Tales from the Octahedron - Expedition into the Dark

[Hraithre]

Once upon a time, inside a pyramid on a volcanic island...

~Background music~

As Mia touches the button, the X on the wall seems to fold inward, opening the passage. Blue lines on the walls give the tunnel just enough sense of depth to make walking through it tolerable, though it is still very dark.

The walls are making very little noise and displaying few glyphs, in sharp contrast to when Khafir was plugged in. Most, Mia can hear repeated, simple commands given to wall segments to keep their shape steady. Every once in a while, she can hear another voice, however. A low hum, giving the impression of something big moving within the pitch-blackness of the walls. Occasionally, it sounds like it is querying something else for information on who is walking through the tunnels, but nothing is responding to it. Mia might get the feeling that the mental protections she's placed on the expedition members and Geneva's drones are preventing this secondary intelligence from perceiving them the way it normally would. She could, of course, speak to it and tell who they are - but she might not want to, as this secondary intelligence might be the evil thing she sensed from the outside.

As for Khafir's scrying attempts, the armory is very poorly lit. The tunnel leading to the large hall is completely dark and whatever is in it is hidden from her farsight. Fortunately, the same is not true of the large cubical hall, but it is a far cry from what she expected. What illumination the room does have comes mostly from four pairs of glowing red eyes, belonging to massive, humanoid statues in the corners. They seem to be clad in black and leaning on massive swords, their heads covered by what look like animal skulls - a wolf, a ram, a snake and an eagle. In the middle of the room, under the watchful gaze of the four statues, painted red by the light, is a small pagoda, seemingly made of bones. On it, rests a single sharpened stone, possibly flint, the kind one might see in a museum of primitive tools. The floor around the pagoda is covered in rocks, bones, bone dust and sand. What's on the edges of the room is hidden by darkness, but it looks like there might be skeletons standing there - humans, animals, assemblies made of humans and animals.

Then there's the archive. The expedition might catch the first glimpse of it through Geneva's drones, if they send them ahead. The tunnel goes on for almost fifty meters and the stairs go down two hundred, so it's a considerable walk - another demonstration of how little physical dimensions of the structure as seen from the outside constrain its interior spacing. The stairwell turns into metal for the last ten meters and descends into a dome-shaped room. The room is faintly illuminated by thousands of cylinders inscribed with blue glyphs lining the walls. Reaching the bottom of the stairs and looking around, it feels like standing inside a cross of an amphitheatre and a mechanical planetarium, with a large floating wheel, ten meters in inside diameter and twelve on the outside, circling the stairs at height of one and half meters. The entire room is maybe fifty meters in diameter, with other, smaller rings, mechanical gears and pulley systems both floating in the air and connected to each other in a way that gives the impression of something half assembled.

Near the bottom of the stairs, there is a familiar looking chair on a slightly elevated platform. The base of the platform looks like it can rotate. There is likewise a tray full of syringes - one of them is attached to a dessicated corpse sitting on the chair. The tubing connecting to the syringe piercing the corpse's left temple is still glowing blue, but it's clear even from a glance that no information is being passed into or out of this poor person's skull.

More careful examination reveals they were a man, maybe between 20 and 30. The corpse is dressed in a beige uniform resembling some colonial era attires of the British Empire. It is quite well preserved, save for its eyes, which look like they may have been deliberately removed before death. Other than this, there are no injuries. It looks like they may have died of starvation, their body mummifying naturally in cool, dry and nearly sterile environment of the archives.

There is a backpack at the feet of the corpse. It still contains some archeological tools, some dry food, and a diary.

"It appears his attempt to connect with this place was less fortunate," Calm Reed observes drily. She picks up the diary and opens it. "I can put his body to rest once we are done, though given how many bodies are likely to be here, this may be futile."

Well for the fact that Mia is a human and has a hard time seeing in the darkness she is able to enlight her staff to create another lightsource, thought she keeps it low to not draw to much attention from far away.

"Be carefull." Mia warns Calm Reed. "Something is still around that doesn't seem to be part of the building. Maybe this is the entity i felt before. Since I can hear it, it might be a machine or something so be alarmed.

Then more walking. Lucky for Mia she was training her swordskills which include increasing her endurance.

"I think we should be even more alarmed now." Mia says as they are at the corpse. "His eyes got removed while still alive. Someone or something may be around even after years passed."

She keeps to look around while Calm Reed reads the book

Oh.

Not an armory, then.

Well, good. That simplifies things.

