Session 65 - Gotta Go Slightly Faster Than Usual In A Careful And Cautious Manner

Previously, Across The Horizon…
The Edge of the World held so much promise that Orrey had to get a closer look at it. It was either that or let the chronovorous unkius eat him.
Mere moments after arriving at the time-displaced ruins east of Machanon, just beyond the limits of travel in the dead ocean, our brave adventurers were pressed into combat, as some of the creatures that survive at the Edge of the World put those survival skills to the test, spurred into action by Orrey’s Time magic. Orrey was thrown into the time portal, disappearing inside of it, but emerged throughout the battle, seemingly not under his own control, though he aided his friends as best he could.
When the battle was over, Orrey returned to the standard chronology, though he had his sister Cassiat Alyon with him — a Cassiat from a different timeline, five years in the future after she had tried to find and rescue Orrey to no avail. She implored Orrey to save himself, and everyone, by fighting her — not the Cassiat that was standing before him, lost in time, but the Cassiat aboard the _Seventh Dawn_, the very _Seventh Dawn_ that was flying over the Edge of the World at that moment.
With their mysterious rivals drawing closer, our adventurers prepare to journey deeper into the Edge of the World to find the Machine City and a way to help Bast’s friend…
**
“Some good news,” Azdar Chid says from the eastern side of the building. “Your battle appears to have weakened the ground here. Careful demolition, and we can descend.”
Aurin, peering over his shoulder, looks less enthused by the whole situation. Aurin has looked more emotionally unwell since arriving.
"Not keen on going deeper with that" - Bast points up at the Seventh Dawn through the holes in the ceiling - "hanging over our heads."
"...although we might not want to linger to chat with them when we could be delving without any uncomfortable conversations," Yves suggests.
"All the more reason to push further," Chid presses. "Your expressions tell me that those are not friends of yours."
Orrey is furiously scribbling in the notebooks and sketchbooks that he pulled out after Cassiat’s disappearance, sitting on the floor and closing his eyes as he looks around in his mind’s eye, left hand stretched out to catch the shape of something in his memory.
"On the other hand, 'deeper' means we disappear from their sight," Linnet points out, burying the empty crab shells. "That assumes that they've seen us, which they might not have, but I know you operate on assuming the worst."
"And leave our way back in their hands, and possibly us caught between them and whatever's down there. Bast grimaces. "I'm guessing they're not just passing by."
"If it's lose-lose, I'd rather keep looking," Yves says, "but you're the captain."
"With your airship and my boat outside," Chid says, "they will know. Whether they can identify you, though, I do not know." He adjusts the beads in his beard. "There is nothing past this point. If they are here, they are here."
"Have you gone deeper before?"
"Once," Chid says to Bast. "There used to be a staircase that survived the many years, though it did not survive an earthquake. I have been unable to progress beyond this chamber and the one below, though."
Aurin looks at Bast, and then at the member of Bast's crew who is apparently just having an art class on the ground, and then back at Bast.
Bast looks back at Aurin, then down at the cracks on the ground. "I doubt they're inclined to share. Run or stay, we don't get any closer to our goal and probably have to fight them anyway. Isa? Any thoughts before I try to clear a way down?"
"I mean, we can be sitting ducks here, or we can try our luck on a disappearing staircase. I, for one, would strongly prefer not to get almost-recruited by the Seventh Dawn again, and honestly I'd take diving into a hole in time over facing their captain once more with less preparation. So awkward." The last line is stage-whispered with a shudder.
Yves nods with great sincerity to Linnet. It's one thing to start a fight, but another to have one of THOSE sorts of conversations.
Bast walks this way and that across the room, looking for a good spot to break the building a little further.
"Aurin? What do you think we should do?" (Linnet is fully aware this is dirty pool.)
Aurin looks at Linnet for over twenty seconds without responding. Then, he puts his hands in his pockets and walks away, closer to Chid.
Bast's history making poor decisions intelligently helps him find the best place for two small explosions, neither of which should bring down more than he wants, and should open a path down to the floor below.
Linnet shrugs and starts whistling a marching song while Bast paces.
Isa hasn't stopped looking up, finding oblique angles to watch the sky without being seen. So it takes a second for her to answer Bast, "If we're likely to fight them either way, best we have something to show for it when we do."
