Our story resumes with Darrion asleep in the hospital, undisturbed by the intrusion of dreams; Brune has taped himself down and resigned himself for the night, in the room where Darrion is; Jack remains awake and watchful; and Alex has gone to their hidey hole office for the night.
Alex. You failed on both the Luck check and the Cthulhu check.
You find yourself in a long, dimly hit hallway. A dull hum enters yours ears from around you, as if of electronic equipment behind closed doors. You have no bag, no phone - nothing but a knife, clutched in your hand.
All around you are unmarked, closed doors. Hallways branch off in every direction.
What would you like to do?
Jack, in the meantime, please make Listen and Constitution checks.
@Ginger One opens at a push. It's a starnge room; it has no windows, and all of the walls and floor are covered in a soft, padded material. There's a shelf on one wall that seems to be intended as a bed. Perhaps strangest of all, in the center of the room is a wheelchair, with a Scottish doctor staring at you.
Brune rolls out of the room and out into the hallway, chair squeaking lightly. "The last time we were in a place like this, we had choices. Have you seen any signs, any labels?"
"...I've been here before." Brune starts rolling towards where he remembers the doors from last time - the pool room, the administrative room, and so on.
Brune squints at it, and nods. "I saw it in a display case. We walked through some sort of museum." He experimentally pushes on the door he heard the beep from.
It swings open. In front of you is an intricate computer setup; there are monitors mounted on the walls and several on a desk, all showing different screens of information. A keyboard and mouse lie on the desk next to a half-empty cup of coffee.
Alex follows him through, still talking and paying little attention to the contents of the room. "In that dream there were... uh, three things? The necklace, the knife, and a crown? And something that called itself lowers voice an octave THE SEER told me to choose one..."
One of the monitors scrolls slowly as you watch; it shows different phrases such as "new rivaille restaurants", "new rivaille apartment pricings", "new rivaille mcdonalds", "new rivaille directions", and so on.
"Stations... searches... those almost look like searches..." Brune taps his finger urgently on the monitor showing the staircase. "Can you zoom on this somehow? Check previous times?"
"It's the plant, Alex. I think we are inside." Brune is staring at the computers in awe, putting pieces together rapidly in his mind. "We need to learn everything we can. Quickly. This place, whatever it is - it's tied to everything. All of it."
"I don't quite know. Anything." Brune's mind is racing. If these hallways connect faraway places together, then each door... a different place. Tethers. Connections. My office... that's how... my office... The revelation seems impossible. We are traveling around this place in our dreams.
"Well, there's lots of stuff right here, no?" They gesture vaguely at the displays. "Although, if this is the power plant, why is it showing a video feed of the hospital? Or whatever this text is?"
@AncientSwordRage You remain awake and watchful. Outside the door, you hear footsteps. They pause momentarily just outside of Darrion's room, and then continue. A few minutes later, you hear the muffled sound of crying from the floor above.
Brune grimaces, sets it back down, and says, "Keep investigating. I'm going to check something." He rolls out into the hallway and heads to see if the same doors are still there from last time.
@Sciborg You roll for a few minutes, and stop. The doors around you are closed and unfamiliar, most unmarked. One, labeled, says "Restricted". A small red light flashes from the ceiling further down the hallway.
@Ginger You come to a screen with a disturbing number of controls, each of which has too many different options for comfort. A different screen has a spreadsheet full of numbers and chemical names.
They have labels like "raise rod 1", "water temperature", on/off switches for different "Stations", and a whole host of controls that you don't quite understand, but seem to control different aspects of a power plant and its subsidiaries. There are hundreds of these controls.
"I suspect that this plant... the power surges we've been experiencing..." Brune looks at the status page. "Each time we've felt a surge, something strange has happened. As if the Rivaille and the plant are fundamentally connected."
He stares at the three-year uptime, suddenly seems to have an idea. "Alex, is there some command that tells you the current date?"
Pale, wretched, and gaunt, the Hunger Spawn steps forward, a golden crown gleaming on its head and another one held outstretched in its hands. A burning light emanates from its eyes as it lurches towards Alex, the crown being thrust forward.
It stops as the cup shatters in its face, shaking as if momentarily blinded. It lets out a haunting shriek, and you could almost swear it was saying please.
As you run, you can hear a devastated shriek, and a sobbing. The Spawn lurches out of the room and collapses as you head down the hallway, and seems to lie there, sobbing.
