Cycle 25 - The Arena of Power
So originally, this was just going to be a bit of exploring, which by now is all of the late since the last update was last month and bla. 
Then I had more ideas while working on the layout of the place, and now its...a thing. A much longer thing. Also, @Evil Plan added some neat new protagonist tags, which is pretty alright.
---
Cycle 25
As the night goes on, you explore the Bunker some more, but away from the Room of Precision. The place is, as you expected, pretty damn intact overall from the armite armor. There is not much of interest so far like that room, but you have plenty of time to explore, they likely will spend most of the light tomorrow working out how to use the thing that works exactly as ordered but is uncomfortable to look at.
However, time is energy, and you might as well make sure that design is as functional as you expect. You certainly are not just trying to avoid even more of the boringly slow but effective armite conversion process with this Scrying crystal, there is a point to it.
...This place goes further down than you expect. Even with a Scrying crystal you've yet to spot the last fourth of the armite-armored walls enclosing this place at the bottom. So you continue as you were doing, sticking to the left first. First, a large room. By the look of the place it was a two-level combat arena sans stairs, until you look at more than the damage the room has incurred. An arena would not be littered with a number of destroyed runed furniture pieces and a lot of not particularly tough-looking broken technology. There also are another of the armite-tearing scorch marks. Another several actually, and more clear than the ones in the flooded micro-rooms room.
These ones look remarkably like the effect you would expect if you vented excess energy into Armite, in fact. Whoever it was that fought here was either a very inefficient spellcaster with enough power for it to discharge into their surroundings often, or was throwing around much higher-energy blasts than is likely safe for your average alien in such an enclosed space. Other than the mess, theres not much worth examining here, so you move on.
To the right of that room is an odd squiggle of a room, full of old crates. Crates full of mildly corroded batteries by the looks of things, and most likely magical ones based on how they appear to still be nearly full. Two are opened, one full of empty, heavily rusted metal canisters with some severe corrosion on the inner side, and the other appears to be no worse for wear leaving its contents exposed to the room, if you wanted to experiment with them. Further to the right is an extremely large room with significant signs of holding a very messy occupant in the past, possibly the one the precisionist had complained about.
Further down the left side you go, continuing to notice the...interesting choices whoever built this place had. Personally, you do not require the continual geometric incline known as stairs, since you do not walk from place to place in the Prime Crystal, you jump from place to place within the networked crystal. There are a few rooms aboard that use them for decoration, because sometimes you do have to meet others, but the last you'd heard of it, they were considered 'horribly cramped, lacking windows or vidscreens, and...uniquely designed, for a meeting room.'
But considering how few visitors worth speaking to even showed up, the Prime's meeting rooms were perfectly adequate. They were pressurized sufficiently, had power sockets, and had decorative stairs, what more were they expecting out of a physical meeting place? Most contacts, when asked how they would like to continue the conversation after being deemed not an immediate threat, quite preferred virtual rooms, or at least communicating from the comfort of their spaceships if they didn't have the computing power to run virtual environments on their end.
But you're getting distracted. Besides the lack of stairs, the place also tended to lack much in the wall of hallways, and if it did have them, they ended in small rooms littered with the shattered remains of what was likely once very delicate tech being overloaded from the opposite end, which make it seem like this was less a bunker to hide from the end of the world in and more a prison, or at least a containment building to hold what so far appears to be several wizards who blew scorch marks in armite for fun and revenge.
It also began engraving the level markers into the armite itself, not simply painting them on. Past the floor of the previous section, the next couple of floors had a general warning sign as its marker, which you likely could have determined even without the books in that room. The highest level of this section was simply a series of small cells, with essentially nothing left in them aside from the broken delicate tech pieces seen elsewhere. Next, there was larger cells. These ones were also empty from age, except the one furthest to the right, which was a third the size to fit in the remaining space. That one was not empty, instead holding what you could only describe as a ever so slowly decaying ball of angry magic. You could see the walls had been compressed inwards, only to get burned away by sheer attrition, as shown by the spherical shape of the current room. You get the feeling its attempting to glare at your presence but does not remember how as you peek into the room, before you head further down.
The next level is yet-bigger cells, and at this point you just label the entire section 'Prison' and only give the places a glance through what information the Scrying crystal picks up. Empty cells with unrecoverable tech-shards are not interesting to you.