"Bounce the noise a bit, make it harder for them to tell where it came from up there..." Bast mutters as he pours out about a third of the powder from one of his grenades into a belt pouch, re-seals the rest and jams it into a crack in the floor between piles of rubble.
"Best step back."
Yves was stepping back as soon as one of the grenades came out, but takes another step at that command. A few more, even.
Bast promptly sets an example, getting behind a large fallen section of what used to be a wall.
Chid guides Aurin to cover.
Still whistling, Linnet ducks behind a pile of large rubbly bits, trying to time "...was it high, was it low, where the hell did that one go..." for just before the explosion. "...um, Orrey?"
The explosion is small, in the history of Bast Explosions, but normally Orrey has something more than a bit of rubble in between he and the shockwave. It's very loud, wildly dangerous, and what's more, it really disrupts the creative process.
Orrey shakes his head to get the ringing out of his ears. “What the hell, Bast?! A little warning next time before you try to blow up the whole Twelve-damned building!!!”
The floor on the eastern side of the room tumbles itself into more of a rough ramp, leading down.
Orrey sighs as he looks at the scratch torn through his notebook when he jerked in response to the explosion.
Bast gives Orrey a look in response and walks off to examine the results of the restructuring.
Linnet unspindles herself and kneels next to her friend, speaking very close to his ear. "He DID warn us, hon, you were just in an art trance. C'mon, let's go see what the past was hiding." She brushes some of the rock dust off of Orrey and helps him up.
Yves is ready to head down that ramp! ...behind one or two other people who can find out how well it works, thanks.
Orrey mutters to himself after returning the look. To Linnet he explains, “It was important. I had to get it down before I forgot it all.”
Bast, apparently satisfied with the condition of the ramp, is the first to head down.
Orrey stuffs his satchel with the notebooks and heads down after Bast.
Down below...
The room is large, and is in the slow process of collapsing. The center of the room has already given way, with a dangerous-looking pit roughly ten feet across running the full length of the north/south divide. The northeast wall was eroded away some time before, and now a salt waterfall cascades down into the room, following the path of least resistance down into the pit. A few places throughout the room hold weathered stone pedestals, and the south side of the room has what may have once been a long table, though it is cracked and crumbling. The southeast side’s table is barely a memory, from the ground having given way long before.
One of those pedestals looks VERY different from far away, though; the ground below it is the color of burnished copper, and the stonework of the pedestal itself is freshly cut and painted a vibrant black and mahogany.
"Hm. Okay, step one: avoid poking anything just yet. I can't go in after you now." Linnet peers over the edge. "...well, I can, but I'm not actually going to be any help."
"We have never been able to go down any further from here," Chid says. "There is no path. Just these pedestals, and the pit. There clearly once was something there, but..."
"I won't touch anything," Yves says, while staring directly at that glorious distant pedestal that's just begging to be poked.
Isa is the last one down, still looking over her shoulder from time to time as she descends the ramp. "Any idea how far down it goes?" she asks.
"Over a hundred feet at least," Chid responds to Isa.
"Hm," Isa replies, casually.
"We don't have a rope that long, do we?" Orrey asks.
"Don't think so, unfortunately. Cap'n, can you hit the pedestal with a non-explosive projectile?" Linnet asks.
"Don't just hit it with things," Yves protests. "It deserves a careful look! Maybe up close. Not just hurling things at it willy-nilly. It could be damaged." He frowns at the pedestal. "...Isa, can you throw me that far?"
"Yves." Now it's Linnet's turn to bestow the Look.
Bast looks up at Linnet from the remnants of the table in the southeast corner. "Sure. Don't know how much good it would do."
"...what?" Yves shrugs. "You can heal people! You're good at it! I don't know that you can heal devices. I don't think it usually works that way, insofar as I understand white magery."
Isa thinks. "Maybe. You probably wouldn't like it though."
"Testing 'does this thing shoot lightning when touched' without one of us actually touching it, for instance," Linnet points out. "And yes, Yves, I can heal people, but I can't pull them up from a hundred-foot chasm if they miss the landing."
