visible, as if bones were glowing through the flesh.
Stepping forward seemingly brings that image no closer, even as you break into a run. Keeps looping back to the start of the hallway, just before you turned to enter that side passage. For a few nightmarish moments it seems like you're trapped in some kaleidoscopic temporal anomaly.

Then you trip and faceplant onto the treadmill.

With better light, it's revealed as a six-meter-wide room full of display screens and exercise equipment. Recordings from the hallway could reveal the subtlest details of how somebody walks or otherwise moves, providing valuable insight toward teaching them to do so more efficiently.

rolled 19, 16, 15, 6, 6, 15, 13, 11, 18, 20, 15, 19, 13, 6, 6, 19, 20, 10, 1, 3 = 251

---

>>1053038
Ivori appears at the other end of the treadmill. Nope, she didn't do anything at all. No ma'am.
As opposed to Melania's touch-and-go approach, Ivori tentatively climbs her way across the area, then gracefully lands at the control room and glances at the machine's diagnostic of her abnormal exercise routine.

Attempt to understand numenera, no effort.

rolled 10, 14, 2, 3, 5, 9, 8, 19, 16, 13, 15, 3, 17, 10, 11, 10, 16, 5, 14, 14 = 214

---

>>1052851
The impromptu ceremony of food, singing and mild inebriation manage to soften much of Misha's bitterness towards the Margyr nano, helped by the discussion of multiple working numenera installations, that they are able to operate no less, catching her interest. In a minor symbolic gesture of bridges mended, she gives the Mycelimancer one of her Cyphers; an invisibility nodule, to look after and make use of (totally not just because she has no use for the dang thing)

Thus relieved and surrounded by parts and tools, she sets to work on developing a mounting that would allow the recently-discovered Stunner to be more easily and consistently used (settling on an arm-cannon style design), spacing out lamentations of not having the better equipment of her lab with more questions fired at the group's new companion.

"Internal conflict resolution and unassailable defence from external threats definitely sounds like a good setup you have goin'. What do these installations actually do? Also come t'think of it, minor tangent, but what d'you lot do for sustenance?"

rolled 18, 12, 4, 6, 14, 3, 4, 4, 17, 9, 5, 18, 5, 9, 19, 8, 10, 8, 17, 10 = 200

---

>>1052981
>Focus is three humanoids bearing a family resemblance to DANI, posing around an inactive Dread Destroyer.
"Hm. You know these people, DANI?"

>>1053038
>visible skeleton scanner
The nano is pretty curious what their mechanical companion looks like under that one.

1053038
>[The "vigilant and vindictive" numenera is] the source of the whirring noise, and the only other large-enough-to-be-useful exit from that room passes through its engagement range.
"So is this one part of the mail-delivery system gone feral too? Or's it security on purpose."
Does it look like there's a control panel or any kind of interface or... anything in the dangerous room, outside of danger-door's reach? Presumably its operators would have needed a way to pass through safely, though if we're unlucky, the controls are on the other side. (Short of turning it off, we might be able to try breaking it from across the room, but our android probably takes a dim view on vandalism).

rolled 9, 16, 6, 9, 18, 18, 2, 5, 12, 16, 7, 12, 15, 17, 4, 6, 2, 9, 8, 11 = 202

---

>>1053296
> "Hm. You know these people, DANI?"

"Not particularly more than I imagine you recognize any human at sight. Actually, maybe you would recognize humans by sight since obviously you lack proper IFF tags. Any visual distinction between units is actually entirely for the sake of human psychological reasons, since any important information and short wave radio transmissions can be automatically scanned by any two units in proximity, but early user data revealed that having multiple identical units at any given installation was 'unsettling' for some reason."

It might be just the relative intoxication talking, but there seemed to be an iota of pride in the description of her capabilities.


>>1053038
Well, it's probably for the best to look over it as well. Even if she winds up not being able to discern exactly what this piece of equipment was for, there should be an E-Stop somewhere on both sides for safety reasons if passing through the machine in active use is truly as dangerous as it has been reported.

Also, I am spending 4 experience on Might Edge 2

>>1053367
DANI walks up to the whirring archway. Articulated limbs whip out, grab her by the ankles, lift her about a handspan off the floor, and after thirty seconds of cleaning and mending around her boots, set her gently back down. There's a brassy chime to indicate the task's completion. She finds it deeply reassuring that at least something around here is still working normally.

rolled 17, 7, 8, 14, 8, 9, 17, 20, 10, 7, 15, 20, 11, 2, 7, 9, 17, 14, 18, 9 = 239

---

>>1053369
Excellent, the danger mostly comes from people not adhering to local dress codes, as opposed to anything actually wrong with machines. Though violating clean room procedures will pose a problem for getting them out.

