WttSS session 28: 'Cave of Wonders'

General Summary

The party watches as defeated darkbound flee into the shadows of the Abouelkassem underground laboratories. To complete their plan the party must head further down, whether to set demolitian charges or to reinstate the facility is still to be decided; but noise of the combat appears to have spread and there are sounds in the distance of the first lower level. Further, the laboratories and analysis rooms surrounding the party's entrance seem full of temptation that the voice of the guardian warned them against succumbing to: computer screens show the results of many of the Abouelkassem scientific and technical ventures - that the computer screens are still on and being accessed after all these centuries after the Abouelkassem fled also being a point of interest.   Khalil's prayer to the Gambler gives him partial understanding of all the Abouelkassem experiments and analysis he can see but when the Gambler recedes the Darkness steps in and Khalil falls into a fugue state, beginning to wander the laboratory.   With this the party feels that the situation is in danger of getting away from them and pulls out, returning to the buildings ground floor through the hole in the floor the attacking darkbound had created - Kerman having to pick up and take Khalil with him, which at least breaks the fugue.   Assuming they're on time, there are only 30 minutes before the Foundation science team arrives, presumably with Colonial Agency or Legion support.   As the party discusses its options, Murad's attentions are drawn to the first floor balconies. Using his spirit glasses he sees another sarcofagoi overlooking the party. Though it is a small matter for him to sneak up and around behind the creature, even to kill it with his thermal pistol, it shows that nowhere is safe to loiter for long. The party only lingers long enough to seal Zarzur's suit with vacuum sealant.   Checking the floor plans they stole from the antenna building, the party sees that there is a lift from the ground floor straight to the third lower level - the heart of the building, which is both the place the guardian would have them destroy and somewhere the party would need to go to complete either of their possible missions here.   Pushing through the building the party sees the lift in an alcove space that is somehow filled with a strange atmosphere. Approaching carefully, the party pokes and prods the phenomenon to see what it is. A dark and heavy air persists in the alcove space, resisting the bright light of the facility's atmosphere controls and that of the Ghodar star, not unlike the darkening that occurred when Khalil activated the Orb of Ghodar. Most lenses of the spirit glasses reveal nothing of the space but one is completely overloaded by the Darkness. Also, when anything is held into the area it seems to refract like entering a prism - not bending, as when the item is withdrawn it retains its original shape, but twisting as if the dimensions in the Dark alcove where at an angle to the dimensions of Icon-blessed normal space.   With sounds behind them indicating something bigger than the darkbound is coming up through the hole in the floor behind them, the party decides to enter the Dark space.   As each person enters their minds and bodies go through the same dimensional twisting - but it seems the Icons are with them and they survive the transition without suffering permanent alteration (translation: nobody rolled zero successes but everyone suffered a goodly amount of stress damage). The party even manages to get the lift going down to lower two; but the cost is high: still no-one suffers permanent alteration but no angle remains normal during the ride and no edge retains exactly the same shape throughout to human eyes.   The party attempts to combine the prismatic spray of their spirit rays and a blessing by Masruq to stabilise the lift's atmosphere. This does buy them safe journey to lower two from lower one but at the cost of the lift mechanisms and it stops. When its doors open, halfway aligned to the corridor. The party climbs down into the corridor and escapes the Dark atmosphere.   In the spaces either side of the corridor the party sees laboratories that Khalil saw the results from on lower one. On the right is an experiment into kharatuk obelisks: one remains intact, another is broken open. On the right is a room full of medical equipment that would match the genetic experimentations.   Trusting in the guardian, the party walks past both, heading to a position above a safe corridor space of lower three. Setting charges they blow a hole in the floor of lower two, safely directing all explosions into a security station; but the Dark wants to play: the force of the explosion still somehow manages to escape down the corridor to the lift, merging with the Dark atmosphere and then recoling back down all lower two's corridors. Laboratory windows shatter across the entire floor and the Dark's children know something has come to see them. They roar as one and head in the party's direction.   Lowering themselves down to lower three, the party finds themselves in a corridor that looks more like a bunker than a laboratory. Before they can investigate further their attention is drawn to a larger darkbound standing so far into the shadows that it partly merges into the bunker walls. Standing an extra two feet taller than a usual darkbound, this creature is far from the human that it once was, with no evidence of that person remaining and any semblence of understanding in far darker, burnt orange eyes long since vanished.   It charges; but Murad cuts it down with three thermal pistol blasts just before it can join Kerman in melee. Kerman kicks the body, disappointed.   With the commotion above them building, the party quickly moves further into the bunker level. Leaving an energy generator room behind, Khalil and Zarzur use the floor plans to local the main experiment chamber and heart of the facility. As they run on however, the party hears the plaintive cries of many voices begging to be let free. Kerman's need to help those who suffer pulls him towards the voices, which seem to come from the third and final chamber on the level, labelled 'containment'.   Needing to make a choice, with all time running out, the party chooses to investigate the call for help. Arriving at the shut door to containment the voice of guardian cries out, demanding the party destroy the heart of the facility by heading first to the experiment chamber.   Kerman asks the Traveller if he should go to containment or experimentation. The Traveller says containment but this would seem to contradict the last answer that said he should trust the so-called guardian. Kerman has to make the choice. Calling out to the guardian, the party asks if the guardian thinks its agenda is greater than that of the Icons'. It answers 'yes'; and the party breaks into the containment chamber.