The floor plates groan, buckling into a jagged chasm of churning blue light and grinding gears. Thava balances on the edge, his teal scales slick with sweat and coolant. Across the gap, the High Inquisitor stands amidst the shimmering heat, his blade drawn with lethal, quiet purpose.
Thava Tymont
The path you walk ends here, dragon. The machine demands a sacrifice.
Thava Tymont
If I drop now, I die. If I stay, he cuts me down. There has to be another way out of this tomb.
Suddenly, a maintenance hatch to the left slams open. A scavenger, clutching a salvage-hook and goggles, stumbles into the flickering light of the chamber, freezing in terror as he spots the two combatants.
Kael
By the gears! You two are tearing the whole district apart! Get out of the way before the ceiling collapses!
+ Scene Quest Added
Escape the collapsing machine chamber
“Grab the hook”
FAILURE (Fair Agility, rolled -3)
Thava Tymont
Give me that hook!
Thava lunges across the widening gap, his fingers straining toward the scavenger’s heavy salvage tool. His foot finds no purchase on the slick, vibrating floor plate, and he slips, his boots skidding uselessly against the exposed gears. He slams into the deck, the momentum carrying him away from the scavenger and perilously close to the crumbling edge. The hook clatters out of reach, skittering across the vibrating metal toward the abyss.
Thava Tymont
My balance is gone. If I slide another inch, I’m falling into the drive train.
Thava Tymont
A clumsy end for a clumsy soldier.
The High Inquisitor steps forward, his blade glowing with a sharp, lethal violet hue, ready to capitalize on the dragonborn's exposed position. The ceiling pipes hiss, venting a blinding cloud of coolant mist that obscures the scavenger from view, leaving Thava trapped between the void and the closing edge of the inquisitor’s reach.
“Try one last time to escape with Kael”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +1)
Thava Tymont
Not today!
Thava ignores the pain radiating from his ribs and snaps his powerful tail against the vibrating deck, launching his compact body through the shifting shroud of mist. He ignores the Inquisitor’s reaching blade, his eyes locked solely on the steel silhouette of the scavenger. He scrambles into the maintenance hatch just as the floor beneath the High Inquisitor disintegrates into the abyss.
Thava Tymont
The gap is widening. If Kael doesn't seal this bulkhead now, we are both going down with the machinery.
Kael
Move, scale-skin! I can't hold the pressure seal if you're standing in the doorway!
The scavenger grips the manual override lever, his face grimaced with effort as the heavy bulkhead groans. The High Inquisitor let out a final, furious cry, his violet blade slicing harmlessly through the air where Thava stood a heartbeat ago. Metal screeches as the bulkhead begins to slide shut, sparks showering the narrow hallway.
Thava Tymont
He is still staring at me through the narrowing slit. Does he have a way out, or is he just waiting to die?
Quest Complete
Escape the collapsing machine chamber
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Fair→Good