Well, might as well check out the conveyer belt treadmill thing as well, while we're here.

rolled 9, 1, 10, 7, 20, 3, 6, 8, 13, 16, 11, 5, 17, 18, 1, 17, 6, 17, 10, 18 = 213

---

Well, if it's an android repair bay, that certainly explains why it's attempts to "repair" other people have gone so wrong in the past.

"Ah, wait, DANI, is there a path on the other side, or is it a dead end?"

If there's no exit beyond that installation we'll have to find a different path (down the way the magyr went, or back where we first showed up). But if there is, we can still try and figure out how to turn it off / get by safely.

>>1053504
Maybe fifteen meters past the whirring archway there's a four-way intersection, so at least three possible routes.

Mycelimancer says previous exploration down that way usually just skipped past it with various sorts of short-range teleportation.

Ivori opts to train herself with some light exercise. After multiple runs showing the flaws in her silent step and balancing, a small pamphlet ejects from the analysis machine, giving a succinct summary of what Ivori needs to correct and future exercises to improve. Ivori memorizes the pamphlet, practicing its routine, and finds that her stealth stance and general athletics are already noticeably faster.
(4XP: Movement Disability -> Movement Standard)

>>1053370
DANI points out a pair of closet-sized rooms in the back corners of the exercise area: a shower and a latrine. Shower's temperature can be adjusted, and supplemented by ultrasound emitters which massage sore muscles while scrubbing off particulates. Unfortunately, the water includes some alkaline de-greaser which makes it nauseously non-potable. Smells pleasant, at least.

Four hours after you first arrived, three simultaneous problems:
1) Improvised wedge slips loose from holding the door that needed Director Lee's palmprint to open. Door starts to close.

2) Misha and the mycelimancer have a little over half the parts and materials needed to start building a case for the stun ray, were gathering the remainder by cutting apart boxes from the conveyor belt and sifting through the worm's remains.
When Misha started to get up, in a rush to catch the door, sudden shortness of breath, dizziness, narcolepsy.

3) Three human-sized figures in grungy all-concealing cloaks or robes are shuffling out of the dark hallways, toward the whirring arch.

rolled 3, 9, 20, 17, 17, 13, 20, 16, 2, 16, 5, 9, 11, 18, 19, 3, 13, 17, 9, 4 = 241

---

>Shower's temperature can be adjusted, and supplemented by ultrasound emitters which massage sore muscles while scrubbing off particulates.
Siiiinging in the soooonic shoooooower~

Well, can't spend 4 hours on that. Maybe spend some of the downtime on another attempt to understand the repair arch, this time with an asset from Melaina's book? Must be some way to turn it off or get by it safely.

>3) Three human-sized figures in grungy all-concealing cloaks or robes are shuffling out of the dark hallways, toward the whirring arch.
"Hello?" The nano calls out towards the approaching figures. "Be careful, that arch is dangerous!"

rolled 7, 20, 13, 9, 4, 10, 9, 12, 11, 2, 11, 18, 17, 2, 14, 6, 5, 16, 7, 1 = 194

---

>>1053560
Getting somewhat lost in her newest little project and the gathering of materials for it, Misha is caught totally offguard by the door's sudden starting to close.

With a startled yelp she scrambles to her feet, already planning to quickly improvise a device with Right tool for the Job for either ensuring the door remains open or reopening it, but when her first hurried step towards it results in the room lurching, a call for aid is strangled in it's inception as she has to fight to remain conscious, putting Might effort into pushing through the waves of nausea and fatigue to not get cut off from the others.

rolled 15, 12, 3, 8, 12, 1, 5, 3, 4, 15, 8, 12, 11, 14, 13, 18, 18, 16, 11, 11 = 210

---

How quaint, it appears the showers have a 'Training Waterfall' setting.
Ivori spends an hour meditating under the overbearing downpour, recalling the token lessons she had to pass as a numenera junior researcher. Many of her assassination operations involved studying the core basics of her cover identity in order to fool the border guards of each nation she infiltrated. In general, if they could fool the guard captain by performing an actual demonstration of skills, the rank-and-file would completely ignore them from then on in favor of the rest of the queue, who were now more likely to be spies than some ditzy specialists. Her sister took to it well. (Made for some easy pranking). While her masters inferenced that most of academia is a con to get students from wealthy families to pay for additional classes they probably wouldn't need and would forget in time, the upside of a redundantly padded education is that it's harder to forget the basics; Ivori constantly forgets what she's applied if it doesn't involve stealth or murder. But for now, skill in identification will be required in a scout. [Flex Skill - Understanding Numenera]

Moderately annoyed at her waste of two charges of degradable toxin, Ivori spends some time crafting longer-lasting toxins by studying and applying the surrounding garbage.