Orrey glances around at the room at the number of statues and where they're positioned, then at the floors. He quickly sketches a map of the room, then adds three circles to the map. "Twelve! There would've been twelve pedestals, if the floor hadn't collapsed. Coincidence? I think not."
The table in the southeast corner is heavily damaged, seeing as about a third of the ground below it is missing. It held something of value, once; there are worn indentations in what remains of the old wood.
Linnet picks her way over to the table, cautiously investigating one of the bits where the ground is still intact.
"Twelve is a good number for dividing by lots of other numbers, so it's straight-up practical," Yves says, "but it could be religious." He is accepting the decision not to hurl him across a chasm in good grace so far.
Isa paces along the edge of the chasm, looking over to the other side, gauging distance. "Rope?" she asks.
"Still no."
Orrey wanders over towards the edge of the chasm, laying down to spread out his weight, and extends his head over the edge to see how far down he can see.
Azdar Chid scratches his beard. "I have the sash here," he says, untying it from around his waist. "I believe, stretched out, it will be around fifteen feet long. I do not like its chances at supporting anyone's full weight."
"So, really not worth suggesting as a rope substitute then."
Bast wanders over to stand near Orrey, in case he gets a little too curious. "Anything interesting?"
"Not really. Got a torch?" Orrey asks.
Isa nods. "Fair," she admits.
"Thank you, Azdar, for at least bringing something. Isa, a little politeness never killed anyone," Linnet comments very mildly over her shoulder. She's running her hands over the table (but trying to avoid splinters), looking for any distinguishing marks or anything time hasn't quite destroyed.
Yves digs into his satchel, frowning a little. Snacks, notebooks, pens, calipers, a few spare beakers and droppers, the undying mask of an ancient being reduced perhaps temporarily to inert material form, fingerless gloves, more snacks... "Yeah, no rope here either."
"Not exactly." Bast steps up to the edge, watching out for loose rocks, and adjusts something on his goggles.
"I have discovered that this is a table, and it's kind of splintery." Linnet shrugs and turns back around. "Anyone with a better eye for the fine details, you're welcome to a second look. Watch the floor."
Isa shakes her head, and backs up as far away from the chasm as she can. "You think we'd have learned from the adventure hole," she says, before launching into a run for the chasm's edge.
"Seems like there are floors below us. First one is only 30 feet down." Orrey adds.
(Linnet squeaks very quietly and scrunches her eyes shut.)
Yves stares into the distance for a moment, remembering the adventure hole. Mostly the part where a building got dropped on someone, actually.
Isa goes forward, moves ahead, and gives the ground the slip.
Orrey looks around, then asks Isa, "Could the airship fit in here?" Then Orrey sees Isa flying through the air. "I guess you're your own airship."
Isa lands on the other side with feet to spare, skidding only slight on time-dusted flooring. "Right," she says, turning to look back over the chasm at her companions. "What am I poking?"
"...heaven forbid we do something reasonable like plink it with a crossbow bolt first..." But Linnet's muttered monologue ceases when Isa speaks, and the terrified sylph opens her eyes. "Huh? You're alive! Holy sandstorms that worked. Um."
"Look for anything that seems more worn than the rest," Yves calls over. "Or less worn. Or just different. Or suspiciously similar."
One pedestal over here definitely looks very weird.
"This one looks weird," Isa calls over to Yves. "Very weird."
"We can see from over here that it looks weird, Isa. Is there anything that looks like a device rather than a piece of architecture?"
"Right, so look for something on it that also looks weird," Yves calls. "...or like a lever or button or switch or hidden panel or particularly polished bit or, uh, yeah, take your best guess."
"What does it feel like? What kind of material is it? Does it look like it's been moved around at all anywhere?" Orrey asks helpfully.
As Isa draws closer, she can see that everything around that pedestal also looks weird, and like it doesn't match what's around it. Crumbling stone shifts to burnished copper, the pedestal itself is in pristine condition, and at the top, resting in a slight indentation atop a carved relief of a clock face, there is a glowing gold orb.
"Well, that's odd. Several floors, all looking like someone smashed a hole through them with a ship's mast or something. And I don't like the way the water at the bottom looks - not the color, not the glow. Not the distance either." Bast stops adjusting his goggles and steps away from the edge.