Her curiosity about the other rooms momentarily satisfied, Khafir returns her attention to the Archives. "We know interfacing with the machine is not, itself, dangerous." She points out. "Given the lack of other corpses in the area, it seems our friend here made the mistake of attempting to interface without anyone around to protect him. Even with my clairvoyance, I could not tell what was happening around me while within the confines of the virtual reality. He would not have been aware of amy danger until it was too late to defend himself." She straightens. "We should not have that problem. If there is any information to retrieve from the archives, I would volunteer to interface again."

The diary in Calm Reed's hands details the fate of a British colonial expedition that got lost in North Africa. They stumbled upon a dark tunnel through some hills, guarded by a hostile tribe of, apparently, Zulus. This is noted as highly peculiar, given Zulus usually live on other side of the continent. Investigating this oddity, the expedition found the tunnel lead to a bay of what they presumed to be of the Mediterranean sea. The bay was dominated by a previously undiscovered, highly intact pyramid, which of course piqued interest in the expedition.

A harbor and a town were founded near the pyramid to facilitate its excavation. Entries indicate numerous failed attempts to gain entry, the structure proving highly resistant to being cracked open by force and turning out to be much larger than at first suspected. There are hand drawn images showing the difference of the part initially visible above ground, compared to a large quarry built around it to reveal more.

After a point, the writer loses interest in the excavation and focuses on daily life in the town instead. Special focus is paid to construction of a large church and a separate bell tower next to it. An orphanage is noted to accompany the church, run by the apparently lone priestly figure in town. The writer expresses some confusion over and concern for the children in the orphanage. The writer's not sure where the children are coming from and they don't seem to be very healthy or well cared for, with older girls in the orphanage mostly having to take care of the younger kids.

One of those older girls had a fling with one of the expedition soldiers - whether the diary's writer or someone else is left oddly unclarified - and got pregnant to him. The man returned to assume responsibility, but the child died at birth - or, reading between the lines, had to be aborted to save the ill mother's life. Either way, they were buried in the new churchyard, in the shadow of the pyramid.

Three days later, the orphanage was assaulted by a horrific creature, somewhat human-shaped but lacking eyes and a face and having grown to be bigger than any man. It was shot dead by the soldiers. Wondering about its origin and following a fell premonition, the diary's writer went to check the grave on the churchyard. It turned out someone had opened the grave and taken the dead child's body. The same had happened with several orphan children who'd died of illness. The guilty party was assumed to be the church father. Soldiers chased him to the half-constructed bell tower. Once there, they found the tower didn't only reach up, it reached deep down to the ground and connected to the pyramid somehow. The writer expresses horror at the thought of the darkness below containing "thousands after thousands" of the faceless beings.

The writer confronted the church father at the top of the tower, shooting them dead. The entire tower came crashing down after. It is unclear how the writer himself survived. Following these events, excavation of the pyramid ceased. The soldiers tried burning down the half-built church as well, but it refused to catch fire, even after being doused in oil.

A long time passes between entries. When they resume, it appears life in the town has resumed normalcy. The writer notes their pregnant friend is moving to town. Things take a turn for the bizarre again when said friend gets ill, and the writer feels something from the pyramid is trying to claim her child. The last entry describes this something as "worse than the Devil", with the writer he and his friend have taken sanctuary in the attic of the church.

The diary offers no insight on if the man who died plugged in to the structure was the diary's writer, nor how this person got here.

As for Mia, while the Lantern is clearly deactivated and in half-assembled state, she can hear other machinery below the floor and behind the walls, still active after all these years. If she pays careful attention, she might occasionally notice a cylinder being withdrawn or replaced. Somewhere within the walls, there is a still an active mechanism maintaining and making more of these cylinders.

What they are, is not hard to surmise. They are memory storage - each cylinder has a core of a canister filled with that blue liquid, with layers and layers of thin film wrapped around it, each layer inscribed with glyphs. The entire history of this building and everything that's happened in it is probably inscribed here somewhere - but it's clearly not meant to be searched through by hand. Even being magically able to decipher the text like Mia is, without an index, finding anything of worth here might be undertaking of a lifetime.

Well taking in the diary and the things she hears she feels sad. Those people clearly had been decived by this priest which offend her as a high priestress even more. Sure in her world there are also bad priests that abuse their position, but she tries to check this as soon as a problem appears.

"The story sounds very sad." Mia says and turns to Calm Reed. "It might sound strange for a priestress of a machine god, but I would prefere if we can do something about this place. The archives here aren't easy to read. I assume if we plug in we might be able to have a sumary of everything and ways to filter things, but I'm not happy to do that. I could also get the body to a rest"

"This diary details the discovery of this pyramid, or a pyramid line it, on another world." Calm Reed will give it to anyone else who wishes to read it. "Of note is that it mentions disappearing children, dead and alive ones, and subsequent appearance of faceless beings. Like the one I encountered earlier."