>Three human-sized figures in grungy all-concealing cloaks or robes are shuffling out of the dark hallways, toward the whirring arch.
Ivori climbs above them and gets into position, ready to sneak attack if the party chooses to engage.

>>1053700
>rolled 3, 9
>Must be some way to turn it off or get by it safely.
So far, only seen enough graspers for one person at a time. Could try running past while it's distracted?
> "Be careful, that arch is dangerous!"
Seemingly heeding this warning, they stop. One in the lead extends a limb and draws a chalk line on the ground.

The limb in question doesn't have a hand, or an elbow, but it's not a tentacle either. Moved almost more like a telescoping piston.

>>1053778
>rolled 15, 12, 3
Ivori climbs a wall and slithers through a crevice in the ceiling, above the active portion of the whirring arch. A handhold breaks off when she puts weight on it, but she manages to land gracefully, and would have caught the three robed figures by surprise... but they've already collapsed into a pile. No signs of life, just scrap synth and garbage.

>>1053700
>rolled 20
Somebody's sneaking up behind Melania. Can't be Ivori, she's in plain view over on the far side of the arch.

rolled 9, 15, 4, 1, 5, 3, 16, 5, 5, 15, 5, 5, 14, 19, 6, 5, 2, 6, 9, 8, 18, 6, 10, 4, 18, 19, 16, 7, 16, 9 = 280

---

After examining the treadmill and exercise equipment, DANI would stand a vigil to help make sure everyone was safe in the room.

Unfortunately for her, the laws of physics dictated that would be not even remotely feasible given that two things started happening at the same time. Between a possible medical emergency that absolutely warranted sending out an emergency broadcast situation, and mysterious newcomers.

While annoying, the door closing behind them hardly struck as an emergency and indeed the idea that they wouldn't be able to get back through it wouldn't even be considered, since it should be easy to just scan the handprint again, or see if emergency access codes are still valid even if she really shouldn't be resorting to such a thing.

Still, medical emergency reported, Dani would inspect the newcomers.

DANI pings the ragged-robed arrivals for RFID tags but they're... absent? No. Invalid, expired. You're looking at a pile of garbage that inexplicably learned how to stand up and walk around.

>>1053766
Misha falls to hands and knees, hacking up fragments of lung and watching the margyr nano race toward the rapidly narrowing sliver of light through the door to the lounge, knowing he won't make it in time.

Wakes up a minute or two later, on what feels like a lumpy but serviceable bed. Instant Wall cypher (and a day's worth of water) has been expended to create a ramp. Mycelimancer is dragging her, on a molded-foam sled, along the previously-inaccessible section of suspended catwalk through the cavernous area where the portal originally opened up. He claims to have a plan, but is grunting and wheezing with the effort of carrying it out rather than slowing down to explain.

rolled 20, 2, 2, 13, 3, 5, 6, 1, 11, 2, 11, 18, 2, 13, 10, 1, 18, 1, 19, 3 = 161

---

>Somebody's sneaking up behind Melania. Can't be Ivori, she's in plain view over on the far side of the arch.
Meep! The nano darts away from what is probably trouble, as Ribbons of Dark Matter condense behind her. Melaina turns around, staff glowing and at the ready, to see who or what was behind her.

Going to spend 4xp on Moving Towards Perfection to upgrade Melaina's Intellect Edge to 2.

>>1054077
Three vaguely human-sized upright piles of debris - scrap metal, yellowish-brown waterlogged paper, snarled wire and hair, other nasty stuff - each wearing a tattered cloak of thin black synth. Apparently they can teleport. Some of the material is recognizably leftover bits of the mail-sorting machines, though.

The one to Melaina's left (DANI's right, and furthest from the exercise room) reaches out with that thin piston-like limb and draws another line on the ground with the same piece of chalk, right behind Melaina's heels, apparently indicating that if she takes another step backward she'll be in the whirring arch's engagement range.

rolled 2, 4, 19, 4, 1, 17, 8, 5, 13, 10, 19, 9, 5, 4, 4, 20, 19, 1, 15, 4 = 183

---

Ivori watches as the rest of the party panics and flees. Few things in this entire universe could define the word 'amalgamation' better than pieces of detritus and spoils convalescing into sentient constructs through nanomachine-empowered chaos. If only her masters could see what true 'living garbage' was...

She has been split from her party. No matter. Whether they live or die, there is little she can do for them divided on this side of the disassembly line.

