- Location
- United States
[X] Analyze the cavern. How did it form, and why hasn't it collapsed?
Cast-Offs of Divinity - A Merchants of Divinity Quest
- Thread starter JayTar
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Fantasy
Yeah my best guess is Steve is a combo of Minecraft's Steve and Bob The Builder, though I'm more confident about Bob.
These strike me as the two most likely options to play to our strengths. Scanning might find a lifeform inside, or use a bit of material science which we have just acquired.
[X] Scanning equipment. Help set it up, and make sure you are looped in to any new discoveries they bring.
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
Also: from the information we have available it now seems obvious that the food preservation and storage technique is in fact a contract, rather than a technology.
Hey @JayTar is Leviathan aware of whether non-standard contracts exist, or will we need to do more god research?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
[X] Scanning equipment. Help set it up, and make sure you are looped in to any new discoveries they bring.
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
- Location
- Sweden
@JayTar: Boisterously.
Hmm. So, working backwards, Roux's ideal is not just about the taste of food, or how efficiently it provides nutrients, but how it provides a new experiences? Pure speculation, really.
However, regardless of the exact nature of Roux, "nourishing living beings" should be synergistic with a pokemon build. After all, every good trainer also needs to provide the right food, yes? ...Not that we have any critters worth boosting yet, but the god seems to fit our current Biology trajectory more than Steve or the other gods.
...Get back to the academy, Leviathan.
[X] Ask questions? (Write in)
-[X] Will there be anyone competing with us on this site, or do the other expeditions have separate interests and specialities?
I just really want to know what the other expeditions actually do, and this feels like a decent way to segue into it. And it helps to know of potential dangers too, I suppose.
[] Scanning equipment. Help set it up, and make sure you are looped in to any new discoveries they bring.
A neutral choice. We don't have any special skills for it, but being in the loop can't be a bad thing.
[] Analyze the cavern. How did it form, and why hasn't it collapsed?
We're not actually a geologist, you know? Plus, any living beings (in case the cave existed prior to the crash) are likely dead after the impact. ...Unless there are incoming cave critters or something, but then I don't want to be in the front either.
[] Analyze the object's outer structure. What is it made of, and what conclusions can be drawn from the way it is warped?
Again, we're not an expert in material science. We'll likely get some low-level insight like "it was hot due to re-entry from space" or something. Maybe it got shot at by aliens!
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
Assuming the inside has something good, why not get ahead of things? If everything else isn't using our Biology, then the mystery box at least gives a chance to be something we're good at. Plus, we brought breaching charges, didn't we? And in case there's going to incoming trouble, then getting something before it happens is good. ...Only problem is if there is trouble inside the thing, but eh, in that case we were going to have to face it regardless.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
As Kutkh is our very important second pair of eyes I'd disagree. They've kind of saved our butt already.
Personally I think scanning it has the potential to detect any biological entities, and we do not have enough combat ability to be the first to encounter any hostile entities.
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- Location
- Sweden
That's what we have our running ability for!
The running ability is so things can't get close in the first place. If something is lying in wait we are le-screwed.That's what we have our running ability for!
JayTar
Idea briefcase
I love all the great thinking! I'm avoiding commenting on every bit of speculation, but I appreciate the thought people are giving things.
See:
(Nothing more then idle speculation at this point. You do only have 1 in Academics (Gods))
Thank you, fixed.@JayTar: Boisterously.
I'm just going to quote this here for absolutely no reason at all.
I believe the traditional response is 🐀
JayTar
Idea briefcase
I'm setting the vote to close in: Aug 13, 2024 at 6:00 PM
If you want to get in a question now is the time!
Regarding elevite I'm glad to see people are interested in it. Would people be interested in an action like so:
[] Run an experiment. Specify subject: (Elevite, something else) (Write in procedure) (1 AP for short experiments)
To be available on future turns? The idea being to net you more information, and possibly inspire new uses for what you have.
For example, I don't personally believe elevite can be used to make a perpetual motion machine, but it is very possible you all will figure out something I never thought of.
If you want to get in a question now is the time!
Regarding elevite I'm glad to see people are interested in it. Would people be interested in an action like so:
[] Run an experiment. Specify subject: (Elevite, something else) (Write in procedure) (1 AP for short experiments)
To be available on future turns? The idea being to net you more information, and possibly inspire new uses for what you have.