"...you have rather alarmingly fancy goggles, Bast," Linnet asks.
"Glowing orbs on top of strange clocks are probably worth noting," Isa says. Since she is neither Orrey nor Yves, she does not make any move to touch it.
"Oo! Try poking the orb. Maybe with a stick," Yves shouts over.
Orrey pulls out his watch after hearing that description and sends a clock spinning around himself in Haste.
"This would be going very differently if we had someone other than Isa on the other side," Linnet explains to Azdar. "...and it looks like Orrey's about to fix that right now."
"I'm coming over." Orrey says, setting himself up for a running start.
The entire room thrums when Orrey casts Haste.
Aurin puts his hand to his head, slumping to the side as Chid gets under his arm.
"Oh it didn't like that," Isa notes.
...but nothing further happens.
(Linnet attempts to fuss over Aurin and prepare to yell at Orrey, just in case, at the same time.)
Orrey looks around, shrugs, and runs rather faster than seems possible and attempts the leap across. Orrey lands with plenty of clearance, skidding slightly at the end. He turns and waves back at everybody.
"You don't want to know how long it took to tune them-" Bast starts replying to Linnet, then abruptly winces and takes a few more steps back from the chasm, one hand going up to his head.
Isa gives Orrey a nod of approval. "Adventurer training paying off?"
"Time magic anomalies. Seems in line with everything else going on here. Might be the key to unlocking whatever we find here." Orrey says, walking up to the statue with Isa. He nods in response, trying hard not to grin under what he perceives as praise. "What have we got here?" Orrey asks.
"Behold," Isa says drily as Orrey joins her at the pedestal. "A weird orb. it glows," she adds, helpfully.
"Take notes on the weird orb, Orrey!" Yves shouts. "I have calipers! ...I don't think I can throw them that far."
"...Orrey, would you kindly refrain from messing with time for a while?" Bast sounds more aggravated than usual, shaking his head as though dazed. He takes note of Aurin's collapse, and slowly walks over to check on him.
"With a clock under it? Weird." Orrey says, then turns back to the rest of the group. "It's really weird!"
The clock face set into the pedestal is set at 11:15. 
Aurin is sitting down on the ground, Chid fretting over him. Bast's friend gives him a wan smile, and waves off any concern.
"Bast, sorry, but I gotta try some more time magic. Unless you can move a carving of a clock?" Orrey asks. "Isa, forwards in time or back?"
Bast mutters to Chid in a quiet aside: "You said this place helped him before?"
"I think messing with time might be the key to getting anywhere down here, Captain, but I have plenty of headache remedies. May I kindly suggest you assert your authority from a sitting position while Isa and Orrey muck about with weird orbs for a bit?" Linnet kindly but firmly guides Bast to a seat on the table and presses a lightly spelled cinnamon roll into his hand. That wasn't actually a suggestion, but it's well meant.
Chid nods. "I'm not sure what your friend did," he mutters darkly, "but it certainly didn't help."
"Forward," Isa says with conviction.
"Any of the other pedestals have anything like that clock?" Bast looks down at the roll that has materialized in his hand and decides to hang on to it for now.
"I'm thinking if I cast Haste on the orb, the clock will move forwards." Orrey says.
"On the bright side, they might be able to muck their way into a bridge, which would save anyone else leaping to their doom over...you said there's water down there?"
"What that will do, I have no idea." Orrey says. "Will the floor decay further and collapse more, maybe?" Orrey asks. "If we go backwards, will the floor repair itself?"
...Linnet guides everyone on the eastern side a little further towards the ramp.
Yves wanders away from guidance to take a closer look at once of the less exciting pillars on this side of the giant fun-ruining chasm in the floor.
"Can you cast it....slowly?" Isa asks.
"I'll try for as much precision as possible. Maybe move it a minute forward. Without an instruction manual, that may not be possible." Orrey says.
Bast looks suddenly concerned. "Haste wasn't great last time. Try Slow first."
"He has a point, and my guess is Slow will go backwards and maybe repair the room." Orrey says.
"Which would include removing the ramp our captain has graciously supplied us," Isa points out.