Ivori continues to stare at the three robed piles, trying to comprehend how they function and where their power sources are. After all, an assassin must always know how to kill every type of being that is within their range perception.
[Understanding Numenera 1 Effort]

Finally, she decides they are not aggressive at the moment. Time for a simple solution to the most pressing problem:
"...Exit?"

rolled 17, 11, 9, 12, 14, 8, 10, 6, 4, 14, 3, 16, 11, 9, 2, 6, 8, 19, 6, 18 = 203

---

>The one to Melaina's left (DANI's right, and furthest from the exercise room) reaches out with that thin piston-like limb and draws another line on the ground with the same piece of chalk, right behind Melaina's heels, apparently indicating that if she takes another step backward she'll be in the whirring arch's engagement range.
"Aha, right, dangerous." Mel's going to take a few steps to the side, so she's not right up against the danger zone.

"Sorry about the uh," the nano gestures vaguely at the shadow-stuff the figures don't seem particularly perturbed by. "You just surprised me, is all." Teleporting behind someone like that might be rude, but they aren't attacking, and seem to have reciprocated the warning. Hopefully a positive sign.

"Hello! I'm Melaina! We're explorers, currently trying to locate this facility's exit. Who are you?"

>>1054208
>rolled 2, 4
No idea what these things are. If they've got vital core systems, probably either very small or hidden in some transdimensional pocket. Seem to be carefully avoiding the whirring arch, so shoving them into it might be a reasonable first thing to try. Failing that, might have to fall back on the professional assassin's BFFs: Burning, Freezing, Blunt Force, and/or the Bigger Fish - that is, maneuvering a seemingly unstoppable target into direct hostilities against something even worse.

In terms of other tactical weaknesses... movement rate seems to be limited to a slow shuffle, so ought to be easy to outrun, provided their teleportation can somehow be prevented. They also don't seem to be reacting to sound at all. Possible they haven't got ears.

>exit
There's a 4-way intersection, meaning three unexplored passageways, close enough you could be there and taking cover around the corner in one round. No apparent lights, though, so you'd be stumbling around in the dark unless you lit one of your torches or glowglobes.

Or you could crawl back through the same crevice in the ceiling used to get here. Walls seem to be smoother on this side, though, no handholds from the scars of stripped machinery, so climbing or jumping up there won't be easy. A ladder sure would be useful.

rolled 7, 15, 10, 17, 9, 14, 12, 20, 6, 12, 10, 13, 14, 11, 16, 14, 1, 14, 18, 14 = 247

---

>>1054073
Groggy, Misha tries to sit up and immediately regrets it as old familiar and newly introduced pains both lance through her, causing her to abandon the attempt.

Normalising her breathing, she focuses on the Mycelimancer's words, confused.
"What, a plan? I thought your lot couldnae get in here... I guess the creature came f'back here, did yer mushroom buddy tell you about somewhere with healing? Gonna fix me up?"

Lying back, the Wright gives a slight wry smile at the thought. Wouldn't that be nice; stumbling ass-backwards into a cure for her ongoing condition. She's long past the stage of hoping for an easy solution, after all the frustratingly persistent withering affects even grafted parts, flesh or synthetic. But she indulges the thought for a moment, idly looking at the ceiling of the vast chamber as she's dragged along.

The moment passes, and now braced for the hurt she successfully props herself up on her elbows with a groan.
"Bloody hell."

Head now elevated, she takes a good look around at the situation, nodding in approval at the usage of the Instant Wall as she scans the surroundings and their destination for anything useful.

>>1054303
Now that it's a matter of a level surface with handrails instead of scrambling up a steep stony slope, and you're away from most of the spores, mycelimancer slows down a bit to chat.
>did yer mushroom buddy tell you about somewhere with healing? Gonna fix me up?
>rolled 7
Geyser of Shameful Weakness provides the best healing, which could be obtained by raid or barter, but he admits he hadn't planned quite that far ahead.

Path you're on runs parallel to the long axis of the cavernous space. Maybe a hundred meters past the top of the instant wall there's a side branch, perpendicular catwalk leading into another doorway.
"Not go that way," says the mycelimancer, though the word in Truth he's using for 'not' isn't the one you'd expect - it's a very formal technical term referring to the point at which simpler or more intuitive models of some phenomenon start yielding dangerously inaccurate predictions. Occasionally used as a poetic euphemism for the Iron Wind, though that interpretation seems contextually unlikely.
"Lair of fogbox cat, no-eyed deer - or was, once, which is bad enough."

>I thought your lot couldnae get in here...
Haven't found a way to open that door you came through - not in living memory, anyway - but there's a way around, seldom used due to the danger. As recently as 10^6 hours ago his mentor set hoof on this very same bridge by making use of a teleportation cypher to bypass The Mutilator. Fluid level was higher then.
>rolled 15
Misha was under the impression margyr had individual lifespans comparable to humans. Shorter, if anything. But here's this guy, looking maybe in his 30s or 40s, talking about something that happened 10^6 hours (meaning ~114 years) ago with a tone of childhood nostalgia, and referring to "living memory" as if it often reaches immensely further back than that.

rolled 7, 1, 8, 10, 18, 12, 12, 12, 17, 3, 2, 5, 5, 17, 3, 6, 18, 19, 9, 3 = 187

---

Are the interlopers doing anything else? Or have they just been standing their since they teleported past the arch and drew the chalk lines?