For example, I don't personally believe elevite can be used to make a perpetual motion machine, but it is very possible you all will figure out something I never thought of.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Would that fill our contracted science requirements?
Experimenting is explicitly one of the things we can use an action on to fulfill the contractual requirements, and experimenting is in the description of the action. It's one of the most clear examples of meeting our contract requirement there could possibly be.
Maybe. I'm interested in whether it reacts differently inside the bus or outside the bus. I assume there's some sort of space warping effect in there, though it may be less significant when not in motion.
- Location
- Canada
[X] Ask questions? (Write in)
-[X] You said there were some interesting conclusions regarding its origin. Do you know what those conclusions were? Are you able to share them?
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
Gotta get in there before our competition shows up, those feeds are public after all.
I bet this is someone's old lair and they left behind a full biological elevite collection and processing system, It would explain why it's so high up and why the geometric wire frames are dissolving when we move them into our sample jar, they are full of partially processed elvite isotopes and are getting destroyed by static friction when we move them. Perhaps we can bypass this by slowly scraping them onto our elevite shards? Hopefully it acts as a static shock absorber.
The raw elevite comes from dust, the higher up the dust is, the more elevite is contains, this is why all the dust doesn't just fall into the abyss. (or rather, the dust that doesn't contain elevite falls into the abyss)
We should go back and collect the rest of the production chain after this, it has huge scientific (and material) value!
-[X] You said there were some interesting conclusions regarding its origin. Do you know what those conclusions were? Are you able to share them?
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
Gotta get in there before our competition shows up, those feeds are public after all.
I bet this is someone's old lair and they left behind a full biological elevite collection and processing system, It would explain why it's so high up and why the geometric wire frames are dissolving when we move them into our sample jar, they are full of partially processed elvite isotopes and are getting destroyed by static friction when we move them. Perhaps we can bypass this by slowly scraping them onto our elevite shards? Hopefully it acts as a static shock absorber.
The raw elevite comes from dust, the higher up the dust is, the more elevite is contains, this is why all the dust doesn't just fall into the abyss. (or rather, the dust that doesn't contain elevite falls into the abyss)
We should go back and collect the rest of the production chain after this, it has huge scientific (and material) value!
Vote closed
Chapter 1 Turn 4.4, The Expedition – Rooms and Rivals (Week 18):
JayTar
Idea briefcase
Chapter 1 Turn 4.4, The Expedition – Rooms and Rivals (Week 18):
[X] Peek inside the object. Why not give yourself a little head start on exploring inside?
[X] Ask questions? (Write in)
-[X] You said there were some interesting conclusions regarding its origin. Do you know what those conclusions were? Are you able to share them?
-[X] Will there be anyone competing with us on this site, or do the other expeditions have separate interests and specialities?
[X] Ask questions? (Write in)
-[X] You said there were some interesting conclusions regarding its origin. Do you know what those conclusions were? Are you able to share them?
-[X] Will there be anyone competing with us on this site, or do the other expeditions have separate interests and specialities?
Before:
"Question." You gesture at the dotted trails estimating the object's prior trajectory. "You said 'Projecting the object's path backwards leads to a number of interesting conclusions regarding its origin altitude'. Care to share in more detail?"
Professor Sinter answers with the enthusiastic cheer of an educator waiting for that exact question. "Indeed, I'm glad you asked! The university, and by extension the general academic community maintains a series of achievement records. Fastest velocity, highest altitude and many others. Breaking these records has always been a goal for the ambitious... and foolish."
"Now consider the object. Individually, none of it's parameters are record breaking. But the combination of mass, velocity, and altitude imply at least one record was broken."
"If the object did something record breaking, why are the odds we find something novel so low then?" You ask the obvious followup.
"Truly novel technology is rare, and the chance of it surviving the impact intact is low. High enough to justify an expedition, but not a priority for the city. By all odds, the object was entirely obliterated on impact."
Now:
The object, or vessel you suppose, looks remarkably intact for something that should be obliterated. A little smushed, but not smashed. You don't even have to duck to enter the aperture on the side.
You are sure there are proper methods and procedures for this. Ways to carefully minimize your impact on the site while slowly nibbling away at the edges. Ways to ensure every drop of data is captured and preserved.
You are not an archaeologist. You are a mad scientist. You walk right in.
+1 ???