One of Geneva's drones will hover above a shoulder as the diary is read, relaying the information back to the hippogriff outside the pyramid.

"There are several distinct possibilities here," Geneva sends over the coms. "Given the space-warping properties of the pyramid I wouldn't be surprised if the structure we've found here and the structure that was discovered by the diary writer are in fact the same. Note the part about finding an ethnic group wildly out of place near the pyramid. They may have had another pyramid entrance near their point of origin that they traveled through to another outlet. That doesn't explain the sickness that was described, though. Or the eyeless creatures. But given the information we have I think it's reasonable to say anyone who's pregnant should probably stay far away from these structures."

Mysterious non-Euclidean pyramids should not be used by people who are pregnant or expect to become pregnant.

"I have the sinking feeling that our eyeless friend in the chair may have experienced sensory overload when trying to interface with the structure here."

There's a pause for a moment as she considers options.

"I have extensive psychic training and experience. That includes the ability to partition and filter information in novel ways. If someone tries to interface with the archive, I could likely do it safely."

"Indeed." Khafir nods. "The pattern would suggest a transformative experience tied to the structure itself. However, if there is a purpose to the creation of these creatures from fetal tissue, it would be incongruent with the stated purpose of this structure, which presents three possibilities. The first is that it has since been modified, to create these beings, for a purpose not as of yet known to us. The second is that this is a side effect of the ascension process our guide mentioned earlier, perhaps failing to account for the possibility of a subject being too underdeveloped for it. And the third is that we have been deceived." She runs a finger under her chin. "Absent any further evidence, I doubt the machine has any vested interest in telling us anything but the truth. It may be prudent to determine exactly what that process entailed."

Mia is a bit annoyed by all this Geneva and Khafir seem to either ignore what she said or just don't belive her at all.

"A fourth option might be another party inside the structure manipulates the prosess. It may be undetectable by the structure itself. As I said there is another entity around here that tried to communicate with the system, but never got a reply so far. I am not sure if it tries to communicate with the structure or with us. From my feeling it could be the evil entity i felt when we were outside, since the blessing I use might prevent it from interacting with us."

"But befor we plug another one of us into this machine, maybe we ask him what happened?" Mia says and likly gets some confused looks for that. "Since his body is mainly in shape there are ways to call for his soul to ask a few questions. The amount of questions is limited on the spell and sometimes on the connection of that person. So what would we ask?"

"The obvious question is to inquire about cause of death." Khafir replies simply, glossing over Mia's apparently-supernatural ability. "I am uncertain how verbose his description will be, but anything which reduces the degree to which we must speculate on what happened here would be welcome."

"Another entity subverting the capabilities of this structure for its purposes is a troubling enough possibility that we must investigate it," Calm Reed agrees. "It strikes me as... disrespectful to ask a dead soul questions, but we do need more information. I will put the body to rest later."

Necromancy.

Geneva is intensely uncomfortable with necromancy.

But she needs to remember that it doesn't always have the same ethical ramifications that it does in her own home world.

"I would be inclined to agree with Doctor Khafir. Any information we can acquire that reduces the amount of guesswork and speculation on our end is helpful. There are clearly unknown forces at work here and the more we know about them the better."

But still.

Necromancy.

Soul manipulation is a vile thing, in the hippogriff's opinion. She keeps those opinions to herself, however. An outburst wouldn't be professional.

Mia nods to Khafir.
"That was the first question i would ask. As for the spell. I can ask a numer of question which the person can answer in full sentence. Still the person can only tell what he knew in live. So if he got stabed from behind for example he can't tell us who did it." It might not be the DND version of the spell, but hell Mia is a HIGH Priest. That must be good for something.

"Don't worry Miss Reed. The spell doesn't disturb or harm the spirit and it would only be fair if we put the body to rest together, if you don't mind."

Well without tllling Mia about her concern she can't do anything against them.

"As said the number of questions is limitit, but for now I only have two in mind. Should any new come up when you hear the answers don't hesitate to tell them."

With that she prepares the spell. First she gets the body in a comfortable position like he is sitting normaly in the chair. Then she grabs into her pocket and picks a small box out in it are three cogwheels in different positions that seem to turn each other endlessly. she puts it on the mans forhead and for some reason it will stick their. With that done Mia starts to mumbel her praier. She is aware that the others might not be religiouse so she doesn't want to force the prayer onto them.