>They also don't seem to be reacting to sound at all. Possible they haven't got ears.
Hmm. Do they react to hand signs? (Melaina waves). Or maybe they can read or recognize symbols if they draw lines. Maybe if Melaina "writes" a message in dark matter, that might get a response? (She'll try repeating herself in text >>1054224 ).

Going to continue trying to establish communication with the newcomers... or at least see if something gets a reaction out of them.

rolled 17, 5, 10, 15, 17, 12, 7, 2, 7, 4, 16, 10, 4, 14, 2, 18, 17, 16, 20, 1 = 214

---

>>1054300
> Possibly don't have ears

Well, DANI will try broadcasting a facility standard hail and introduction over short range radio frequencies that ostensibly are just robot language, broadcasting over any open channels, prioritizing by proximity and existing users

rolled 12, 19, 10, 5, 11, 16, 14, 7, 15, 8, 8, 17, 5, 9, 14, 12, 4, 7, 17, 3 = 213

---

Ivori lights up a glowglobe and rolls it like a bowling ball through one of the corridors. She arms her bow and stares intently as the little ball of light eventually comes to a stop.

>>1054362
There's hissing and crackling in the machine telepathy channel which you thought was meaningless background noise until it suddenly resolves into voices. "A sword." "A sleeper." "A wounded angel." "We are what you left behind." "We are who left you behind." "Where is your gate, angel?" "When is your alarum, sleeper?" "What line, sword, will you cut us for crossing?" Bit rude that they aren't presenting properly formatted names.
>>1054348
The one with the chalk draws a few stick figures, and makes gestures which are difficult to interpret because the number of fingers involved doesn't stay consistent from one moment to the next. Seems to be asking either "are you allied with the margyr" or "do you like goats."

>>1054376
Rolling the glowglobe doesn't initially work - it either sticks to the floor at the point of contact or jumps pack to her hand as if it was on a string. However, picking a millipede out of her hair (one more reason that ceiling crevice isn't a very desirable option) and inducing it to crawl on the globe instead seems to satisfy the device's need to be held, after which it can roll normally.

Following the right-hand wall, hallway continues about 50 meters to a Y intersection, where Ivori encounters the mycelimancer coming the other way, still dragging Misha on a crude pressed-foam sled.
Third branch of that Y intersection has another short hallway, with periodic flashes of light in a complex sequence of colors from something in an open space at the far end.
>rolled 12, 19
>>1054303
>rolled 7, 15
Seems like the pattern of colors might be a countdown, though if so the zero point is at least a day away.

rolled 18, 6, 10, 15, 19, 9, 2, 10, 19, 19, 6, 13, 6, 17, 2, 5, 8, 5, 2, 8 = 199

---

>>1054587
>Seems to be asking either "are you allied with the margyr"
"Well we're allied with one margyr, we had an unfortunate confrontation with the rest, but left off with a fruit basket, so maybe there's hope?"

Um, lessee, Melaina can make little shadow-puppets that look like their stick figures. Here's a group of us, here's a group of goat-horned stick figures, bump them into each other and have a little fight, then the groups separate again, but the shadow with goat horns and holding a mushroom has changed groups. Oh! And she can show the actual fruit basket.

Mechanically, trying to convey the truth that we had a confrontation with the margyr, but recruited one of them. Making simple figures and moving them around seems within the sphere of Hedge Magic + dark matter (though elaborate and detailed illusions might need a dedicated Nano power, or Effort). Training in positive social interactions continues to apply.

>or "do you like goats."
"Not like that." she blushes.

rolled 16, 6, 16, 4, 15, 10, 10, 1, 17, 7, 20, 19, 17, 11, 8, 4, 17, 2, 3, 9 = 212

---

Interesting. Ivori considers raising some venomous millipedes to stick onto her glowglobes - they'll run the moment they detect something, leaving the glowglobe to stick at the point of danger.

Ivori stares at the mycelimancer for a few seconds, then points at him and then in the direction of the third branch, checking up on Misha soon after the mycelicmancer leaves to investigate.

After a summary examination for any invading diseases or curses (and some discreet slight-of-hand to reverse pickpocket embarrassing items into her inventory while her back is turned), Ivori joins up with the mycelimancer (assuming he's still alive at this point) and analyzes whatever is causing that beeping noise.

