CHAPTER THREE ♔ in an isolated system the entropy can only increase

[goodbyecaroline]

♬ the device has been modified - victims of science

WHO || Gold, Faye, Emma, Mars, Astrid, GLaDOS
WHAT ||  The Knights become unwitting test subjects for a psychotic AI  
WHERE || Luckman Industries computer-aided enrichment center, Germany
WHEN || May 31st/June 1st [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

Why Wynn ever thinks there will be such a thing as a 'simple recon mission' we just don't know.  

Several Knights were dispatched to a small isolated town in Germany where magic was rumored to not function, only to discover that the situation was a bit more complicated.  Yes, magic didn't function when attempted - sometimes.  But other times it had bizarre and dangerous side effects, including driving townspeople insane.  

Research led the team to a company called Luckman Industries who had bought digging rights to make a large quarry beneath the town, but further investigation revealed that they had actually constructed a massive underground laboratory instead.  Some sort of strange device stood at the center of it, magical in nature, but when they attempted to leave, they found the doors locked, and were forced into trying magic despite the potential side effects.

The spell seems to have attracted the attention of something within the building itself - a disembodied voice that's offered them a (mostly) pleasant greeting - to the Luckman Industries computer-aided enrichment center.

There will be cake.

Comments

[undealt]

[oh HELL TO THE NO. Gold looks fifty shades of disgusted rn.]

A mining project, they said.

[that would have been FUCKING PREFERABLE.]

[pathology]

This is such bullshit. [she rolls her eyes and emits the most petulant teenage sigh. actual adult astrid madchen.]

[uncurse]

Just ... calm down. We'll figure something out, all right?

[ she glances up. ]

Uh ... Look, we're not here for a stay. We were a little lost.

[reallywicked]

Are you really trying to reason with it?

[That voice isn't human okay. She glances up, not really sure whst to even do with this clusterfuck.]

What do you want with us?

[goodbyecaroline]

What do I want?

Why, your cooperation. You have all been selected as test subjects to further our scientific inquiries. Congratulations.

We're all going to have so much fun together.

[uncurse]

You've gotta be kidding me.

[ she goes for her phone except OH YEAH IT WAS MAGNETIZED TO THE CEILING. ]

Hey! Lady! We're not here for fun. [ just because she's not human doesn't mean she isn't a nice lady ok. ] We're not gonna cooperate with your tests.

[goodbyecaroline]

I thought you might say that.

To encourage active test participation, I will be implementing a reward system. Those who participate will be rewarded by not having one of their friends thrown into the incinerator.

[pathology]

So is that ... out of all of us, or are you making us pair up? [she wants gold; he's crippled and won't put up a fight. actual sociopath astrid madchen. SHE'S NOT STRONG SHE HAS TO CONSIDER THESE THINGS. also she still hates u glados.]

[goodbyecaroline]

That would eliminate the element of surprise. You like surprises, don't you?

The Part Where....

[ideamachine]

[ as astrid, faye, gold, and emma's statue plummet into the unknown below...

they suddenly see a mass of bright blue below them, coming up where the ground should be. they strike it, and instead of dying, or breaking all their bones, they immediately bounce back upward, statue included. the angle makes them each bounce off to the side slightly, where they land light as a feather on the actual ground, next to a grinning mars. they find themselves in a dark, dingy room that looks like it's falling apart, an abandoned basement cell of some kind where various testing parts are scattered around the room - large red buttons, darkened turrets, and a bunch of rubble here and there. the door barely looks like a door, and high above, there's a huge hole in the ceiling. a pipe has been shoved through the wall here as well, and there's a little bit of that blue stuff left dripping off the end, indicating that's where it came from, landing on the platform suspended a little bit in the air above, that they bounced off.

most noticeable, however, is that there's another robot in here, attached to a rail that runs the length of the ceiling and goes out either direction through small access panels. it's a small orb, with a single blue blinking eye, and it looks, for lack of a better word, positively exuberant as it twirls around the rail and shouts in a chipper english accent: ] Ha! You did it! It worked! I. Am. Absolutely a genius, if I do say so myself. I mean, you did well too. Of course. Teamwork, that's what we have here. A right proper team. And a headless statue. That's... well, that's a little disturbing, not going to lie. The things people consider art these days.

[undealt]

[well, thank god for that blue stuff. Gold has to hold onto the wall to get back on his feet, but once he's up, he turns to Mars.]

So this whole time, you've been with... [he stares at the roboball...] ...that?

[pathology]

meanwhile, astrid will address the robot.] It's not art, it's our teammate. ... You're not trying to kill us?

[reallywicked]

[While the others question Mars and the new robot, Faye goes over to check on Emma, looking to see if the stone was further damaged by the fall.]

