THE MARK OF THE ATLAS
Into the heart of the city you go.Down below the lowest levels of the city, somewhere beyond the twisty maze of passages, several of the paths converge in a huge underground cavern. Here the air is blissfully cool compared to the desert above. A single shaft of light shines down from somewhere on the surface; motes of sand drift lazily as if suspended in the light. Elsewhere, the cave is lit by small clusters of glowing fungus that live off the moisture collected down here. Dim but navigable for most.
But perhaps the most striking items in the area are the
monoliths. Great fragments of stone over three meters long, too smooth to be natural but too jagged to be whole either. Several of them glow from the pulse of energy running through them. Others, while dark, have recessed notches large enough for a person’s hand. And still another group seems nearly shattered, a larger fragment surrounded by smaller ones. All of them react when the interlopers draw close enough...
LIGHT
Upon closer inspection, the lit monoliths have a curious pattern worked into the tone. The symbols are rather arcane, but perhaps they make sense if one tilts one’s head and squints. This one has strokes that resemble tongues of flame. That one is covered in cascading, fluid lines. Another … well, that look more like a
warning sign than anything else.
Interacting with these monoliths results in a warning crackle and the scent of ozone before the monolith
opens. Something comes pouring out of it in response. Gushing water is the most common, matching up with the cascade monoliths; others open to flame or greenery or other odd things. And one
definitely opens up into a vacuum. Careful with that unless you want to have something sucked out into space.
Whatever connection they make is brief and non-traversable, but whatever comes through stays on this side.
DARK
The unlit monoliths aren’t nearly as flashy as their glowing brethren, but they have their own stories to tell. With the help of a little light (and the suit), the interlopers will find that these monoliths are covered from top to bottom in alien script. Most have at least one solid crack or chunk in them - at the juiciest parts! - but there may be enough left to be intelligible, given a little luck.
VISION
The last set hum with an ominous energy that belies their dilapidated appearance. Interlopers who approach these monoliths trigger strange images that float in the air. No two visions are alike, though they all share common themes. Silhouettes descending to the surface of the planet and spreading out across it. Exploring and interacting with an alien environment. There’s something deeply familiar about these shadows despite the variety of body types represented by them. The shape of their clothing is reminiscent of your own suit...
Other snippets are set in space. Here the silhouettes are a darker patch of black against the darkness of space. The mood in these images is strangely pensive, somewhat tense. These figures are searching very desperately for something.
There is one, though, that’s different from all the others. No silhouettes, no searching, no space. Only a shaft of light starting from a point beyond this planet’s moon. At first it’s a too-bright star; then, a solid beam stretching down to the planet itself. The light increases in intensity and breadth exponentially until it impacts physically with the surface of the planet itself. The eruption kicks up huge clouds of dust that race towards the city with all the heat and speed of a pyroclastic explosion. It rises up like a wave...and then crashes down, burying the city.
Eventually, each of the images go dark once again.
BROKEN
Amidst the myriad of strange monoliths and now-flowing water? Is some sort of chassis. The ruined frame of an old robot of some kind, easily as large as a cement mixer's chamber and just as tall. Most of it lies buried beneath the sand, stuck near the far end of one particularly large chamber within the caves' network. It takes a bit of walking to get there, but there's a reward to be had for those who find it:
The room is not empty.Standing in the exact middle is a strange, hulking figure. It stands at eight feet at least, a massive frame encased in black. Whether it's carapace or suit is impossible to tell, and whether or not it's
alive is another story altogether. It stands perfectly motionless, skull-like face staring ahead at the robot's husk as water pools in through cracks and recesses, giving the ground a glass-like appearance through which
tiny grass-like eels can be seen rising from tiny holes in the sand.
For all intents and purposes the figure seems nothing more than a statue.
Eerie.
OOC
There will be an
24-hour event encounter which runs from
Nov 26th at 8:00am EST to
Nov 27th at 8:00am EST. Feel free to let characters toy around & thread in the innermost areas of the city before the main event! Sections will go up in this entry and will be linked here when they are ready.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
dark
No.
[He does try, though, at least. He scans the whole monolith for anything that looks remotely familiar, then focuses on a smaller section, his good eye narrowed like staring harder at it will somehow yield anything useful. He doesn't even know if he's trying to read it in the correct orientation.
He steps back with a little huff of frustration.]
It looks like fuckin' gibberish. What are we supposed to do with this? It's an alien planet, it's not like there's going to be a "Learn Alien Bullshit in Thirty Days" book lying around somewhere.
no subject
Hunk stands, arms crossing defensively over his chest. ] Look man, I got here like three days ago. But someone was here before - right? [ There'd been that power stealing ship outside, all buried deep in the sand. ] It can't hurt to see if we can recognize something.
[ Right? ]
no subject
[He glowers— at the monolith, not at Hunk, he's trying this new thing where he doesn't take his frustrations out on other people, with varying success— but that's not going to change the situation, so. Being productive, right.]
Did anybody find any other writing in the city? Or anywhere else? We don't actually know who left this here. [Whether it was the people from the ship, or natives, or someone else.] Maybe that's as important as what it says.
no subject
We found some more of these deeper into the city. [ Pointing to the Atlas symbol on the back of his hand, the same one that's all over the pods. ] Some of them looked like they were messed up by those claw marks... [ also the ones that'd been on the pods... His tone and expression darken. ]
Whoever used to live in this place... I don't think they were expecting whatever attacked them.
no subject
[It doesn't make any sense to him. Either they didn't have anything they wanted to protect, or they felt like they didn't need to— neither option fits with any kind of logic he can muster, so mostly it's just left him unnerved and uncomfortable.
Knowing that the symbols were there even deep into the city doesn't help. The idea that they might be the only survivors of something larger leaves him feeling kind of cold.]
I can't figure out if that means they were just really stupid, or if they've got something bad stashed somewhere.
no subject
[ Besides the damage to the structures from massive claws, there aren't exactly any... uh... remains. ] And I guess you could almost call those giant stones traps. You know, with all the fire and space...
[ But he's not sure that's their original intention. ]
no subject
[Which, to be fair, a lot of them have had the bad luck to start messing with the wrong monoliths, but no one's been significantly hurt yet. He just can't shake the feeling that they've accidentally trespassed on something culturally significant, maybe even sacred. It makes him uncomfortable.
It's even worse that the whole society looks like it was wiped out, no matter how long it's been.]
No, I think... It's just us not understanding what this place was supposed to be for, you know?