???: 1/100
The room you enter is spacious. Four walls and four doors, including the one you entered. The first thing you do is examine them closely. The doors are built like accordions and spring open with a touch, while the walls are sturdy and bow outwards slightly. As far as you can tell everything is made of the same dithered purple-black material as the outside. Every edge is rounded, and the warping pattern you observed outside is still present. Something about it sets your teeth on edge.???: 1/100
Seeing no concrete reason for caution, you proceed.
The rightmost door leads to a long room which spans the width of the vessel. Along the walls are a dozen arched gates. The doors are sealed shut, but based on the space between the walls they can't hold more volume then a large closet each.
Midway down the room you find a door which opens to a smaller room. Occupying most of the room's space are a set of connected counter tops. Neatly lined up on the counters are a set of perfectly spherical orbs. You carefully examine them but don't linger too long. Better to survey the whole place before focusing on any part.
*Clang*
Where did I put i͋̃͒̓ẗ́̐?
Just as you turn to leave you hear an orb roll off the table and fall to the floor. You glance down to the trailing edges of your lab coat and back to the table.You hastily scoop up the orb and place it back in line. You are going to pretend that didn't happen.
There i͋̃͒̓ẗ́̐ is.
You are sure it is just your imagination, but some tiny fraction of invisible tension relaxes.-1 ???
???: 0/100
At the end of the long room you find a door which refuses to open, but budges slightly when you force it. It must be stuck on some sort of obstruction you conclude. Perhaps with time or assistance you could force it.???: 0/100
Easy lines of inquiry exhausted, you return to the entry room and check the other doors.
The one opposite your entryway is actually slightly differently styled, with the door splitting open in two directions rather then just one. Kind of like an elevator, you consider. It leads to the base of a short vertical shaft, further reinforcing the association. Above, you glimpse the ceiling of another room. You idly consider climbing it. With the equipment you had the foresight to purchase, it should at least be possible, if not easy given your lack of training in that particular skill. Should you manage to secure a rope at the top however, it would prove easier.
To the left of the first room is a massive open room. It's volume fills at least a third of the vessel, and it's walls and floor slope to match the vessel's profile. Suspended in the center of the room on dangling tendrils is a giant sphere.
Hanging over the door you entered through is a balcony. It stretches the width of the room and overlooks the sphere. From your angle you can't see more then the safety railings, but you assume it connects to the upper level
Adjacent to the door you entered the massive room through is another a mid sized room, filled with a great mess of spheres. Most are large enough you don't think you could pick them up, though perhaps you could roll them. Besides a small clear area around the door the room is almost entirely packed. You do notice a grid of divots in the floor sized to fit the spheres, but few of the spheres line up with them. Instead they cluster in chaotic manner, piling up against the walls.
Peeking through the gaps you notice two doors. One is the jammed door you found earlier, your mental map concludes. The other is directly adjacent to the vertical shaft, and has the same styling. You would bet it is a second vertical shaft.
Otherwise, the rooms are empty. No chairs. No signs. No lights. No dirt or grime, besides the ash you tracked in. Everything is made of the same undifferentiated purple material. Like one of your brother's video games, when the assets are only half loaded. Disturbingly uniform. The effect is eerie.
Science 3 + Biology 5 = 8 dice
8d7 = [5,2,6,7,1,1,4,3] = 29
DC = 30
8d7 = [5,2,6,7,1,1,4,3] = 29
DC = 30
Unfortunately, you don't see anything relating to your preferred specialty. Something about that niggles in the back of your head, but whatever it is, it remains frustratingly out of reach. Something about the seamless curves and angles.
Such is what occupies your thoughts when you hear and feel an impact reverberate through the cavern. You race to the vessel's entrance and gaze out, attempting to locate its source.
There, stabbed through the cave's roof like a hypodermic needle through flesh, is a giant sliver spindle. Like the beak of a giant bird of prey, or perhaps -
Before:
"Another question" you interject to recenter the conversion. Truthfully, you almost passed this question by, but once it occurred to you, you couldn't let it go. "You mentioned that the data you cited was publicly available. Are we going to run into another expedition competing for the same site?"
"Oh it's highly unlikely." Professor Sinter waves the question off. "Reaching these conclusions required a non-trivial amount of work on my part. Following my conclusions in lockstep while ignoring any other promising target would be a prerequisite. The odds are barely worth considering."
