Player Plot: The Mysidian Tower!

[jadethenecromancer]

Who: Everyone who signed up for the plot!
What: Jade is taking a team to explore the Mysidian Tower before it'd swallowed by the Calamity.
When: February 8th-12th
Where: The Mysidian Tower on the Continent of Ruin.
Warning: Everything that can be expected of surprise monster encounters. Beyond that, whatever people bring with them.

The Enterprise brings everyone involved to the tower on the afternoon of February 8th. Thankfully the early floors have already been cleared by previous explorers, making the initial entry easy and relatively safe. Once the Heroes start reaching the upper floors, however... Who knows?

All threads will be linked here for easy access:
OOC info post
Ground Floor - Campsite
Friendly Monster
Floors 30-39
Floors 40-49
Floors 50-59
Floors 60-69
Floors 70-79
Floors 80-89
Floors 90-99
Floors 100-101 will be open at a later date.

Comments

Floors 100-101

[jadethenecromancer]

[At last, after several days of grueling climbing, the Heroes make it to the 100th floor.

The first bit of good news is, there is an inactive elevator waiting for them, allowing anyone who wasn't present for the final stretch to catch up without having to go through the precarious, half-finished upper floors. Reactivating the elevator won't be difficult either, because -- unlike the previous floors -- this floor already has the power turned on.

The floor consists of only a single large room. There is a generator in the middle, gently humming with power, surrounded by several computers. A closer look at the computers will show all of them are still very much active.

Finally, in the back of the room, there is the last set of stairs leading up to Floor 101.]

Well, well... Wasn't that fun. [Jade looks from face to face, silently doing a headcount.] Looks like nobody died on the way. Good work, everyone.

Re: Floors 100-101

[they_call_me_sonic]

Heh, what can we say? We die hard! Or at least, I do!

[Sonic takes a glance around the room.]

Man, so many computers. Is this the brain of the operation, then?

Re: Floors 100-101

[scriptrix]

Everything's already on... that generator must be extremely powerful.

[Levy cautiously steps into the room, looking around and taking it all in before walking over to have a glance at the computer screens. Hopefully the systems aren't too difficult to operate - she can only read Ancient, not interface with their technology, and she isn't sure if there is a Hacker among them.]

Re: Floors 100-101

[confidentia]

[ Though he expected to witness a change of scenery, the sight still fills Ace with a sense of foreboding, gaze immediately drawn to the passage further down the hall. There seems to be little reason to let the generator actively running throughout so many years, unless....

Hm. Back to the computers, for the time being. ]

We need to ensure that we know what we're doing before activating any programs.

[ Knowing that there is a fair amount of Heroes with more appropriate skills, he will stay true to his word, cautiously observing the results of their work, but not making any contact with the computers yet, himself. There is a lot at stake here. ]

Re: Floors 100-101

[bloodynine]

I'll let you lot handle this. This is well out of what I know. [ He'll just stand guard. Better to wait and witness things as they come than act rashly and cause a problem. ]

[tacticallyminded]

This is something else! If it's in Ancient, Levy and I can translate.

[wickedone]

Albel's eyes narrowed to see this hub of technology. It reminded him of Sphere corporation, all the terminals and control panels. Every one connected somehow to the Eternal Sphere, interacting with the worlds -- his world -- that they had created and would attempt to destroy. "Debug," they'd called it -- "fixing" the problem.

That same roiling feeling of hot indignation and cold foreboding writhed through Albel's gut.

"I don't like this," he muttered, glancing toward Jade. He ignored Johnny as best he could, half expecting some other crack at his apparent "ignorant paranoia" toward technology.

[fearlessherosheart]

"Does anyone know how to use such machines?" Tazendra had seen such devices, but she would be reduced to random button pushing. Which she was prepared to do for the sake of curiosity, but most people tended to tell her that was unwise. So she'd see if they had an expert along first.

[zodiac_brave]

"We should not act in haste." No one seemed inclined to do anything stupid yet, but with their track record, Ramza considered his warning justified.

"Once the scholars have examined the devices, we can determine our next step." Ramza moved a little closer to Logen, in case it became necessary to restrain him. The man had given Ramza ample cause to mistrust him.

[not_most_days]

While Kidd wasn't entirely worried about Logen turning on the rest of the team she joined Ramza in standing by him. She had little to contribute to the investigation of this floor but she could at least keep her eyes alert for any threats.

"I agree. We've come this far. I'd hate for us all to return home the crystal way."

[silencesfate]

... Anyone still in need of healing, get over here. Line up if there's more than a few of you.

[ As they reached closer to the top, gaming instincts would tell you that the final boss is yet to come. But even on the off-chance there isn't anything dangerous, it didn't hurt to be careful and keep everyone patched up with his magic. ]

[soldierofloveandbeauty]

[Minako didn't really have any way of helping for the most part. She trusted those that can work with the computers to be able to get to it. Instead Minako was simply wondering around, eyes looking at every inch of the things.]

So we're waiting for the people who can work these things to go through everything before making our next move? I think I can do that.

[ninjainviolet]

"Yeah, that wasn't quite in my plans today," Sheena said to Jade. "But I wouldn't exactly let our guards down. The last tower I was in wasn't exactly empty when we got to the top." Nope. It had had a few enemies ready to ambush her group, and she couldn't shake the feeling that something similar would happen here.