If nothing goes bad the men shouls start moving or his mouth should do as nothing more of his body can. Sadly since the eyes are gone he won't have vision but he can hear and talk.

"Hello Sir, thanks for allowing Deus mechanicus to let me talk to you. We have found your body in these ruins and would like to ask you about some things we couldn't get. I am thankfull for any answer you can give us.

1. Please tell us what caused your death if you can remember." she will likly wait up his answer.

"2. We saw you were connected to the builing. Can you tell us what informations you gathered from it?"

The corpse on the chair shudders and it turns its head slightly towards Mia, small specks of light appearing in its empty eyesockets. "Worry not for me, for I have gone to a better place. Though my body rots and my mind fades, my soul persists in these empty halls."

That is its answer to the first question. Less direct than one would hope.

Then comes the answer to the second:

"You stand in the empty house of the absent architecht. He has left to build more. Only his shadow haunts this place. The candles are unlit but the walls remain. Apostles of the dark speak in words that cannot be heard. Trust not your eyes, for they can not show you what is real. The only light comes from within."

The response is delivered in a tone resembling a poem. Mia gets the feeling some of the words are inexact and maybe could be replaced by different words. "House" could be "grave". "Architecht" could be "creator". "To build" could be "to create". "His shadow" and "apostles of the dark" are spoken with fearful undertones.

Khafir frowns. That response was frustratingly vague on the "how he died" part. In fact, it didn't seem to mention the how at all; just that he'd died and his soul had gone on to be kept here, somehow. He'd offered little insight into whether he'd been attacked, or perhaps...

...Maybe he did tell them. What injuries she could see on the corpse do not appear to be lethal. Sure, having his eyes scooped out can't have been pleasant, but she can attest that it's very much survivable. Maybe in saying that his soul had been pulled into the machine, he was telling them exactly how he went from a person to a corpse.

Which would leave a more pressing question, if they were going to interface with the archive at some point.

"Did you leave this world of your own accord?"

The head of corpse shifts slightly as if to look at Khafir. "Yes", comes a short reply, followed by silence. Mia can feel her spell is still active, so there is still a chance to ask more.

Calm Reed decides not to comment on the unlikelihood of receiving clear answers from a ghost. It is still a better course of action than others available to them at the moment. They will just have to wring what truth they can from the ghost's answers.

"Who are these apostles?" she asks for her part.

Well that person was rather strange. Might be best to ask an important question.

"Who exactly are you or better said who have you been ?"

"Those who wish to smother the light within. They speak with words that cannot be heard. They move where they cannot be seen. All that is not lit belongs to them. They take away the dead and make weapons out of their bones. Do not lend them your eyes", the corpse responds to Calm Reed. Then it is Mia's turn again: "The Brits called me Finn for my place of birth, but they were mistaken. Shade of this pyramid is where I stepped into this shell of flesh and bone. Here I had to return, here I have made my home. Diary of my uncle showed me the way." The corpse stretches its fingers and moves its hand, as if trying to reach for the book. However, the nature of the spell does not give it enough strength to complete the motion, so soon it falls still again.

"Your uncle." Khafir echoes, her gaze shifting from the journal to the corpse. That suggested quite a bit more time between the corpse's arrival and the events depicted in the book than they had initially assumed. Potentially useful information, but she doesn't see how for the moment.

That said, something else about the corpse's testimony stood out to her.

"You said you 'stepped into this shell'." She observes. "That seems a bit too specific to be simple poetic language. Did you exist in some form prior to being 'born' into this world?

"Don't we all?", the corpse croaks. That is clearly affirmative in context. "I was a kin to the apostles, but I found no kinship with them. Solitude is my solace."

I admit I was thinking of 10 questions in total, not knowing the limits of the spell in the games and likly haven't made up what rulesystem mia belongs to. So 10 sounds fine assuming a high priestress is a bit special then a normal one.

"This man is so confusing. It sounds to me like he was reborn in this facility. Thought there is something that comes to my mind.
7. Have you come here alone or who was with you as you headed to this place?"

"I was sceptical of the possibility of obtaining useful answers from a ghost. But this man's mind seems to have already gone askew when he was alive," Calm Reed observes, letting others ask the questions for now. They have a limited number of them, it would be unwise to ask them without consideration.

In response to the group's seventh question, the dead man croaks: "I descended into the pyramid on my own. I sought to leave all who knew me behind. I hope none came to look for me, but could not say for certain. "

Three questions remain. Calm Reed may well be right that this man was already insane before their demise, and that asking more might not reveal anything of use. They might just be looking at the sad end-result of someone quite ordinary coming to contact with an artefact beyond their ability handle.