Brune stares down the prone Hunger Spawn bravely, trembling in his chair. "I can't run away from you. What do you want with us?" He rolls closer, filled with inexplicable, possibly Jack-inspired courage. "Who were you?"
Alex is some distance down the hall; hearing Brune, they move into a side hallway and peek around the corner, trying to remain out of sight of the creature. "It pant seemed like it wanted me, or the knife?"
Brune screeches to a stop as Alex flees, putting himself in front of the Spawn instead. He smiles weakly. "We'll find a way to set you all free," he says, and closes his eyes to accept the water.
@Ginger The water floods in, knocking you to the ground. It continues to stream in, pouring endlessly, until your vision fades and you wake up in your office.
@Sciborg The water floods in. The Spawn shrieks in despair, its wail echoing in your ears until a wall of water crashes into you, and you feel yourself pushed away. A minutes passes before all is quiet, and a cold wind ripples your wet clothing.
@Sciborg You find youself sitting in your chair, on a dark, rocky beach, the waves lapping at your feet. It is pitch-black over the sea, but behind you, a white light illuminates a thick, white mist. The sound of chanting can be heard through the mist.
@Sciborg A tall, concave white structure seems to be the source of the mist, although it's barely visible from your standpoint. To one side is a low, dark building, a thick metal door closed and no visible windows. To the other side is a large, black rock, with a Darrion sitting on top.
A sense of profound relief washes through Brune at the sight of a wild Darrion, unharmed. He rolls away from the water, with some effort, and up the beach. "I believe so. I interrupted Alex's just a moment ago. I see you still have a knack for eavesdropping."
Brune looks at Darrion, and suddenly thinks of the Spawn, pleading, begging - in agony. He instinctively reaches out to pat Darrion's arm, as if reassuring himself that Darrion is real, that he's all right, that it won't happen to anyone else. "Let's see what this one has in store, then."
There's a strange pressure in the air as the chanting continues, seemingly coming from more towards the center of the island. A thick, heavy mist lies over everything, making vision difficult - thicker and heavier mist than you'd ever seen before, in a huge cloud. More constantly streams out of the tall, white, concave building. The ground beneath your feet also seems to be almost vibrating.
"Our last dream had us considerably better armed, I fear." After some deliberation, Brune musters his Jack-given courage and rolls straight towards the chanting - the center of the island.
You continue on, the wheelchair bumping over the rocky, uneven surface, as you get further away from the water and head inland. The chanting gets louder as you approach, and every now and then a bell rings out, as if punctuating the chants. As you get closer, you can tell that the whole island slopes downward; the lowest point will be the very center of the island.
@bobble The chanting sounds vey similar to what you heard in the caves.
"No chanting, but I believe we learned a few things." Brune slows to a stop, not particularly wanting to go on a breakneck fly down, and strains to see if he can make out any of the words.
Darrion finds a large rock near the good doctor and sits. His hands don't seem to know what to do with themselves - he brushes at his clothes, plays with small rocks, twiddles his fingers.
The chanting is getting louder, even without you getting closer; it seems to be reaching some sort of crescendo. The bell is ringing every few seconds.
"...Broadly? I suspect it will happen whether we like it or not." Brune parks near Darrion and studies him. "Perhaps we are only able to reduce the suffering. But there is some purpose in that. There can be meaning in helplessness."
"I want to do something." Darrion gets up to pace in a circle. "But the last thing I tried ended up with me in the hospital" He throws up his hands "and it's your dream anyways"
"Darrion, lad," Brune says, sincerely. "I don't think you understand how much you - simply you - have helped all of us. Whether or not we made the right choices. We are all fumbling in the dark. If not for you, I - we - would have nothing to light the way."
"And there was a choice you made. Do you see?" Brune manages a smile. "You saved me. So I daresay you're perfectly capable of making the right choices."
The mist suddenly is whisked away as a huge black, winged creature flies up from the circle and blots out the stars, the wind from its wings blowing away the white as it fills the sky and a terrible shriek breaks upon your ears.
@bobble The white building has caught fire and is rapidly burning down.
The water continues to shoot out like a geyser. The buildings that you can see are all entirely engulfed in flame.
@bobble You run, dodging the uneven ground. Lying there, badly burnt and unconscious, is a young man in what may have once been a lab coat.
You reach him just as all around you, the buildings and tunnels of the island collapse and a giant fireball explodes from the center of the island, engulfing everything around it.