"It looks like the stuff Cruxis used," she murmured as she eased around the group. But that wasn't what was making her hair stand on end. The computers were there, in the open, like bait...

"I don't like it, either" she agreed with Albel. "Be careful," the ninja warned. "Something doesn't feel right."

[thegreatninja]

Yuffie didn't focus on the terminal or technology in the room. There were enough people crowded around and eager to look at that. They also seemed to have their attention on it so she decided to skirt around the room as something like a look out.

Dark eyes flicked at anything out of the ordinary hoping that whatever had been in this tower had left.

[shinrasfinest]

First thing's first; activating the inactive elevator as given how difficult the last few floors have been, Sephiroth wasn't taking any chances. Having been first on several of the floors below the process should be easy enough by now - almost automatic, perhaps.

Once done, Sephiroth stepped from the lift and turned to face the rest of the room where there were -already- a perpetual swarm of Heroes fawning over the generator and terminals arrangement in the center of the room. He heard someone -Robin, he supposed- mentioning Ancient.

"Are they-" He asked as he strode back towards the group, opting to take a wide approach to bring him to one of the terminals around the other side some. "-in Ancient?"

If so, then that made at least three scholars who could at least translate what might be written on screens or keys. Though, his experience of other floors might well be able to be applied here. Upon reaching a terminal a little way around from where most of the ground was, Sephiroth started to study the terminal itself.

[jadethenecromancer]

[The computers are indeed in Ancient. It becomes quickly apparent that most of them will require more technical know-how to handle, as some of the data is either encrypted or corrupted. Except for...]

Well, well. What have we here?

[The computer nearest to the generator is surprisingly straightforward. The screen is showing a map of Crystallis, too small to make out any specific locations. There is a blinking circle around the Continent of Ruin. When interacted with, the computer gives a simple prompt in Ancient:]

>Disable barrier?
>Yes
>No

[they_call_me_sonic]

[Sonic takes a curious look at the computer, tilting his head slightly before he accidentally brings up the prompt.]

Hmm... it looks important and I don't think it's the world's most obvious "You Are Here" sign.

We should obviously mess with it because we're not going to get another chance to do so!

[scriptrix]

Disable... barrier?

[Levy blinks at the console.]

The one around the Continent of Ruin? It would certainly make getting here and back a lot easier, as well as communication, but I'm sure the barrier was erected in the first place for a good reason.

[confidentia]

[ Okay, this sounds pretty serious. Ace glances down at Sonic worriedly, hoping his actions won't turn out to be as reckless as his words just now were. ]

It might not stop the Calamity from progressing, but maybe it has the power to slow it down?

[ It just doesn't sit too well with him to press buttons at random, and so he stares at the other Heroes gathered around, wondering what they think. ]

[shinrasfinest]

Agreed.

[Is the grunt of a noise from Sephiroth who had walked around the arrangement of terminals until finding himself at that one with the all-too-simple prompt on it's screen.

But...]

That said, given the proximity of the crystallization already, I wonder if we will have the time to figure it out.

[zodiac_brave]

[Ramza directed a question in Levy's direction, hoping her command of Ancient might give her some insight.]

If we disable the barrier, will we be able to...re-able it?

[scriptrix]

I'm not sure. It seems like we would probably be able to, but I can't tell for sure. It might need time to recharge before we can just turn it back on.

[Levy maneuvers her way to in front of the console, trying to find more information if it's available.]

[jadethenecromancer]

We don't have to make a decision right away. Now that I've been here, I can teleport back at any time to disable it.

[They should still have a few weeks before the Calamity reaches the Tower.]

I suggest we speak with Cid and the Sage about it. As the leaders of Aqures Ixen and Mysidia, matters of national security and trade should be their call to make.

[they_call_me_sonic]

Ask them for WHAT?!

[Aaand Sonic's looking very frustrated as it seems that they're being told to 'wait'.]

Look, I hate to say it, but we don't HAVE that time! You run off to ask that, we'll be in traction until it's too late. What if this place gets crystallized and the barrier DOESN'T go down?! There's no way we'll be able to save everyone on the continent if we need to save them. And even if the barrier doesn't go down, I'm not putting it against Polly-Tutu or anyone else to know how to copy Cid's little barrier piercing thing!

If you guys want to fiddle around with politics or the Sage's cryptic mumbo-jumbo, you guys do that. I'm bringing that barrier down.

[not_most_days]

[Kidd frowns as she listens to all of this. She sees the point on both sides of what to do with the barrier. Travel would certainly be easier, but the barrier likely existed for a reason.]

It's entirely possible that the barrier was meant to keep something on this continent. Not simply to keep everyone else out. Given all the things we've seen in this world and the trouble the Ancients have left behind it may well serve a purpose in both directions. Keeping the Calamity out may seem the likely reason for the barrier but there's all manner of reasons it could be here.

[She glances at Sonic and nods.]

I do agree somewhat with Sonic. I don't expect any of our allies will give us any definitive sort of opinion on the matter. I expect the Sage is more likely to throw us into another hallucination about murdering each other in this room as we fight over the decision.