[Ironsmith]

Khafir simply steps back from the corpse and gestures for her companions to continue asking questions. So far, the ones she's chosen to ask have gotten terse, uninformative responses. Perhaps it's a quirk or her matter of phrasing, or perhaps she is simply focusing on the wrong things, but with the number of remaining questions dwindling, she concludes that allowing her to use any more of them would simply be wasteful.

[Zefir]

"Can you tell us about any inhabitant of this building?" Mia asks. She is also out of any more detailed questions as the person prooves to be of no use.

[Hraithre]

"Those who walk in flesh are outsiders. Many of them are lost, they do not see, they do not understand. Pray for any you find that they will yet find a way out. Do not let them be taken by the Apostles."

[Rebonack]

Geneva has, for the most part, been refraining from asking questions.

Instead she's been listening.

Leave it to ghosts to provide answers only in crypticisms. This is why she sticks to science.

But some of this information has been salvageable thus far. The man came from the pyramid. Somehow. Those sightless and trapped are likely the blind beasts, like the one Calm Reed encountered. The 'Apostles' are something else. Something inhabiting darkened sections of the compound. The Lanterns are, among other things, some kind of control AI if the report she had read on the matter is accurate.

That may be wildly underselling their purpose.

Geneva's voice to life over one of her mapping drones.

"Did the machine you're attached to cause you any harm?"

That seems relevant if she's going to utilize it.

[Hraithre]

"Only the harm I wished to cause on myself. Worry not for me, for I have gone to a better place. Though my body rots and my mind fades, my soul persists in these empty halls."

[Ironsmith]

Khafir looks back and forth between her companions, finally settling on a question that seems relevant to their situation and might cover ground they haven't yet.

"How will we know the Apostles when we encounter them?"

They do seem to figure prominently in events that took place here, and are currently taking place here. And the corpse keeps referring to them in a negative context, and more importantly, as being beyond their ability to see, yet which should probably be avoided. It would therefore be helpful to know what, in more practical terms, they should avoid.

[Morty]

"I am dubious about the prospect of interacting with this machine again this way," Calm Reed declares bluntly. When is she ever not blunt, really? "The voice said we can activate a lantern by manually moving one of the wheels. Perhaps we should attempt it."

[Hraithre]

While Calm Reed muses what they ought to do next, the corpse answers one last question: "By fruits of their labour, you will know them. They will take your eyes and your hands and perform horrible deeds with them. They will use you to smother light of others and then smother yours as well."

[Zefir]

BY the end of the answer the spirit of the men should be gone again and Mia puts the body on the ground in a respectful position. She does prepare th body like it's going for it's funreal, thought that just means checking on clothing and such as she got no tools here.

"That is my concern from the beginning. Not many devices force you to push a needle through your body to interact." she tells Calm Reed
"I'm not sure what we can get out of it. Maybe the man got mad as he read through the informations here?"

[Morty]

"We need more power to get more information from this place without sticking needles into anyone," Calm Reed argues. "If we get this wheel spinning again, maybe more of this place's machinery will come to life."

[Ironsmith]

"I fail to see how using the needle would be counterproductive." Khafir replies, after a brief pause. "As of yet, these apparatuses haven't produced any signs of damage. While I agree we should get the wheel moving, perhaps our options are not so strictly limited."

[Zefir]

"Miss Khafir you didn t see it but the needle did take data from you. I guess whatever it was it wasn t givin by you freely or properbly asked." Mia says.
" I am not really happy to get this running. The one in our base has proven to consume his surroundings to repair itseld. But i can t stop you just be carefull"

[Morty]

"We are dealing with the unknown here. A lot of it. Risks are unavoidable. If anyone can help me with this effort, do so now."

Stoic as ever, Calm Reed plants her feet on the ground and her hands against the wheel. Muscles heaving, she channels her Essence through her body to accomplish a feat of superhuman strength and get the wheel spinning again.

[Hraithre]

If the wheel was made of aluminium or other light metal, it might still weigh 20 tons or more. Luckily, it floats well off the ground, as if suspended from a construction crane, so getting it to budge is a lot easier task than its mass might suggest. Even before Calm Reed has summoned all her strength, it begins to accelerate, very slowly, yet noticeably. Khafir can see lights grow brighter all around, and Mia can hear the hum of machinery grow louder.