[Understanding Numenera, 0 Effort]

>>1054674
>rolled 18
You accurately convey the information, but they're not happy to learn it. Weapon-limbs are extruded - a tangle of glass shards, a rusty hook which might once have been part of a bicycle frame, and a cylindrical ceramic bludgeon - and they start trying to kill you in a plodding, methodical (reluctant?) sort of way.
> rolled 6, 10, 15
One of those would have connected, if not for the hindrance of them still being caught in your shadow-thicket.

rolled 11, 3, 6, 18, 4, 14, 11, 10, 5, 6, 4, 20, 19, 19, 19, 16, 1, 18, 20, 13 = 237

---

>>1054587
"That sure is a lot of needless hostility given that, at least theoretically, we are all supposed to be protecting the facility. Or whatever is left of it."

>>1054781
And this is where needless hostility becomes a boiling point, DANI will activate hold the gate and put herself in the path of the blows to make sure that nobody else gets hit

>>1054822
As she wades through the snarl of dark matter, a fist-like mass of glass shards collides with DANI's face, forcefully enough to shed glittering splinters in all directions. Her eyes aren't even scratched. Two other attacks are safely deflected, and a judo-throw followup leaves one of the trashbag raiders sprawled across the wrong side of that chalk line.

The archway's whir slowly rises to a shriek. When it calms, and articulated arms withdraw, nothing visible remains of the one who was grabbed.

>theoretically, we are all supposed to be protecting the facility
>rolled 18
The three... well, two of them now... use a dialect of machine telepathy distinct from your own, though somewhat mutually intelligible. Possibly descended from Waste Management rather than Security. In any case, checksum subtext makes it clear they have no loyalty whatsoever to your employer.

rolled 18, 18, 17, 1, 4, 1, 10, 18, 15, 5, 2, 11, 13, 1, 6, 9, 7, 2, 19, 6 = 183

---

>You accurately convey the information, but they're not happy to learn it. Weapon-limbs are extruded - a tangle of glass shards, a rusty hook which might once have been part of a bicycle frame, and a cylindrical ceramic bludgeon - and they start trying to kill you in a plodding, methodical (reluctant?) sort of way.
Melaina realizes she doesn't actually know which way she answered wrong- are they hostile because the group isn't allied with the magyr as a whole, or because the group now includes a magyr? Either way, if they're reluctant, that might imply some kind of obligation they don't have a choice about.

>The archway's whir slowly rises to a shriek. When it calms, and articulated arms withdraw, nothing visible remains of the one who was grabbed.
Hmm, interesting, the arch disassembled it, rather than trying to make it more DANI-like. Perhaps there's some cutoff where the arch judges targets too far from the idealized state to "repair" and it salvages parts instead? (That, or maybe it teleported again, but last time it appeared to be short-range). The really strange thing is that the arch would consider humans to be more DANI-like than machines. Perhaps they aren't machines at all? ...some kind of spirit, which possesses or assembles a body out of mechanical debris?

>what do
Melaina is going to stay away from the people trying to kill her, and the archway that seems to want to kill 'upgrade' her, letting DANI take point. The nano will fire shadow bolt(s) (onslaught) at the aggressive maybe-spirits entangles in the shadow-thicket, trying to disable or disarm rather than kill.

rolled 7, 5, 9, 18, 14, 10, 14, 19, 10, 13, 14, 7, 5, 12, 8, 3, 1, 9, 15, 9 = 202

---

>>1054916
> The three... well, two of them now... use a dialect of machine telepathy distinct from your own, though somewhat mutually intelligible. Possibly descended from Waste Management rather than Security. In any case, checksum subtext makes it clear they have no loyalty whatsoever to your employer.

Well then, Section 122.36 of the handbook on dealing with rogue artificial intelligences is fairly clear on what to do in the case of sentient artificial intelligence that has overcome any inbuilt loyalty and is in the process of enacting violence after civil discussions have failed.

That being violence. Fortunately for them, civil discussions haven't actually started yet, so she will hold at the ready for the moment.

"The line that you will be cut for crossing, as it turns out, is attempted hostilities directed at my compatriots that I am escorting away from the facilities. I would apologize, but I actually have a fairly strong stance on the issue and would require an extremely compelling motivation to avoid what would otherwise come next."

>>1054979
>rolled 18,
Melaina figures out that they came here planning to attack the margyr and steal stuff, would have been glad to have new allies in that, but now that the margyr are apparently your subjugated tributaries, such a deal doesn't seem possible. They're currently expecting to die, since they can't outrun or out-fight DANI, but will retreat instead if given a reasonable opportunity. There's some larger community they'd be reporting back to if so.
>Perhaps there's some cutoff where the arch judges targets too far from the idealized state to "repair" and it salvages parts instead?
>18,
Arch's manipulators disassembled from the bottom up. Last piece remaining was a lone boot, and it actually added new material to the sole before pausing a moment as if confused and finally withdrawing. Boot was pulled into storage mostly intact, while other fibrous material got torn up in situ.
Earlier, when working on DANI, barely touched anything above the knees. Maybe it's a sort of automated shoeshine station rather than more general repair.
>stay away
>17,
Adrenaline-fueled acrobatics and clever use of shadow strands as transient hand and footholds end up with Mel dangling from the same ceiling crevice Ivori used. Could descend safely on either side of the arch.
>1, 4
Second blast manages to avoid hitting DANI.

