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Character: Super Grieve of the Collapse
Location: E3
Action: kicking the side of the control panel
Roll: 6

Giving Kua'kua a sulky look, Grieve groused, "Some dead a*****e wants us to do s**t like think. ********' hate riddles." She gave Tempesti a squinty look, clearly wondering if the eternal's past life was responsible for this bullshit.

Then that butter fluff of a Monch started threatening the dinner that was, in fact, waiting in her subspace and Grieve was up and snarling, giving the side of the control panel a good kick for emphasis, "If it wants dinner, I'll feed you to it!"

Character: Lisse, Knight of Lysithea
Location: J4
Target: Grid 3
Action: Chatting with Dering, Watching Reims and Halle
Roll:

Lisse nodded. “I’m doing just fine.” He looked like he wanted to say something more, but decided against it. It really didn’t matter, and Dering didn’t need to know his stupid insecurities. Nobody needed to know them.

He watched with dull eyes for a moment as Halle got the hot Knight’s name. Reims. Okay. He would have to figure out the best way to spell that but it wouldn’t be too hard, at least he hoped not. He liked sudoku, and if that was the kind of puzzle…well he wanted to help, but…what was the point?

Giving a soft sigh he glanced around at everyone else, trying to contain his growing melancholy. “Sometimes, Dering. I just feel utterly useless when my brother’s around. And sometimes.” He sighed and shook his head. “...Nevermind. It’s not important. I like sudoku. I hope that’s what the puzzle is. Would be neat. Do you like puzzles at all?”

Character: Sessrumnir, Knight of Jupiter
Location: G5
Target: Door opposite they entered
Action: Inspecting the bronze door and solar system
Roll: N/A

Sessrumnir stayed close, almost subconsciously. He could keep watch over everyone else from a dozen feet away, but with Alastor, he always wanted to stand near enough that their shoulders might brush if either leaned too far.

The weight in his chest didn’t ease, not with Amarynthos’s sleeve still dark, and Ephesus’s eyes still bright with fear. He trusted them -- completely -- but his instincts still urged him to put himself in front of every danger before it touched them. That was the cost of being a father, and he’d pay it gladly.

But when Alastor spoke, hands on his hips and that casual note in his voice, Sessrumnir had to bite back a smile. He didn’t dare let it show. Not now. Not when there were symbols glowing on the walls and a door that felt more like a trap than a greeting. But… god, Alastor was handsome when he was sharp-eyed and thoughtful like this. Beautiful, even. And Sessrumnir’s heart knew it even if he was careful with his expression.

He tilted his head toward the bronze door, observing it. He knew the usual answer for the riddle, of course. He was pretty confident Alastor knew as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as though the door was currently ajar.

“When it’s a warning,” he said instead, the heaviness in his chest not easing. And while his voice might have carried some grimness to the words, it had also been softened with affection, meant only for Alastor to hear.

“Stay close. If this thing has teeth, it’ll try to bite.”

It sounded ridiculous. It was a door. But he’d seen enough to know things were rarely as they seemed.

Sessrumnir didn’t move his hand, not in front of everyone there. But the urge to reach out and catch Alastor’s wrist, to ground himself with the steadiness of his pulse… He settled for taking hold of the necklace at his chest instead.

Character: Eternal Sailor Oberon of Adventure
Location: C5
Target: Looking at the symbols. Grid 1
Action: Staying near Oort. Speaking to Blarney
Roll: N/A

Oberon shifted when the lanterns flared, shoulders tensing before he realized it wasn’t another attack. The soft light cut away some of the gloom, but it didn’t make the unease in his gut any lighter. He kept one hand loose at his side, not quite clenched into a fist, but close enough.

Oort was already brushing dust off the pattern, sharp eyes finding more than he had. Made sense, seeing as Oort was the Senshi of Keys. Oberon leaned a little closer, scanning the lines with him.