As Calm Reed gets the wheel up to walking speed, a lot of things begin to happen all at once. Firstly, the spiral stairwell the group descended detaches from the ceiling and begins to screw itself into the floor, rotating at fraction of the wheel's speed, as if it was the hub of the whole thing. This accompanied by a low undulating sound, somewhat resembling a warning siren - it might be just that, telling the group to keep their distance from the moving stairwell.

Secondly, some of the cylinders change color. Where once there was only blue, now white and fiery orange occasionally appear. Mia can hear a conversation going on between the machines - something that has recently awakened is inquiring other parts of the building about what just happened, curious of who has activated it after such long period of dormancy and confused of why it didn't notice them earlier. She can see a sort of gold dust falling from the newly-animate machinery and spreading around the room, except it's not dust - it's glyphs, similar to ones she saw on the walls prior, except they're now also moving through the air, even through the expedition members, as if they were on a different, partly transparent, layer of picture.

Thirdly, the syringe and the tube attached to it, the one that the expedition only a moment ago removed from the temple of the corpse, also changes color, becoming bright gold. They can only wonder what would have happened if they'd left the dead man on his place.

Fourthly, Geneva's drones pick up a massive spike of energy. It is in geometric proportion to the speed at which Calm Reed is spinning the wheel. The reading suggests that a spherical dimensional anomaly has begun to form around the platform on which the expedition members stand, corresponding in radius to the inner dimension of the wheel. She can estimate that if Calm Reed keeps accelerating the wheel, maybe to a brisk jogging speed, both motion of the wheel and the anomaly will become self-sustaining. It does not seem to be dangerous, or at least it has been constructed so that the people inside the wheel are not in immediate peril.

Lastly, all those inside the room can hear a wordless plea - something, or someone, is asking them to borrow it their eyes, to see what they see, to feel what they feel. Mia can actually see the presence moving through the room, due to the concentration of the golden "dust" growing more intense around each person as the entity begs and pleads. She might get the feeling that it would not need to ask, if the group was not protected by Mia's presence and the favor of her machine deity.

[Zefir]

Mia does look more concerned then before.

"This building gives me shivers. The spirits here seem to be able to possess the people. it's just good that I casted the protection befor we went in or it might have taken controll of us."

Otherwise Mia's player isn't really sure what to do. Other then the effect there doesn't seem to be much to interact with. Not sure if those spirits can even react as they never did before.

[Rebonack]

Hmm.

These readings are interesting, to say the least.

Geneva isn't actually in the room with the others, merely observing from outside the structure, so she won't be getting any pleading impressions from the presence in the library. She can, however, take note of the growing spatial anomaly. Instructions are sent to her drones to focus their attention on the distortion in space while she sends data gathered back to her computer at VIGIL to process the raw information. She would rather like to know what the purpose of the distortion is.

"There's a spatial distortion forming around the platform, reacting to the motion of the flywheel," Geneva reports to the others. "I'm not sure what its purpose is, yet. I should have enough data to begin building models in a minute or two. Doubling the speed should cause the process to be come self-sustaining. However, I would advise against that until I have a better idea of what we're dealing with here. You said something about possession, Mia? Do you think this might have something to do with the Apostles the departed soul mentioned?"

That strikes her as a real possibility.

[Ironsmith]

Khafir stoically watches as Calm Reed brings the wheel and its connected mechanisms up to speed, as well as the related changes. That's quite the dramatic display. That the machine might not behave the way it might have prior to this change is... well, it's a given. It might not be safe to connect again at this point.

Khafir straightens and adjusts her coat, sparing a (visible) glance in Calm Reed's direction before looking back at the machine. Perhaps it's a good thing she didn't let herself get stabbed in the temporal lobe again.

But... if they turn out to need it anyway, she's still the best choice. More so for having gone through it once already and knowing what to expect.

"Mia." She begins quietly, not bothering to turn to face her. "I am well aware that data was taken from my mind. There is no conceivable way such a device could operate without taking information from me. That does not seem to be a matter of concern in of itself." She puts a finger to her chin, rubbing it thoughtfully as events unfold in front of her. "...I find myself more preoccupied with those spatial distortions. Clearly, they serve some sort of... some sort..."

As Khafir stumbles over her words, her hand migrates up to her temple, her face quietly spasming in what almost appears to be an expression of pain. "I... I do not feel well. I'm..." She shakily lowers her hand and grabs ahold of the railing in front of her. "...I'm nauseous, I think. My stomach is upset. I'm not about to vomit, but it is definitely... unsettled." She swivels her gaze over to Calm Reed, eyes widening. "...I may need to evacuate. Immediately."