>>1055006
>"The line that you will be cut for crossing, as it turns out, is attempted hostilities directed at my compatriots that I am escorting away from the facilities. I would apologize, but I actually have a fairly strong stance on the issue and would require an extremely compelling motivation to avoid what would otherwise come next."
>rolled 7
"Cannot parse. If we try to leave, will you kill us?"

rolled 7, 9, 1, 10, 4, 5, 5, 2, 15, 19, 8, 15, 12, 5, 12, 7, 10, 4, 19, 10 = 179

---

>>1054304
"Not encouraged when the name for that top-quality healing includes 'shameful weakness' in the name. Okay now that we're evened out, slow down."
Grumbling and rummaging through her pockets, Misha prepares to engage in her go-to response to new symptoms; exploratory auto-surgery. Just as she finds her dagger and the recently-constructed Helpful Thread, she stops and stares at the Margyr intensely, his words just sinking in fully.
"...Wait, how old are y-"

>>1054594
>>1054729
Only for her thought to be cut off by the appearance of her Jack companion. "Oh, Ivori. Hey I'm probably gonna need to open myself up; got hit with some breathing trouble and blacked out just as the door started to close."


"Can you two keep a lookout and also make sure I don't lose consciousness again as I do."

With that she undoes her chestwrap, injects the Thread to serve aid her identifying of the issue, grits her teeth, and with practiced efficiency uses the dagger to carefully work open a narrow line of scarred flesh running from neck to navel.
And goes searching for anomalies to fix.

rolled 20, 10, 16, 7, 1, 18, 4, 6, 8, 8, 6, 10, 10, 10, 8, 12, 7, 4, 20, 6 = 191

---

>>1055012
"You initiated hostilities. Then subsequently escalated to open violence. Questioning logic, using said opening hostilities for the implicit threat of decommissioning should reasoning be insufficient, and a lack of violence should reasoning be appropriate. Present goal: Escort various interlopers off of facility property until a more compelling goal arises."

>>1054729
>rolled 16, 6
Ivori IDs the central machine in the new room - from which the countdown lights are radiating - as some sort of gravity inverter. There's also another exit, but it's inconveniently close to the ceiling.

>>1055015
Over the course of an hour, the Helpful Thread cypher is successfully surgically installed. Misha can now explore the interior of her own body and mind, one tunnel at a time, or extend thread from a fingertip or other extremity to peek into other narrow crevices or around corners. It can also carry on a conversation - not truly thinking on its own, simply asking leading questions, remembering what it's been told, and occasionally completing a syllogism or pointing out an algebra error. This provides an asset on almost all intellect tasks, with a 10% chance of depletion per day of use.

Mycelimancer, meanwhile, unpacks an odd device, approximately cylindrical but the smoothly curved sides are slightly narrower in the middle and wider at the ends. Two quarts of water in one compartment, handful of twigs in another, slices of fruit on a metal rack over the top. Few minutes later, the water's hot enough for tea and stripes of the fruit are deliciously caramelized. He says it'll help Misha's lungs shake off the last of those spores. Internal exam confirms effectiveness.

rolled 6, 1, 4, 13, 9, 1, 15, 13, 7, 5, 20, 7, 20, 9, 2, 15, 7, 17, 12, 6 = 189

---

>>1055015
Wrights. Ivori mentally shakes her head as she watches Misha open her chest cavity - not much blood spurts out, so it seems this is just a thing she does and not brainwashed suicide.

>>1055026
>Gravity Inverter
>Exit on the ceiling
Ivori doesn't need a scholar to know where this is going. But since the countdown isn't any time soon, the party should look elsewhere for an exit.

Ivori takes the front and returns to the four-way intersection. An idea pops in her head - will the arrow be 'reconfigured' by the archway or pass through due to lack of complexity? And if it is considered material worthy of the arch's time, will the arch concentrate on 'fixing' the arrow rather than catching anything else in its way? Ivori fires an arrow, aiming at the archway, to investigate.