[ideamachine]

Kill you? [ his 'eye' widens comically, looking between them all with an expression remarkably like shock ] This is a rescue! Someone has to stop her. I've seen how this goes, with the ... the testing and the thermal discouragement beams and the potato batteries... Just-- just trust me on this one. Bad news, all of it. [ his eye scans towards emma, who is remarkably intact... body-wise, at least. ] Not that I probably... have to point that out. But, I did, and I can't take it back, so we'll just have to press on! Won't we? [ this remark is punctuated by his vanishing out one of the panels in the wall along his rail. moments later, the ramshackle hot mess of a floor panel starts moving jankily back and forth, before suddenly discharging upwards and outwards and smashing the doors open wide enough to squeeze through. ]

[charismapotion]

Well, not the whole time i don't think. I just came too a few minutes ago. Wheatley's pretty cool.

[ he spoke before noticing what Wheatley said and the girls speak.]

Oh shit, is that Emma?

[ He spoke as he moved over, to Faye's side kneeling down trying to think if he knew any spells to fix broken objects.]

Has anyone tried to heal her? Healings not in my skillset, but like this shouldn't we be able to at least put her head back on? [ He didn't want to see her get left behind and possibly die if she came too.]

[pathology]

[damn it jim] I'm a medic, not a cleric. And no one else here has healing spells in their wheelhouse. Even if they did, what's the chance they'd work properly, right? [she glances towards the path that wheatley cleared for them, but doesn't move yet.]

[ideamachine]

[ wheatley glides back in and comes to a screeching halt, chiming in chipperly: ] As good a reason as any for us to shut that machine down, don't you think? You like that? That would be my master plan for those following along at home.

Now, what are you waiting for? Right through the doors, there, just a bit further.

meanwhile SOMEWHERE

[behindcloseddoors]

[ faye finds herself in the darkness. complete darkness. except that wherever she is is uncomfortably warm and moist and squishy beneath her feet, and the entirety of the cramped space seems to be MOVING below her. ]

[reallywicked]

[And me without any sort of light spell other than ones that actually set shit on fire. Uhhhhhh.]

What the fuck?

[She's going to try to move forward? In whatever direction she's facing. Basically trying to see if she can feel around for a path.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ as she thinks that, a light suddenly snaps on ... that's coming out of her eyes????????? what the shit. is happening. to her life.

in front of her is what looks like a membranous wall, that as she follows it, leads to a series of sharp, deadly looking stalactites and stalagmites perilously close to one another. ]

[reallywicked]

[She takes a look around (also wow these eyes are weird but useful) and doesn't really understand at all what's happening. But I decided that if she rolled a high enough wis check, she would assume what I am assuming. and she got a 18 so...

She's pretty sure she's in the mouth of something. Squishy floor, sharp things, etc. Her breathing gets a little uneven as she has no idea how to handle this. But she needs to be sure, right?

So she turns around, because if she's right, she would be staring down a throat, right? Please don't be right, please don't be right.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ she's right ]

[reallywicked]

[internal screaming]

[Okay... she can handle this. She can totally handle this. WHAT THE FUCK WHEATLEY YOU PIECE OF SHIT SHE'S GOING TO GET EATEN AND POOPED OUT AND THEN SHE'S GOING TO SET YOUR ASS ON FIRE.

Or not. Or she's going to carefully walk towards those teeth, so that she can even more carefully try to get the hell out of here (move silently 17, climb 14)]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ faye is the luckiest bitch in the world b/c

it crit failed its listen check.

and it's dead asleep.

the creature she clambers down from is probably about seventy feet long, and fifty feet tall and it takes her a moment of staring back at it to realize why it looks so fucking familiar.

because it's the nightmare tale that's told in Faerun to children in their beds at night.

faye has found herself in the lair of nothing less than the Tarrasque itself - a gigantic lizard-like monster which exists only to eat, kill, and destroy, a violent and savage creature that of which there is only one in existence. it has brown skin, with scabs and warts and bits of encrusted dung all over it which are grey in color. protecting its back and tail is a thick, glossy caramel-colored shell or carapace. it has spikes coming from its chin, the sides of the mouth, the underside of its neck, the elbows of its front arms, and its shell. the creature also has two horns projecting forwards from the top of its head.

the tarrasque, often called the Armageddon Engine, is known for being practically impossible to kill, and is said to slumber for centuries in between its waking periods, where it sets out to eat and destroy as much as it can before hibernating once more. ]

[reallywicked]

[Faye stares, mouth dropped as she realizes exactly what that is and knows that she was so close not only her own death but uh- maybe everyone's????

She does not pass go, does not collect $200. SHE JUST GETS THE FUCK OUT. WHERE IS THE EXIT.]