“Good catch,” he said low, approval clear in his voice. It did look familiar. Too deliberate to be random.

Then an Earth knight’s voice drew his attention, full of nerves and possibility all at once. Oberon glanced over, watching the handful-of-years-younger knight juggle the crystals. He looked like he had the right instincts, even if the execution was still shaky.

“Careful,” Oberon warned, but without any bite. “You’re not wrong. Symbols don’t end up in places like this for decoration. It’s the symbol for Earth, yeah. But it’s also known as a sun cross. It’s also a symbol found in alchemy for verdigris, which is, like… copper salts.” He paused to flash him a small smile. “I work for the Smithsonian.” As if that answered why he was into ancient symbols and the like without getting into his whole life story. He thought it explained plenty.

“But there’s no guarantee they mean the same here as they do on Earth,” which was why he didn’t name the others he recognized. “It’s possible these symbols have existed far longer than what they’ve been adopted to mean on Earth. But Oort’s already on it.”

He gave the younger knight a steady but vaguely wary look, something between reassurance and caution. “Just… don’t jam anything in until we’re sure.”

He straightened up just enough to glance around the rest of the chamber again, keeping his place beside Oort all the same.

“If this is like outside, then the grids and crystals are pieces of the same puzzle. We just need to make them line up,” he said, tone even from experience rather than speculation.

Character: Amarynthos, Knight of the Moon
Location: J9
Target: Grid 4
Action: Staying near Ephesus near Grid 4 /examining it
Roll: N/A

Amarynthos tilted his head to Ephesus, a little smile on his face as he placed one hand on the console, equally curious about what it was supposed to do.

“Effie,” he promised, “I’m okay. Ask again in five minutes when my adrenaline’s gone!” As if he meant to ride it out for a little while longer, Amarynthos jogged in place while looking over the console again. “I promise, I don’t want to be hurt! So as soon as this whole thing is over, we’ll take a look at it and see if it needs more healing! But I’m okay for now. Honestly. I know you’ll take care of me. Anyway, it’s hard to feel any pain right now when I’m standing so close to you! I just feel happy.”

And, since Ephesus had taken a bite of the energy bar, he leaned over to take another bite, himself.

Character Name: Eternal Sailor Alastor, Senshi of Despair
Location: G5
Target: Door opposite they entered
Action: Inspecting the bronze door and solar system with Michael
Roll: N/A

“Oh?” Alastor hummed. “Well, a door doesn’t need to have teeth for me to want to stay close.” He was in a good mood, and exuded the energy of someone who had come to sightsee more so than someone who anticipated any great danger.

Still, he felt a very distinct hum, a distant energy. Alive. He pressed his lips together while contemplating. He couldn’t track it, not well enough to suspect what might be hiding, or where, but his gaze eventually traveled downwards, to the floor. He felt something under his feet, too faint for him to worry, but not enough for him to ignore.

Electronics weren’t really his forte, so seeing a wire fed into the base panel didn’t stand out as much to him. Thank goodness Sessrumnir had a better eye for these things. He nudged him lightly with his elbow. “Probably not a good idea to try and pull that out?” he asked. “...Where’s Lucien?” he glanced over his shoulder to spot the Mauvian. “He should be over here.”

Guine

Character: Halle Knight of Lysithea
Location: J4
Target: Grid 3
Action: picking up the pieces and solving along with Lisse, Reims, and Dering

Crouching down, Halle scooped up the pieces on the floor beside the grid, dumping them into his hat. As he stood up, he held it out to the other three to pick out pieces from. Blarney was being cautious, which was good for a new page, but they weren't going to get anywhere without taking the risk of trying.

"Let's see what happens, then."

The riddles in this antechamber posed little difficulty to the troop of knights, senshi, and Mauvians who sought to reclaim the Primordial Tower for the living. The efforts of Oort, Blarney, and Oberon quickly saw the first grid reassembled as Poe, Paradise, and Cynthus attended to the second. Reims, Halle, and Lisse’s attentions completed the third and Ephesus successfully managed the fourth.