Now:
- a rocket.
A hatch opens on it's side and a staircase scissors out. The first person who emerges is a familiar expedition leader with cybernetic eyes.
The second is Angela Bright. Your eyes lock.
"You!" A pair of voices intermingle in a hateful shout. It takes a second to process they were not yours.
Your eyes flick sideways. There, matched against each other, are the expedition leaders.
What happens next is predictable. The other expedition leader pulls a classically styled ray gun. The air screams, but in the same instant, Professor Sinter's bus interposes itself into the line of fire.
Carl and Nathan book it for the ship. Angela doesn't take long to follow, and you see two more members of her expedition lagging behind.
Lightning fast you take this all in. You don't know strategy. But you do know people.
Perception 3 + Body Language 3 = 6 dice
6d7 = [2, 5, 1, 2, 5] =16
DC = 15/20/25
6d7 = [2, 5, 1, 2, 5] =16
DC = 15/20/25
Though not necessarily these specific people. Dust. You wish you had time to think.
Angela is focused on you. She will likely follow whichever path you take.
The others? You don't know.
Enough. If you wait any longer you will lose your first mover advantage. What was a marathon, is now a sprint.
+1 ???
???: 1/100
???: 1/100
Claim as much research as possible, before the others do.
Hallway of locked archways
-Discover the purpose of the locked archways
-Force open the door to the room of cluttered spheres
Room with spheres on a table.
-Discover the purpose of the lined up spheres
Hanging sphere room
-Discover the purpose of the hanging sphere
Room of cluttered spheres
-Discover the purpose of the spheres.
-Rearrange the spheres to gain access to the blocked doors
Upstairs?
-Vertical shaft by entry room
-Vertical shaft in the room of cluttered spheres
-Balcony in the hanging sphere room
-Discover the purpose of the locked archways
-Force open the door to the room of cluttered spheres
Room with spheres on a table.
-Discover the purpose of the lined up spheres
Hanging sphere room
-Discover the purpose of the hanging sphere
Room of cluttered spheres
-Discover the purpose of the spheres.
-Rearrange the spheres to gain access to the blocked doors
Upstairs?
-Vertical shaft by entry room
-Vertical shaft in the room of cluttered spheres
-Balcony in the hanging sphere room
What path do you take?
[] Take the left door which leads to the hanging sphere room
[] Take the right door which leads to the hallway of locked archways.
[] Take the across door and try to climb the vertical shaft.
[] Something else? (Write in)
AN: Wow, the rolls continue to hate you. If this keeps up I might have to introduce a certain god.
Good job otherwise though! The expedition isn't going to be a cakewalk, but you have already managed to put yourself in an advantageous position.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Sorry I really am feeling choice paralysis right now.
- Location
- United States
[X] Take the left door which leads to the hanging sphere room
Left is right and right is wrong, I suppose
Left is right and right is wrong, I suppose
Okay so we have a gun, a tactical retreat injector, a crowbar, expanding foam, and a breach charge. This means we can probably take a blind shot at Angela, hopefully getting her to take cover. Then we sprint for the decided upon door. If necessary we can pry it open, close it, and seal it. When we need to get out we can simply use a breaching charge to destroy the foam seal.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Okay. So let's look at things.
- This place is going to get flooded by desperate mad scientists trying to figure things out. We wont' be able to grab everything. We'll have to pick one or two things to focus on.
- Angela will be chasing Leviathan directly, and likely the others will leave the two of us to our personal squabble as long as we don't get greedy. So, first, this means that we'll want to focus in on one of the less initially impressive-seeming things so that it's just the two of us. We'll also want it to be something that's more in our area of specialty than hers. Currently, what we know about her is that she has a variety of small devices for personal augmentation, and is more hardtech, while Leviathan is more bio. She's presumably developed further since last we saw her, but if we're rolling opposed athletics checks, we've already failed.
- This is a *great* time to rack up bonus points with Dr Infinium by unveiling and testing new devices in field conditions in direct opposition to an Established Rival. That... mostly means Kutkh, I suppose? Did we ever actually do anything with that adrenaline booster knowledge? If so, then booking it back to the investigative area in an unplanned footrace with our rival seems like a really straightforward way to solidly check all of the boxes on that one. Do we have any other new bits of tech to deploy? I admit, I've lost track a bit.
So... specifics....