The pedestal Yves inspects, he notes, does not have a clock face on it. It has, instead, an empty circle. It's a lot harder to tell, since the pedestal looks like eroded hell, but it's there.
Orrey casts Slow at the orb as Isa is advising him not to.
The thrum is back.
Slow, thunderous pulses.
"I have more grenades-" Bast manages before squeezing his eyes shut with a grimace of pain.
Aurin looks rough, gripping his forehead with his left hand, Chid right there next to him, cautious and caring.
"Shit shit shit. That did not work." Orrey sighs. "Sorry everybody."
The pulses are deep enough to be visible in the air for three heartbeats, like nothing so much as water rippling from something very, very large stepping closer.
...then it passes.
The clock remains 11:15.
Nothing in the room has changed.
"This one doesn't have a clock," Yves says, mostly to himself at this point, and walks away to take a look at a third, because whatever they say in geometry class, two data points do not make for a line.
Orrey twists the orb counterclockwise slightly, about a minute's worth of angular rotation.
Isa never got good marks in her studies of literary irony. "Well, that could have been worse," she says.
"...anyone else get the feeling that something large and hungry is paying attention to Orrey's spells?" Bast asks.
"...what the hell was that and is it going to happen again, and if so, could we maybe not totally incapacitate the captain before we have to face whatever the blazes it is?" Linnet demands.
This pedestal takes some staring, because goodness, it looks like trash. Not even archaeologically interesting trash, and certainly not worth a museum day. But after a bit of analysis and tracing (above) the pattern, Yves is pretty sure that this one's a crescent moon on the right, with half of an eight-pointed star emerging on the left.
The orb is loose in Orrey's hand -- it would be very simple to just pick it up. It offers no resistance to being moved.
Orrey will pick it up and see what happens.
Orrey is holding an orb. It's nice. Bit warm. Comforting. The ground is nice and sturdy under his feet.
"Huh," Yves says to himself, and then, more loudly, "I think each of these has a symbol for a different god. Let me check one more."
"Do you see Saroni's pedestal? Maybe this orb represents the sun?" Orrey asks Yves.
Linnet sighs. "Bast, I'm going to go try to help Yves figure out what's up with these other pedestals, mostly because I'm afraid he's going to poke something and blow it up. If something Orrey does is about to seriously injure you or put you out of commission, yell for me immediately. Chid, if I can help, holler." Not actually wanting to leave but needing to direct her panicked energy elsewhere, Linnet shoves her hands into her pockets and walks over to Yves.
"Isa, check the other pedestal over there!" Orrey heads off to E11 after pointing out C16 for Isa.
"A symbol for a different god? So...would it be safe to assume they're poking at Mechon over there? And why would there be symbols for the gods all underground here? And...are they pissed that some of them are missing?"
Yves is already heading for another pedestal, this one nearer to the exciting chasm zone. "Knew some theology students back at uni who would've loved this," he says to Linnet at her approach.
Now that Yves knows what to look for, it's easier to spot. This next pedestal has a carving of a sphere with seven lines etched into it, three swirls of wind, three flows of water, and one deeper line that cuts through each of the other six.
"What am I looking for?" Isa asks, but turns to go look anyway.
"Symbols that represent the gods." Orrey says.
The light in Orrey's hand goes out.
Orrey is standing in front of a crumbled and cracked pedestal, on the same old stony ground as everyone else, the faint, weathered outline of a clock face at the top. The dull orb in Orrey's hand seems to cry out for more energy, wishing to once again shine bright.
Orrey takes it over to the next pedestal.
The next pedestal Orrey examines, old and decayed, has the outline of an anvil at the top. The orb does not respond when held near it. The orb still seems... empty. Devoid of energy. It could draw upon the wielder's.
"...so put it back on top of the other pedestal and recharge it?" Linnet offers, sounding a little sheepish.
Orrey will attempt to give it some magical energy...
The orb hums back to life, and the ground beneath Orrey is once again that copper color, and the pedestal by him is shining black and red, the anvil nearly burning with revitalized energy.
The ground beneath Orrey seems to extend out over the broken, missing ground, as well.
"...Orrey, could you try walking a little closer to a different patch of broken ground, to see if it carries over?" Linnet sounds very hesitant. "Very carefully. Still can't haul you out of a hole."