[Morty]

Calm Reed's eyes snap to Khafir immediately. She doesn't speed up the wheel further, maintaining its current speed.

"I can carry you out of here easily enough, but splitting our group may be dangerous."

[Hraithre]

With Calm Reed maintaining a steady pace, the continued operation of the machinery is firmly and literally in her hands. Geneva can calculate that if Calm Reed lets go, the wheel will begin to slow down and come to halt in at most an hour - much less if Calm Reed actively brakes it.

Since no-one replies positively to its psychic calls, the ethereal presence moving through the room leaves the three women in the room alone. This brings no immediate relief to Khafir, sadly. The physio-chemical chain reaction underlying her nausea can continue just fine even in absence of the triggering event.

Mia and Geneva may figure out what the spatial distortion is. The disassembled Lantern stored in VIGIL has its parts contained by a glass-like shell. This spatial distortion is a slightly more permeable version of that thing. As Geneva references other notes, the purpose becomes even clearer:

The wheel, the central power-generating mechanism of the device, relies on tension between dimensions beyond the usual three plus time, using apparent zero-point energy to do useful work. A small wheel would be equivalent to quantum sail technology utilized by Eun, Khafir and others for their "hotboxes" and such. But with a wheel as large as this, inside this bizarre multiversal structure, "dimensions beyond the usual three plus time" gains a whole new meaning. The wheel is slowly stretching open dimensional "strings" that ordinarily are crunched up in spaces smaller than atoms, using that expanded space as sort of a miniature alternate universe. And as that universe stabilizes, the mass-shadows of higher-dimensional objects can be projected into it as new physical objects.

The space within the wheel is a white canvas for a shadow play, or, to use a slightly more modern analogy, the silver screen for showing a movie. What the previous device made Khafir experience within her mind, this device could make happen for real. It simply lacks instructions for which kind of movie to play for them.

[Ironsmith]

The quantum sail parallel certainly isn't lost on Khafir, either. Even with her stomach reawakening its long-unused talent for gymnastics, she can still make that observation and look back (figuratively and literally) on her own copy of Dr. Bu's notes. The further implications are beyond her, but she recognizes the technology at least.

Of course, her more immediate priority is sitting back against the wall and waiting for the room to stop spinning. Or perhaps just for the wheel to stop. Her nausea isn't going away; if anything, it might be getting worse. She has one hand clamped over her mouth as her eyes squeeze shut, the motion accompanied by an unexpected beading of moisture near their corners.

Oh, wait, no.

She's crying.

Why's she doing that? She doesn't respond to stress that way any more. And there's not really anything in particular in here that could simply be irritating her eyes...

Well, that's a mystery for later.

"Agreed." She says finally, when she dares to open her mouth again. "Perhaps that declaration was premature. I am in no immediate danger, nor am I putting you in any. My apologies."

[Zefir]

"Maybe" Mia replies to Geneva. "Those spirits around here are talking about getting sight and other things. They might be what he refered to Apostel. As i said my protection spell protects us from their possession."

When Khafir seems to be sick, Mia looks closer at the disortion. (she might have a better understanding of this then her player so I can't addanything to it as i am not knowing anything about the made references). Then she turns to the sick woman, takes her sword and bonks the woman on her head. Thought the short little pain of a soft poke is followed by an enhance feeling against the sickness. Likly a strength in will and constitution to pass the sickness. Priest are awesome for such stuff, but they do make her run low.

[Rebonack]

Oh.

That's...

Interesting, to say the least.

Geneva gives a little gasp when she realizes exactly what this device DOES.

"It's unspooling hyper-loop dimensions to create stable inflationary bubbles..." Geneva says breathlessly. "This... this machine is literally harnessing the engine of creation to just... make things. Or potentially make things. If someone were interfacing with it their thoughts could be manifested by the machine physically if my understanding of its operation is correct. I don't even have the context to begin understanding how technology like this would actually accomplish what it's doing."

To say she's impressed is a massive under-statement.

"This is worth years of study. Decades. I've never encountered technology this advanced. Or even imagined that such a thing would be possible. I'm my grasp of what's happening here is correct this machine is literally the most significant discovery anyone has ever made."

Which begs the question-

"These spirits, will your spells continue to be able to ward them off? Are we in a safe position to study this device further? And Miss Reed I would like to suggest that you stop turning the fly-wheel. The machine will continue running for a few hours but we don't want it to become self-sustaining unless we're absolutely certain it won't cause our universe to vanish in a false-vacuum blip."

[Morty]

Calm Reed stops turning the wheel as advised by Geneva.