- The hallway fo ocked archways seems like a serious loss. Figuring out the reasons for the archways seems like it woudl give her the advantage, and forcing open that door doesn't actually gain us anything, since we already know how to make it to that room by a faster route.
- Upstairs is just rolling the bones. We don't actually know what we might find up there, or where specifically to go to find it. Better to leverage what little info we have.
- I'm really regretting missing that "first analysis" roll here. "Suspended on dangling tendrils" certainly sounds pretty Bio to me. It's also something that I expect will be high-payoff. At the same time, it's just too obviously high-payoff. It's an enormous room, with an obvious, major central fixture. There's no way we get to call dibs on that thing just between the two of us girls.
- The room of cluttered spheres... I don't like it. We don't know for a fact that Angela has augs that would make her better at pushing that stuff around than we are, but it at least seems very plausible. Let's not give her that advantage.
So... I'm thinking that the room with the spheres on the table is the obvious pick here. It's going to be a lot of poking and thinking and not a huge amount of physical activity of types that we're bad at. As such...
[x] Take the right door which leads to the hallway of locked archways.
It's the quickest way to get where we want to go.
Edit:
Huh. I like the plan overall, but I don't want to be the first one to introduce "discharging firearms with malicious intent" into our relationship with Angela. I fell like that's a direction we don't want to push things in.
- This place is going to get flooded by desperate mad scientists trying to figure things out. We wont' be able to grab everything. We'll have to pick one or two things to focus on.
- Angela will be chasing Leviathan directly, and likely the others will leave the two of us to our personal squabble as long as we don't get greedy. So, first, this means that we'll want to focus in on one of the less initially impressive-seeming things so that it's just the two of us. We'll also want it to be something that's more in our area of specialty than hers. Currently, what we know about her is that she has a variety of small devices for personal augmentation, and is more hardtech, while Leviathan is more bio. She's presumably developed further since last we saw her, but if we're rolling opposed athletics checks, we've already failed.
- This is a *great* time to rack up bonus points with Dr Infinium by unveiling and testing new devices in field conditions in direct opposition to an Established Rival. That... mostly means Kutkh, I suppose? Did we ever actually do anything with that adrenaline booster knowledge? If so, then booking it back to the investigative area in an unplanned footrace with our rival seems like a really straightforward way to solidly check all of the boxes on that one. Do we have any other new bits of tech to deploy? I admit, I've lost track a bit.
So... specifics....
- The hallway fo ocked archways seems like a serious loss. Figuring out the reasons for the archways seems like it woudl give her the advantage, and forcing open that door doesn't actually gain us anything, since we already know how to make it to that room by a faster route.
- Upstairs is just rolling the bones. We don't actually know what we might find up there, or where specifically to go to find it. Better to leverage what little info we have.
- I'm really regretting missing that "first analysis" roll here. "Suspended on dangling tendrils" certainly sounds pretty Bio to me. It's also something that I expect will be high-payoff. At the same time, it's just too obviously high-payoff. It's an enormous room, with an obvious, major central fixture. There's no way we get to call dibs on that thing just between the two of us girls.
- The room of cluttered spheres... I don't like it. We don't know for a fact that Angela has augs that would make her better at pushing that stuff around than we are, but it at least seems very plausible. Let's not give her that advantage.
So... I'm thinking that the room with the spheres on the table is the obvious pick here. It's going to be a lot of poking and thinking and not a huge amount of physical activity of types that we're bad at. As such...
[x] Take the right door which leads to the hallway of locked archways.
It's the quickest way to get where we want to go.
Edit:
Huh. I like the plan overall, but I don't want to be the first one to introduce "discharging firearms with malicious intent" into our relationship with Angela. I fell like that's a direction we don't want to push things in.
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I mean, we wouldn't be trying to hit her, but that is a valid concern.
Note: upstairs is the place we're least likely to be followed.
- Location
- Italy
I'm leaning AI having control over this UFO, and that's a counter to it turning hostile.
Because nothing biological was meant to be in here.
It's made for and/or by an AI.
...we come from Mad Science city.
Literally ANY scientist with enough free time and funds to be able to afford joining the expedition would do it.
Of them, a fair number will likely focus on a single expedition that gets their attention for any possible reason.
Truly, this was a foolish conclusion.
Ok, I did NOT expect Angela there.
and it seems our rival joined our leader's Rival!