The floor gives way with a groan of shifting tectonic plates. Derick, Joi, and the others slide down the smooth interior of a crystalline chute, landing hard on a narrow platform hanging over a vast, abyssal cavern.
Derick Force
The air here tastes like copper and burnt lightning.
Below them, a massive ley-engine spins in slow, agonizing circles. Its copper gears hum with a low frequency that rattles the teeth of everyone present. Raw, violet sparks arc from the central turbine to the surrounding cave walls.
Garth
Look at the way the light bends around that engine. It is not just power, Derick. It is a prison.
The Ancestor
The foundation is failing. If that central gear stalls, the entire Spire collapses into the void. You must reach the control spire on the far side.
Joi whines, her ears pinned back as a wave of concussive force ripples through the air. The spiraling walkway leading toward the engine begins to tremble, and a shadowy fissure widens on the platform wall, leaking dark, viscous mist into the chamber.
+ Story Quest Added
Reach the control spire on the far side
+ Story Quest Added
Stabilize the ley-engine
“You warn everyone to watch their footing as you run across the walkway to the control spire.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Derick Force
Keep your footing, everyone. Stay close and move fast.
Derick lunges forward, his boots finding purchase on the vibrating metal. With legendary grace, he navigates the bucking walkway, his movements blurring as he dances between fracturing plates and sparking conduits.
He reaches the control spire platform in seconds, the iron casing of the interface cool beneath his hand. As he slams his palm against the activation rune, the entire walkway stabilizes, the violet light dimming to a steady, rhythmic pulse.
Garth
I could not have made that crossing without him.
The Ancestor
You possess the stability of the foundation itself, Derick Force. The conduit is locked.
Derick Force
The ley-engine has stopped its erratic spinning, but the fissure is still growing.
Joi lets out a sharp, questioning bark, her nose twitching toward the spreading shadow mist.
Quest Complete
Reach the control spire on the far side
Quest Complete
Stabilize the ley-engine