Orrey sends up a quick silent prayer for strength to Koehnta. Orrey nods as he heads over to the next pedestal to the north end of the room.
"Lucky," Yves mutters under his breath.
"Yves, I promise we'll find something down here that has you in the hot seat for strange and arcane problem solving."
Orrey is used to marking time in his head, so he notices that it's exactly 30 seconds when the light on the orb goes back out, and the ground around him reverts to destroyed. Until that point, though, the ground around Orrey was pristine and perfect; even a tested step onto what SHOULD have been nothing was solid and sturdy.
"Oh, you're next, Yves! I won't be able to activate all the pedestals! I hope you saved some energy after the crabs." Orrey says. Orrey walks towards the gap in the floor where the statue should be on the west side of the room, as close as he can get, then feeds the orb more energy.
As Orrey steps into the empty air and activates the orb, the world around him shifts to include a pedestal with a sword planted point down, with a brilliant red flag tied to the handle.
Yves beams at Orrey from... less of a distance than before, now that the gap is getting a temporary reprieve from existence. "Some, yes."
Orrey places the orb upon the pedestal he's standing next to.
The light of the orb does not fade after 30 seconds, and instead glows, consistently, leaving accessible ground beneath Orrey's feet. 
There is no change in the light, there is no crackle of energy in the air.
Yves whips a notebook out of his satchel, and now he's taking notes. "Where does it go next?"
Orrey picks the orb back up and quickly backs away to where the floor originally had not been collapsed.
The orb retains its light as Orrey removes it, but he's sure the clock is ticking.
He walks quickly back to the forge pedestal and places the orb on it before the 30 seconds runs out.
Once the orb is clear from the sword pedestal, the ground there is again gone, just as before.
The orb glows faintly, never changing in color or intensity, on the forge pedestal.
Orrey hands the orb to Isa. "Yeah, I dunno. Maybe see if Yves can do something with the pedestals over there."
"Let's map out the pedestals we've got, and figure out the order first," Yves says, "and then run that ball around like... like... you know, that sport, with the ball, and people take it places? That one? But in order. So we're not trying to recharge it constantly."
A short time later, the pedestals have been mapped, minus the ones that would involve draining Orrey's reserves.
Yves has been mapping out the area as he goes in his notebook, with an uninspired but competent draftsviera's hand. "So, is our order the traditional sequence of the gods? That would make sense, but maybe that's too simple. Hm."
"For now, let's try that, but maybe start with Mechon because that was the one in decent shape when we got here?" Linnet shrugs and checks on Azdar and Aurin. "Azdar? Any insight? You've had far more experience down here."
A book, gray, with a bookmark extending out of the top. The bookmark has a stylized eye at the top.
A round shield in front of a spear, point down.
A sun with triangular rays emanating out from the center on the cardinal directions.
(missing floor)
A sword planted point down, with a brilliant red flag tied to the handle. (as found by Orrey's orb exploration)
An anvil.
A sphere with seven lines etched into it, three swirls of wind, three flows of water, and one deeper line that cuts through each of the other six.
A crescent moon on the right, with half of an eight-pointed star emerging on the left.
A blank canvas.
A clock face -- three circles, one holding the other two inside of it, with a pair of hands to mark the time. The time reads 11:15.
(missing floor)
An empty circle.
Yves mutters over his notes. "Yes, that would make sense. To start there, maybe even that it would be the one to survive, though if not for that reason... Hm. Should've paid more attention in my gen ed classes after all."
"A well-rounded education never hurt anyone, it maybe just took a bit longer. Caelonde, something, Saroni, something, Koehnta, Itami, Thalatte..." Linnet thinks. "Turon, Kuganepo, Mechon, something, Yoshuelje. That's my guess, anyway, but Orrey'd better check me on that. Oh, the second is the Forgotten, of course. Ironic, really. So we're looking for a Somnus pillar and a Yinha pillar, I think." Linnet counts in the air for a bit, then scribbles in the dust for a bit, then gives up. "I can't find a pattern, though. So I really think we should just try going in order, probably starting from Mechon. If it blips out somewhere in there, we can work backwards."
"I can recharge it a few times," Yves says. "...maybe a half dozen times? So we have some options."