>>1055021
They call themselves 'Spurn,' and live not very far away - less than a day's walk for you, though they're far slower when not sacrificing body mass to teleport. Their border fort is inside a chamber in the shape of a vertical cylinder about a quarter mile wide, tarry swamp riddled with jagged metal fills the floor to some unknown depth, thirty meter long spike descending from the center of the ceiling shoots level 8 lightning at any non-Spurn who enters, up to ten bolts per round. Mosaic on the tunnel wall leading there says "We Considered Ourselves To Be A Powerful Culture."

Situation has been de-escalated for the moment, surviving raiders have departed back the way they came, but longer term you're still effectively caught in the middle of a slow, bitter war between the Spurn and the Margyr, neither of whom seem to recognize your employer as anything but ancient myth.

>>1055357
Arrow zips through the archway before the articulated arms can catch it.

>>1055015
>searching for anomalies
Looks like the gravitational inverter mechanism cycles every 1d6 days, and takes at least an hour to engage or disengage, during which everything nearby will be approximately weightless. That makes the empty room beyond it (18 meter wide, 4 meter high hexagon with no other apparent exits) a potentially useful - albeit inconvenient - storage area or defensive position, since it'll be easy to haul heavy stuff in or out during low-G periods, but a nigh-impassable cliff the rest of the time.

rolled 8, 10, 6, 10, 12, 12, 18, 14, 8, 14, 16, 15, 5, 7, 11, 17, 19, 20, 17, 16 = 255

---

>Earlier, when working on DANI, barely touched anything above the knees. Maybe it's a sort of automated shoeshine station rather than more general repair.
Huh. Might be interesting to experiment with... if we had any spare footwear to risk. The potential unpleasantness of exploring an ancient installation in bare feet outweighs curiosity, for the moment.

>Arrow zips through the archway before the articulated arms can catch it.
A tendril of dark matter snakes down from above the arch and picks the fallen arrow off the floor. Melania can return that to Ivori!

>What do
Melania is going to (carefully) climb down on the far side of the arch (the same direction Ivori and the arrow came from) to continue exploration in that direction. (Which puts everyone but DANI on the same side of the arch, but the android can safely cross the easiest).

Once on the ground, the nano turns and addresses DANI. "Thank you for coming to my defense! I, uh, apologize for the poorly-aimed shadowbolt."

>>1057017
Alright then, available avenues for further exploration, assuming you're staying away from Margyr or Spurn territory...

-Continuing from the arch straight through the four-way intersection, there's a plain hallway, several hundred meters long at least. Unlit, but seems fairly clean and tidy, contrasted with occasional side alcoves or scattered debris along the Spurn's line of retreat. Thin coating of wax on the floor.

-Cavernous starting area continues, but the catwalks don't - you'd need to climb along the walls or ceiling, fly, or build something that can float on the liquid metal.

-Could double back to poke at the "lair of fogbox cat, no-eyed deer," or the hole that fungal mass erupted from. Presumably after preparing somehow for the dangers involved.

rolled 19, 5, 6, 4, 17, 3, 10, 1, 9, 20, 17, 20, 19, 1, 17, 14, 5, 20, 16, 2 = 225

---

After thanking DANI, Melaina returns Ivori's arrow (assuming Ivori isn't hiding again) and heads down the hall, catching up with Misha at gravity inverter. She's a little surprised Misha and the Mycelimancer made it all around in front of them and managed a surgery and tea-time in the interim.

> Looks like the gravitational inverter mechanism cycles every 1d6 days, and takes at least an hour to engage or disengage, during which everything nearby will be approximately weightless. That makes the empty room beyond it (18 meter wide, 4 meter high hexagon with no other apparent exits) a potentially useful - albeit inconvenient - storage area or defensive position, since it'll be easy to haul heavy stuff in or out during low-G periods, but a nigh-impassable cliff the rest of the time.
Have we managed to figure out how long until the next inversion from the countdown display? It's useful that we'll have an hour's warning when it starts to kick off, but for longer-term planning it might be useful to know if we're expected that today or next week. Understanding numenera, I'd assume. If Misha's willing to help now that she's done her surgery, could get +1 on the roll. And/or figuring out the schedule could be worth investing a half-hour with Silmarillion cross-referencing. Could also give the group a chance to discus recent discoveries and decide on next actions.

(As another possible thing to look into: DANI's heavy crossbow is also still damaged, I believe. We should keep an eye out for stuff that could be used for repairs!)

>-Cavernous starting area continues, but the catwalks don't - you'd need to climb along the walls or ceiling, fly, or build something that can float on the liquid metal.
"I haven't figured out how to do it yet, but I'm pretty sure 'wings of shadow' are possible!"

>>1057160
>Have we managed to figure out how long until the next inversion from the countdown display?
>rolled 19
As the minor additional effect from that 19, you can shift the timing of the next flip - delaying it up to a week, or starting it immediately and then ensuring that the return cycle will be available after you've had a chance to rest but before you run out of food.