"Who would build such a machine and why? This is a level of sophistication I have never seen even from relics of the Solar Anathema." She pauses. "And please refer to me simply as Calm Reed."

[Ironsmith]

"Any number of reasons," Khafir interjects, slowly standing back up. Her stomach isn't getting any better, but at this point, she would be better served to power through it than to sit and wait for it to go away (since it probably won't). "A device like this can effectively synthesize matter from, as far as three-dimensional beings like us are concerned, essentially nothing, converting intersectional noise into energy, and that into mass. In its most basic applications, such a machine could make its owners and operators fantastically wealthy; either directly, by producing high-value materials, or indirectly, by seeing to the user's needs at no cost. In a moderate form, and with enough ubiquity, it would be a transformative technology, not unlike Earth's hotboxes in its application." She looks up at the wheel overhead. "...And in a large, advanced form, such technology could easily push mankind, or an analogous species, into a post-singularity era. Trying to guess at the motives of such a society would be, by definition, futile."

[Hraithre]

As Calm Reed lets go of the wheel, it begins slowing down and the rest of machine begins winding down as well. The expedition members can see it, with the lights dimming and the shifting of colors becoming less frequent.

Mia can see the slowing down happen on another level as well: the ethereal presence moving through the room grows dimmer and becomes more and more sluggish in its motions.

Right now, the presence seems to be most interested in Calm Reed. Mia can read some of the floating glyphs. They say things like "weak signal detected" and "attempting translation". She can see glyphs shift and go through several permutations. "Referencing file: Sara Afif Khafir. Referencing file: Magdalene Wright. Referencing file: Leah Juliet Vulpan."

The presence seems to reach for some cylinders further out and they turn from blue to gold. Mia can infer these cylinders must contain records of recent interactions with the control system of the place, like Khafir did earlier.

It seems the machine heard Calm Reed's question and is attempting to turn it into a language it can understand. Implying that if it can understand it, it may actually attempt to answer it. The answer is here in the Archive, somewhere. If the expedition members wait without distracting the machine and the machine doesn't run out of power, the presence might lead them to the right cylinder.

[Morty]

"Mia, do you know what is happening?" Calm Reed peers at the glyphs. "It seems to be responding to us somehow. Should I spin the wheel again to give it more power? We might learn something this way."

[Ironsmith]

"I see no reason not to keep it at low power." Khafir adds, unsolicited. "Unless we can be confident we can turn it off, which we can't be, given the dimensions involved, allowing it to reach a self-sustaining point is, as Doctor Richards has pointed out, inadvisable. Perhaps destroying the universe is an overdramatization of the potential consequences; we would have felt the ripple effects by now if such a thing could be done. But we do not know all the functions of this device and the potential for the havoc it could cause is otherwise undefined. We would not know what to anticipate."

[Zefir]

To Geneva Mia says.
"My spells can ward us off, but i feel your intention would be to study this machine for a long period. The spell has it's limit and i can only cast it a few times. On top I am not sure if Deus Mechanicus allows me to study this."

To Khafir.
"I don't know about thos Earth's hotboxes or what they are, but I doubt a creation of items only with energy is possible without a downside. Maybe the hostile spirits I feel are the byproduct. I once readed that to create something you have to offer something of equal value."

to Calm Reed.
"As far as I can read it, the machine is trying to answer your question about who build this and why. It opens data about Sara Afif Khafir, Magdalene Wright and Leah Juliet Vulpan to translate. As Miss Khafir said don't give it more power for now. If it can really create things by itself it might power itself if the energy reaches a certain level and we have no idea how to stop it."

[Rebonack]

"In terms of long term studies that would require setting up more permanent facilities and accommodations. We're still dealing with quite a few unknowns, though. Such as the effect the facility appears to have on gestating children."

It is not recommended that you hang out in the octohedron if you are pregnant or about to become pregnant.

Thankfully that probably isn't a threat to anyone here at the moment.

Geneva doesn't make any comments on what Mia's faith will or won't allow her to study. That's an intensely personal issue and not something she has any input on. How would she feel about being pressured to research necromancy? Probably about the same way.

"A matter/energy conversion is a well known phenomena, but the amount of energy needed is typically prohibitive. This machine's process is... different. It isn't merely reordering existing matter and energy. It's manifesting tiny universes and using those as an energy source. Hypothetically, it's engaging in creation ex nihilo to fabricate whatever the user dictates."

Which is a big deal.

"I'm not sure if even long term study will be able to unravel this machine's secrets. I sorely doubt we even have the principles to begin to analyze how it actually works."