After checking the time (still dark, but getting lighter), you continue down, past what is probably a bulkhead layer. This appears to be the dangerous section instead of simply the caution one, judging by the far larger and more prominent danger-symbol engraving in the level-marker-spot. And it has an actual room once more! Although you're starting to reach the edge of the scryer's sight range, since you can't just see the entire floor now.
Which, considering it appears to be a huge underground open-air arena, is not as big an issue as you'd expect. The bigger issue is that is is saturated in magical power. You may only know it exists as a kind of energy without access to the library you once had, but this much energy doesn't just stay somewhere with no input. A place old enough to no longer have its former prisoners at all should've gone down to the ambient background level and vanished into your what you filter out as background static. Its saturated to a degree you can't tell where its coming from, either. Far enough for one cycle, this is.
Subcycle 4
The results of the wireless prototype so far are even less effective than you'd hoped. The Alterins had, of course, tested the device in their lab before setting up a plan to transport the thing up into position without ruining everyone involved's day. The same lab one of the minion greatswords were in, which was nice, since you could compare the two results.
It worked, but only in the literal sense. This is not even a readable result to the greatest interpreters you could've found, its hardly even the same language as the correct recording! (-100 to the cost of Wireless Theory for the technical success)
Poke the angry magic ball?
[] Poke the angry magic ball with words! Maybe nom it if it doesn't speak up when questioned? Its not being productive just sitting there gradually burning out, after all.
[] Do not poke the unknown magic! You're a Xenotech Specialist, not a Mage.
The Arena:
[] Yolo it and push onwards deeper into the ruin!
[] Put together some specialist detector equipment to locate the source of the mana saturation, don't explore further than the floor of the arena yet. (Will use up a research turn fine-tuning the equipment for this particular variant of magical energy)
[] Be exceptionally worried over the unknown depths, the sudden magic saturation, and the increasing danger labels and start exploring from outside the ruins instead.
[] Write-in
Then I had more ideas while working on the layout of the place, and now its...a thing. A much longer thing. Also, @Evil Plan added some neat new protagonist tags, which is pretty alright.
---
Cycle 25
As the night goes on, you explore the Bunker some more, but away from the Room of Precision. The place is, as you expected, pretty damn intact overall from the armite armor. There is not much of interest so far like that room, but you have plenty of time to explore, they likely will spend most of the light tomorrow working out how to use the thing that works exactly as ordered but is uncomfortable to look at.
However, time is energy, and you might as well make sure that design is as functional as you expect. You certainly are not just trying to avoid even more of the boringly slow but effective armite conversion process with this Scrying crystal, there is a point to it.
...This place goes further down than you expect. Even with a Scrying crystal you've yet to spot the last fourth of the armite-armored walls enclosing this place at the bottom. So you continue as you were doing, sticking to the left first. First, a large room. By the look of the place it was a two-level combat arena sans stairs, until you look at more than the damage the room has incurred. An arena would not be littered with a number of destroyed runed furniture pieces and a lot of not particularly tough-looking broken technology. There also are another of the armite-tearing scorch marks. Another several actually, and more clear than the ones in the flooded micro-rooms room.
These ones look remarkably like the effect you would expect if you vented excess energy into Armite, in fact. Whoever it was that fought here was either a very inefficient spellcaster with enough power for it to discharge into their surroundings often, or was throwing around much higher-energy blasts than is likely safe for your average alien in such an enclosed space. Other than the mess, theres not much worth examining here, so you move on.
To the right of that room is an odd squiggle of a room, full of old crates. Crates full of mildly corroded batteries by the looks of things, and most likely magical ones based on how they appear to still be nearly full. Two are opened, one full of empty, heavily rusted metal canisters with some severe corrosion on the inner side, and the other appears to be no worse for wear leaving its contents exposed to the room, if you wanted to experiment with them. Further to the right is an extremely large room with significant signs of holding a very messy occupant in the past, possibly the one the precisionist had complained about.
Further down the left side you go, continuing to notice the...interesting choices whoever built this place had. Personally, you do not require the continual geometric incline known as stairs, since you do not walk from place to place in the Prime Crystal, you jump from place to place within the networked crystal. There are a few rooms aboard that use them for decoration, because sometimes you do have to meet others, but the last you'd heard of it, they were considered 'horribly cramped, lacking windows or vidscreens, and...uniquely designed, for a meeting room.'
