synopsychic | It begins...

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It begins...

Your pardon, everyone.

[A calm, cultured voice speaks firmly across the psychic network, cutting through the babble.]

If everyone could please check in, perhaps we can determine who is infiltrating and who is investigating. Please especially speak up if you arrived outside of the room of clothing racks. Has anyone met one of the infiltrators yet?

((OOC: This is open to anyone and everyone! If the thread is not marked as private, assume it's a public conversation. You are allowed to threadjack at will!))

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No, neither have I. Nor do there appear to be any native residents, or infiltrators among us, if I am reading rumor correctly. Strange. Has anything like this happened before, to your knowledge?

Not to my knowledge, no.

Have you any idea as to the nature of the building? It has the atmosphere of a palace, or an ancestral home, but if so, it is strangely built.

I've been wondering about that myself, to be honest.

[There is a short pause, followed by the mental equivalent of a frown.]

Has anyone seen any actual inhabitants?

[A pause while Alcuin sifts through the network and impressions since they arrived.]

No, I don't believe so. Perhaps they are with the infiltrators, wherever they might be. It's eerily quiet and empty, truthfully.

[There is also a distinct lack of demons, something that Raidou has never been able to get used to on Jaunts. He's not sure whether to mention that or not, given that there are quite a few Travellers for whom that state is entirely normal.]

They could all be behind the sealed doors.

[Or none of them could be, or only some, but Raidou is reasonably certain Alcuin knows that already.]

It is certainly a possibility. I should certainly like a closer look at them, but I must admit that I have not seen doors which are shaped like these. If the opening mechanism is not obvious, I would not know how to go about removing their hinges. We are not even certain if such drastic action is necessary.

That's true...

[And careless attempts to prise them open - or melt them open, or anything Raidou's demons could come up with - could backfire on them rather spectacularly if there are traps on them.]

[There's a brief pauses as Raidou mulls this over a bit.]

It's possible that the opening mechanism is elsewhere. Or they could only open under certain conditions that have not been satisfied yet.

[Which probably means trying to figure out what those conditions are. and that could take a while if they can't find any clues.]

[It occurs to him that the doors could also only open one way - from the side they're not on. If that's the case, though, then it seems an odd design choice, and a rather ominous one at that. Whatever the case is, though, they are definitely going to need to find more information. He just hopes it's not all behind the locked doors.]

It makes one to wonder what it is they are keeping within.

[The thought is soft, almost to himself, but he quickly returns his attention to the conversation... and takes a swift left-hand turn that might be hard to follow if Raidou isn't following other conversations.]

Tell me, did you ever study the stars at home?

Study, no - look at them, yes.

[There is a pause, and the mental equivalent of a frown.]

Why? Is something wrong with them here?

I hesitate to say "wrong". Say "unfamiliar". I doubt that they are wrong here, yet they match nothing either I or Lord Lebeau are aware of. Wherever we are, I think it safe to say that it is nowhere near my home, at the least.

[A faint strain of relief follows that statement.]

[Raidou is somehow not surprised.]

I see...

What does the surrounding terrain look like? I can't see it from where I am.

A desert, by all accounts. One worse than that around the Ivory Tower. There is a bright spot in one area that may be a distant city, but it is too far off to tell. Yet there is no sign indicating people nearby.

Does that mean we have to go to them somehow, or are they coming to us?

[At least the second choice means not knowing how the doors work will be less of an issue. And with luck, they can observe the workings of the doors.]

[...Of course, there's also the possibility of having to explain their presence to any arriving Infiltrators.]

[He gives the mental equivalent of shaking his head thoughtfully.]

There isn't enough information to be able to tell. There is no sign of a vehicle outside at the moment, but apparently this building is set into a mountainside. It may be that they may be hidden from us. I myself would be inclined to search the building, as it is more immediately available, and by the look of things has far more places to hide.

That's probably our best course of action for now.

[Another pause.]

Has anyone found any exits?

Not that will open, if they are exits. The angle is wrong from the skylights to see down to the level of the wardrobe hall, so it is unclear if the enormous door there is meant to lead outside or further in. The doors do not appear to have visible locks or hinges, so I am uncertain if we have a method of opening them short of blasting them with magic as of yet.

...And that should probably be a last resort for now. And without knowing how the outside world got that way, it might not be wise to go out there anyway.

Has anyone reported seeing a library or something similar? That could be helpful.

I agree.

I have not seen a library as such, but there are items that seem to be books, or something similar. But they are not made like any books I know. I believe they are meant to be watched, rather than read. Each sleeping chamber has a selection.

Watched instead of read... I see.

[He's less than thrilled about that, but he can't just refuse to use the resources they have just because he's not comfortable with how they work. He'll cope.]

Does every chamber have the same ones?

[If they don't, that could be useful, but he's not sure of the chances of that.]

I am uncertain - I have not had the chance to check all of them as of yet. There seem to be a number of them dedicated to the 'Starmovers'. Is that familiar?

Unfortunately no. But they're clearly important if they feature in so many books.

Agreed. Time spent learning about them hardly seems wasted, if we have the time available. It may be that the Starmovers have something to do with the building, or were worthy heroes of a past age - something we might use to allay suspicion in the Infiltrators.

I suspect we'll need all the help we can get there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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