"And when we're poking the ones with the gaps in the floor, try the one by Saroni first, please? Less room to fall if we misstep."
"I've only got about three more charges in me." Orrey says.
"Orrey, do you have an Ether on you? Because it's either that or have Yves jump."
Orrey rummages. "Potions, no Ethers."
"If we start here, with Turon," Yves says, "and floor exists when you carry it to the right place... I might be able to take it around the whole way. But you would need to get it over here first."
Orrey smiles at Isa holding the orb. "Hop to?"
Isa nods to Orrey, and takes another running leap across the chasm.
Bast speaks up from his place near Aurin. "It doesn't seem to lose charge on a pedestal. Charge it up and park it on one of the missing ones, take notes, decide from there?"
Turning to Aurin, Bast asks more quietly: "So where did you go around here before that seemed to help?"
Isa shakes her head. "Oh, if there's stabbing at the end I can go much farther. That's all me, no Dragoon needed."
"Please do not stab the temple before we've got the floor back to functional. Actually, even then, maybe hold off on stabbing the temple."
Aurin flicks his eyes up, to Chid watching the experimentation. "I wish you hadn't come," he then says back to Bast.
Yves consults his notebook while the orb sits in place. "So if I'm going to Somnus next... that's the missing one we're guessing at, right?"
"One of the two, yeah. Go to the one with more floor, please."
"What, and leave all the fun with those crabs to you? Besides, we were looking for the Machine City anyway," Bast says.
"You should have left me to this," he says, but then shakes his head, trying to head off any further chatter. His eyes go up to Chid again, then back to staring placidly ahead.
Yves puts his notes back in the satchel, takes a breath, and makes sure he's oriented towards the one-with-more-floor before he lifts the orb from its place for a power-walk.
"Nice retirement spot. Lively." Bast looks like he wants to comment more, but refrains.
The floor comes into place underneath Yves as he moves, and the pedestal comes into view: a measure in musical notation, with six notes.
"Right one! Go for it!" Linnet cries.
As soon as the orb slots into the pedestal, it glows briefly, midnight-blue before shifting back to gold.
"Next up is... Yinha?" Yves starts to reach for his notes, but hesitates, wanting to keep his hands available for the orb, or sudden lack of floor. "Pretty sure that's next."
"If we're going in traditional order, you're looking for Saroni, which should be just to your...right. Your chasm side."
"Saroni, right," Yves says. "Maybe someone else should keep an eye on the notes."
"I'll watch the notes, you poke things," Linnet says.
Saroni has another pulse of color before shifting to gold. Yves, glowing orb in hand, steps out onto a translucent floor looking down over a wild expanse of nothing, but one that supports him, as he heads for the far corner and the next pedestal, and so the path plays out, the viera mage power-walking from pedestal to pedestal to cheers from his new friends.
Each pedestal in this order sends another flash of color into the orb, until at last, the orb comes to rest in the Yoshuelje pedestal, where it flashes one last time - gray and featureless -- and then back to gold, a gold that shines brightly and then rises into the air.
The orb floats through the air toward the center, over the chasm, where its light grows and flashes, bathing the full chamber in its golden glow, and the aftereffects splashed across everyone's eyelids show that translucent floor in the center dropping, piece after piece, the orb-granted floor turning into descending stairs.
The orb hovers, waiting for someone to claim it, glowing with a light that is sure not to fade.
Orrey ignores the orb and starts down the stairs, eager to see what’s below.
Before anybody touches the orb, everyone gets Linnet-glomped in relief and congratulations, including Orrey before he sets out.
"Nice work." Bast stands up slowly, one hand on the wall for support.
Yves claims the orb, to make sure it's not an off switch. Ideally before someone else could show up later and turn off the way back, if so.
"Thunderbun, I think it's all yours."
"Maybe the masks will like it," Yves says. "They could use some company."
The stairs behind Yves shimmer away into nothingness as the group descends the stairs, the orb safely tucked into Yves's inventory.
The stairs continue down for thirty feet to the first floor Orrey noticed, with a passageway splitting into two paths from there.
It may only be a matter of time before the Seventh Dawn find their way down here... but our brave adventurers have a head start and the only key to the door.
End session.