But considering how few visitors worth speaking to even showed up, the Prime's meeting rooms were perfectly adequate. They were pressurized sufficiently, had power sockets, and had decorative stairs, what more were they expecting out of a physical meeting place? Most contacts, when asked how they would like to continue the conversation after being deemed not an immediate threat, quite preferred virtual rooms, or at least communicating from the comfort of their spaceships if they didn't have the computing power to run virtual environments on their end.
But you're getting distracted. Besides the lack of stairs, the place also tended to lack much in the wall of hallways, and if it did have them, they ended in small rooms littered with the shattered remains of what was likely once very delicate tech being overloaded from the opposite end, which make it seem like this was less a bunker to hide from the end of the world in and more a prison, or at least a containment building to hold what so far appears to be several wizards who blew scorch marks in armite for fun and revenge.
It also began engraving the level markers into the armite itself, not simply painting them on. Past the floor of the previous section, the next couple of floors had a general warning sign as its marker, which you likely could have determined even without the books in that room. The highest level of this section was simply a series of small cells, with essentially nothing left in them aside from the broken delicate tech pieces seen elsewhere. Next, there was larger cells. These ones were also empty from age, except the one furthest to the right, which was a third the size to fit in the remaining space. That one was not empty, instead holding what you could only describe as a ever so slowly decaying ball of angry magic. You could see the walls had been compressed inwards, only to get burned away by sheer attrition, as shown by the spherical shape of the current room. You get the feeling its attempting to glare at your presence but does not remember how as you peek into the room, before you head further down.
The next level is yet-bigger cells, and at this point you just label the entire section 'Prison' and only give the places a glance through what information the Scrying crystal picks up. Empty cells with unrecoverable tech-shards are not interesting to you.
After checking the time (still dark, but getting lighter), you continue down, past what is probably a bulkhead layer. This appears to be the dangerous section instead of simply the caution one, judging by the far larger and more prominent danger-symbol engraving in the level-marker-spot. And it has an actual room once more! Although you're starting to reach the edge of the scryer's sight range, since you can't just see the entire floor now.
Which, considering it appears to be a huge underground open-air arena, is not as big an issue as you'd expect. The bigger issue is that is is saturated in magical power. You may only know it exists as a kind of energy without access to the library you once had, but this much energy doesn't just stay somewhere with no input. A place old enough to no longer have its former prisoners at all should've gone down to the ambient background level and vanished into your what you filter out as background static. Its saturated to a degree you can't tell where its coming from, either. Far enough for one cycle, this is.
Subcycle 4
The results of the wireless prototype so far are even less effective than you'd hoped. The Alterins had, of course, tested the device in their lab before setting up a plan to transport the thing up into position without ruining everyone involved's day. The same lab one of the minion greatswords were in, which was nice, since you could compare the two results.
Infiltrator Greatsword recording said:
WFX-0001 decoded result said:
It worked, but only in the literal sense. This is not even a readable result to the greatest interpreters you could've found, its hardly even the same language as the correct recording! (-100 to the cost of Wireless Theory for the technical success)
Poke the angry magic ball?
[] Poke the angry magic ball with words! Maybe nom it if it doesn't speak up when questioned? Its not being productive just sitting there gradually burning out, after all.
[] Do not poke the unknown magic! You're a Xenotech Specialist, not a Mage.
The Arena:
[] Yolo it and push onwards deeper into the ruin!
[] Put together some specialist detector equipment to locate the source of the mana saturation, don't explore further than the floor of the arena yet. (Will use up a research turn fine-tuning the equipment for this particular variant of magical energy)
[] Be exceptionally worried over the unknown depths, the sudden magic saturation, and the increasing danger labels and start exploring from outside the ruins instead.
[] Write-in
Original compressed name: Shining-in-the-Space, Prime Crystal, Outer Layer Omega-Current, Xenotech-Specialist/Experimentals-Researcher True Crystalline.
Current revised compressed name: Shining-in-the-Space, Unknown, Unnamed Crater, Unintentionally-Lost Xenotech-Specialist/Experimentals-Researcher True Crystalline.
Integrity: Intact
Core Armor: Unarmored
Energy Generation:
Core: 1000/cycle
As. Matter: 0 @ 20/cycle: 0/cycle
Base Crystal: 169 @ 50/cycle: 8,450/cycle
Research costs: 71 @ 10/cycle: -710/cycle
Total Energy production: 8,740/cycle
Max single crystal cost: 10K
Current Stored Energy: 17,340
Current Safe Capacity: 95k
Research Production: 71/cycle
Current Research Project: Dampening Fields [772/1000]
Current Experimental Projects: Minions! [Wireless prototype experiment], Forcefield Modifigenerator (Alterin-scale)
Available Research:
Core:
Warfare: Offensive Export (1000), Improved Self-Repair (250)
Energy Generation: Alternate Power Sources (Experiment), Strengthened Conduits (250,repeatable), Base Crystal Upgrade? (1000), Fusion Amplification (??)