As the final crystal tile clicks into place and Lucien punches the correct code into the control panel the soft hum almost feels like it expands around the group, filling the room with an intensifying energy. Each planet on the door radiates with a newly restored inner light before the bronze dome recedes into the bronze surface to reveal a round, flat crystal. Hand trembling slightly, Tempesti reaches toward it before turning briefly toward the people without whom she never would have been able to reach this point. The cusp of claiming true hope for this world and all that might once more call it home.

“Thank you. All of you. I couldn’t have gotten this far on my own.” A slightly embarrassed smile crosses her face, “I did try, after all.”

A few deep breaths.

“Bitter Blast!”

With that final burst of magic, the crystal that serves as the miniature solar system’s sun blazes to life, power sinking into the door’s mechanisms and driving the ancient machinery to allow passage for the first time in untold centuries.


As the door creaks open the party finds itself faced with an enormous room. Hundreds of small, colorful stained glass lanterns hang suspended in the air by some strange magic and bathe the space in a warm glow that shifts upon and within the surface of its translucent white stone walls. Those who noticed the strange, resonant crystals on the shrine outside the palace might recognize that ancient artisans set similar specimens into the walls themselves, flush with the surrounding stone and giving the interior an iridescent sheen reminiscent of a white fire opal. Its walls and columns soar upward, culminating in a star-marked dome adorned with stained glass now dimmed in the dying daylight.

Of more immediate concern, however, is the enormous shrine in the center of the chamber. Within a ring of standing stones, a pedestal of polished translucent stone rises from a dry basin that might once have been a fountain. Standing with seemingly impossible balance on a single point, a huge crystal in the form of a many-pointed star rests gently atop the pedestal.

It simplicity seems at odds with the grandeur of the space and it’s not difficult to draw the conclusion that its current state differs noticeably from the intention of its builders. Before any further speculation can occur, a strange shape rises from the far end of the room with the clattering of ancient metal on crystal.

The construct looks like nothing so much as a gigantic armillary sphere constructed from sheets of crystal reinforced by pale golden metal. Golden rings rotate around a spherical core built to resemble stained glass. The sphere rolls in place wildly before turning a glowing, eyelike structure toward the party and floating toward the door, electricity crackling with increasing intensity along the whirling metallic bands.

Mechanical fluttering from the eastern and western sides of the room herald the arrival of two other constructs unlike the others the group encountered at the base of the tower, The builder of these butterfly-like machines clearly drew inspiration from the glowing insects who gather around the planet’s spirit shrines. Wings made of sheets of crystals and arranged in stained glass patterns hold aloft metallic golden bodies.

Unlike those peaceful residents, however, these counterparts are significantly larger and more hostile, advancing with the clear intention of defending this space.

Character: Sailor Tempesti
Location: G10
HP: 100
Target: TC2 (I9)
Action: Attacking
Damage/Healing/Buff/Debuff Done: 16
Enemy HP: 34

For Tempesti, the entire tower went silent.

Every nerve in her body burned electric at the sight of the Wellspring and in that moment she realized that she hadn’t entirely allowed herself the reality that it was more than a myth dredged from the flickers of a dead woman’s fractured memories.

Dormant as it was, she felt the power thrumming within. Waiting for them. Waiting for that kindred spark to guide it forth from the darkness. Glancing back at her gathered allies she felt a warm surge of profound gratitude before stepping forward into the Wellspring chamber.

The appearance of the constructs was, of course, expected. It would have been too much to hope that they would have felt the effects of the reset experienced by their coworkers downstairs. She was familiar with the Teruda (and more viscerally with their projectiles), but the big one? The big one was a stranger to her.

“The butterflies shoot these…dart things. Be careful!”

As she ran toward the nearest one, she hoped her voice would carry well enough for the others to hear the warning.

“Harrowing Storm!”