Storage: Energy Condensing (250), Enhanced Stabilization (250,repeatable).
Research: None, see tech tree
Command Network: Delegation (500)
Sensors & Exploration: Vis-Link (500), Improved Matter Output (750), Wireless Theory (1900).
High-tech Materials:
Armor Iteration: Enhanced Absorption (1000), Energy Redirection (750), Enhanced Durability (1500),
Extended Analysis: Armite Weakpoints (250)
Minions Status:
Infiltrator Greatswords (2x): Plenty of reserve power, recording. Shape of a stone greatsword with crystalline hilt components. Tiny solar panel and thermal absorbers. Out of command range.
Arcane: Undiscovered.
The Alterin Threat:
They are bad at communication security here.
They are at least somewhat organized (managers)
They appear to lack an answer on the more arcane-bullshit sort of thing around here. Though we hardly know much either, how is that island floating...
They do take research data security seriously, and have a logging system.
Current base is not a full one.
They appear to not be concerned with nighttime security outside of basic measures.
They have a different definition of 'wishing well' than you do.
Location: In a crater. Pretending to be a wishing well. Near some suspicious alterin.
Current revised compressed name: Shining-in-the-Space, Unknown, Unnamed Crater, Unintentionally-Lost Xenotech-Specialist/Experimentals-Researcher True Crystalline.
Integrity: Intact
Core Armor: Unarmored
Energy Generation:
Core: 1000/cycle
As. Matter: 0 @ 20/cycle: 0/cycle
Base Crystal: 169 @ 50/cycle: 8,450/cycle
Research costs: 71 @ 10/cycle: -710/cycle
Total Energy production: 8,740/cycle
Max single crystal cost: 10K
Current Stored Energy: 17,340
Current Safe Capacity: 95k
Research Production: 71/cycle
Current Research Project: Dampening Fields [772/1000]
Current Experimental Projects: Minions! [Wireless prototype experiment], Forcefield Modifigenerator (Alterin-scale)
Available Research:
Core:
Warfare: Offensive Export (1000), Improved Self-Repair (250)
Energy Generation: Alternate Power Sources (Experiment), Strengthened Conduits (250,repeatable), Base Crystal Upgrade? (1000), Fusion Amplification (??)
Storage: Energy Condensing (250), Enhanced Stabilization (250,repeatable).
Research: None, see tech tree
Command Network: Delegation (500)
Sensors & Exploration: Vis-Link (500), Improved Matter Output (750), Wireless Theory (1900).
High-tech Materials:
Armor Iteration: Enhanced Absorption (1000), Energy Redirection (750), Enhanced Durability (1500),
Extended Analysis: Armite Weakpoints (250)
Minions Status:
Infiltrator Greatswords (2x): Plenty of reserve power, recording. Shape of a stone greatsword with crystalline hilt components. Tiny solar panel and thermal absorbers. Out of command range.
Arcane: Undiscovered.
The Alterin Threat:
They are bad at communication security here.
They are at least somewhat organized (managers)
They appear to lack an answer on the more arcane-bullshit sort of thing around here. Though we hardly know much either, how is that island floating...
They do take research data security seriously, and have a logging system.
Current base is not a full one.
They appear to not be concerned with nighttime security outside of basic measures.
They have a different definition of 'wishing well' than you do.
Location: In a crater. Pretending to be a wishing well. Near some suspicious alterin.
Normal:
Assimilated matter
The quick, dirty solution to your lack of range.
Template: Matter
Energy production: 20 per cycle
Fabrication cost: 50 energy, nearby material.
Basic Crystal
Created by converting solid materials, like rock or assimilated matter.
Energy production: 50/cycle
Template: Refined
Fabrication cost: 200 energy, nearby solid material or crystal.
Storage Crystal
A stabilized hunk of additional crystal, giving you more room to store energy without side effects.
Template: Space-filling
Fabrication cost: 200 energy, empty space.
Research Crystal
Because doing everything yourself is slow and complicated.
Template: Space-filling
Traits: Data Storage (replaces Energy Storage: Basic)
Fabrication cost: 700 energy
Research Output: 1/cycle, Research cost 10 energy/cycle.
Repair Crystal
A good helper.
Energy production: 50/cycle
Template: Refined
Traits: Repair Protocols
Fabrication cost: 1,200 energy
Mine Crystal
Storage crystal stripped down and prepared to explode via overcharge.
Template: Space-filling (minimal energy storage)
Fabrication cost: 200 energy, empty space.
Farseer Crystal
An excellent companion to scouting crystal. Energy production alignments have been realigned for exceptional sensory range instead.
Template: Intrusive
Traits: 1st Visual Augmentation
Fabrication Cost: 750 energy
Scrying Crystal
I see you.
Template: Intrusive
Traits: 2nd Visual Augmentation
Fabrication cost: 2250 energy
Available traits:
Energy Generator (Basic), Energy Storage (Basic), Data Storage, Absorption Fields, Defensive Offense, Explosive Entry, Repair Protocols, Visual Augmentation
Check the crystals threadmark for energy costs and details.
Assimilated matter
The quick, dirty solution to your lack of range.
Template: Matter
Energy production: 20 per cycle
Fabrication cost: 50 energy, nearby material.
Basic Crystal
Created by converting solid materials, like rock or assimilated matter.
Energy production: 50/cycle
Template: Refined
Fabrication cost: 200 energy, nearby solid material or crystal.
Storage Crystal
A stabilized hunk of additional crystal, giving you more room to store energy without side effects.
Template: Space-filling
Fabrication cost: 200 energy, empty space.
Research Crystal
Because doing everything yourself is slow and complicated.
Template: Space-filling
Traits: Data Storage (replaces Energy Storage: Basic)
Fabrication cost: 700 energy
Research Output: 1/cycle, Research cost 10 energy/cycle.
Repair Crystal
A good helper.
Energy production: 50/cycle
Template: Refined
Traits: Repair Protocols
Fabrication cost: 1,200 energy
Mine Crystal
Storage crystal stripped down and prepared to explode via overcharge.
Template: Space-filling (minimal energy storage)
Fabrication cost: 200 energy, empty space.
Farseer Crystal
An excellent companion to scouting crystal. Energy production alignments have been realigned for exceptional sensory range instead.
Template: Intrusive
Traits: 1st Visual Augmentation
Fabrication Cost: 750 energy
Scrying Crystal
I see you.
Template: Intrusive
Traits: 2nd Visual Augmentation
Fabrication cost: 2250 energy
Available traits:
Energy Generator (Basic), Energy Storage (Basic), Data Storage, Absorption Fields, Defensive Offense, Explosive Entry, Repair Protocols, Visual Augmentation
Check the crystals threadmark for energy costs and details.
Navy Blue - Crystal core
Light Blue - Base crystals
Orange w/ black S - Storage Crystal
Turquoise with small diamond - Farseer Crystal
Black with Turquoise diamond - Scrying Crystal
Purple/Orchid - Focusing Crystal
Darker Purple - Overseer Crystal
Blue w/ gold R - Research Crystal
Purpleish - Repair Crystal
Red - Diplomatic Crystalline
Dark purple - Armite Half-Crystal
---
Dark Brown - Empty underground space
Light Brown - Dirt or other non-solid material
Light Grey - Rock
Grey - Armite
Sky Blue - Empty aboveground space
Teal w/brown diamond - Assimilated matter
(Background) w/ question mark - [Unknown tech]
(Background) w/ small diamond - Mobile Thing (Purple for Alterin)
Black - Unknown
---
Red cross-shaped overlay - Damaged
Red X overlay - Heavily damaged
Light Blue - Base crystals
Orange w/ black S - Storage Crystal
Turquoise with small diamond - Farseer Crystal
Black with Turquoise diamond - Scrying Crystal
Purple/Orchid - Focusing Crystal
Darker Purple - Overseer Crystal
Blue w/ gold R - Research Crystal
Purpleish - Repair Crystal
Red - Diplomatic Crystalline
Dark purple - Armite Half-Crystal
---
Dark Brown - Empty underground space
Light Brown - Dirt or other non-solid material
Light Grey - Rock
Grey - Armite
Sky Blue - Empty aboveground space
Teal w/brown diamond - Assimilated matter
(Background) w/ question mark - [Unknown tech]
(Background) w/ small diamond - Mobile Thing (Purple for Alterin)
Black - Unknown
---
Red cross-shaped overlay - Damaged
Red X overlay - Heavily damaged
