@Grandmaster | Audio

[paletteswap]

Greetings.

I'm sure we've all seen Clara's post. Without Doctor Solis no one can be revived, making death permanent and meaning we all must exercise additional caution around our lanterns. It's critical we get to the lab and retrieve the notes that the Doctor left, then perhaps we can bring back those who have fallen or understand more about the portal that was used to bring us here.

I have a vague idea of where the lab is, but it's several hours out and I don't want to have a group of us wander aimlessly looking for it. Does anyone here have a better idea of how to pinpoint it? There's an image of stars taken from the doorway of the lab if anyone knows how we could use such a thing to navigate.

Fjord, could the tunnels you found possibly connect to the lab? Do you know which way they were leading?

Comments

[paletteswap]

A torch and the Doctor's lantern. Neither bode well. Do we know how many torches there were to begin with? Did Rastus track them?

As for the tunnels, there's a chance I could shatter the lock, depending on what it's made out of, but it seems unwise. We'll likely want to close it back up if what's behind there is something horrible.

[Pretty likely given this place. Also if it was that easy he assumes Soldat could have punched it open, but maybe by their powers combined...]

[callada]

I don't know the exact numbers. I'm sure Rastus did. I think we had a hundred to start with but I don't know where they all are now, or how many we have in total. Guess that's something we need to do ourselves, now.

Fjord said the locks were some sort of series of numbered buttons. I'd try to figure out what the sequence is before we start breaking things. Looks like it's from that siege, when a bunch of people fell asleep, and that some of those people saw the lab in their dreams. We had a meeting afterward so everyone could share what they learned, which means either Cao Pi still has the minutes from that meeting, or they ended up at the town hall - oh, and Fitz is the one who saved all the records.

Guess we'd better track him down.

[paletteswap]

We should definitely keep better track of them, should Rastus not return someone needs to take over his duties. The bonfire is our only true source of light other than our lanterns, we should protect them.

[Now that he's said that he realizes that a good way to strike at them from either the Wild Hunt or the spirits, would be to destroy the bonfire somehow. Great, another thing to be concerned about.]

The torch I found I put upstairs in the Invincible, and there's the few by the door. I'm sure there's some in the village as well. That might be something for someone to tackle while others look for the lab.

Was that part of the town hall? The logbook? That was smart thinking to save it during the flood.

[Kuai was so focused on the people he didn't even consider some of the more important items.]

[callada]

There was a log book some of the residents here had made, but there were also tons of other records - notebooks, single sheets, all organized by month. Not sure who put those together. They got pretty detailed. Together they were a pretty comprehensive history of everything we've been through.

And as far as I know he got all of it, not just the one logbook. Maybe I'll spend some time going through them once he's got a home for it all, and make sure it's all in order.

[paletteswap]

Not a priority now, but concerning all of our records, the paper copy is good, but perhaps we should also have a digital version so it can't be truly lost. Even photographing every page would preserve it if there's another such event and no one is able to save the actual items. I'd say that would be a good project during down time, but we don't seem to have much of that do we?

[He hasn't played Sudoku in weeks.]

In any case, I think you're right and the tunnels are a more direct path and a better plan than heading through the forest. From what everyone is saying they definitely seem to lead towards the lab and Doctor Solis used them. We'd be in a smaller, more confined area, but that seems preferable to walking into the forest and heading in a vague direction.

Pudding mentioned a map and star charts, which wouldn't work underground, but between that, a compass and the map on our tablets we should be able to at least see if the tunnels are heading the right direction.

I'd prefer to go sooner rather than later. Without the ability to repair our lanterns, things seem grim.

[Well more grim than normal anyway.]

[callada]

Yeah. The logbook has a network copy but I can photograph the rest when I go through it. That's a smart call.

[The rest of this though, hm. Right. Kuai doesn't actually look at other people's network conversations. The part about the map threw him until he realized what Kuai probably meant.]

The "map" is just a floorplan. Doesn't tell anyone how to get there, it's just what the building looks like. I'm guessing it's mostly underground, based on the image that robot sent Sora - and that's where the stars came in. It was like a three-dimensional picture. Pretty cool stuff. But like I said when you asked, the stars over there are basically the same as here. Makes sense, if it's only a few hours walk away. Can't be more than a handful of miles.

The tunnels seem like the best bet to me, too. We know Dr. Solis used them to get around town, probably as a safety measure from people like the Wild Hunt. They must lead back to her lab if you can figure out the password for the lock Soldat and Fjord were talking about, which is the date somewhere in the records Fitz took. Might even be in the network copy.

As soon as you get that date, I'd go. We need to be able to repair lanterns. And maybe she has food stocked up there too, we're almost out.

[paletteswap]

No, not the floorplan. She's trying to put together a map based on everything collected before it seemed the tunnels were the preferable option. It probably doesn't matter since we don't have a way of tracking individual tablets on the network to see where we are, but it was a better option than nothing at all. And she seemed eager to help. Even using the tunnels has risk of not going where we want and it's too much to wish for that the tunnel goes directly from the door to the lab. If she felt it necessary to put a complicated lock on the tunnel she might have also put in false passages or even additional locks.

That network copy may come in handy if we come across any other doors that we need to puzzle out the solution for.

[If any of the doors involve solving grids of numbers, he's their guy. But remembering random dates mentioned by people in past documents? Not his forte.]

I hope to leave within a few days. We're vulnerable until we figure out how to reignite extinguished lanterns. Reviving someone is likely time sensitive, so those who fell in the flood are already lost to us. But those who've perished since then might still be able to be saved.

[A tiny sliver of hope.]

[callada]

Huh, all right. Hope it helps.

Let me know if there's anything I can do other than wish you luck. Message all of us when you get there with whatever you can figure out for the location in case you run into trouble on the way back.

[paletteswap]

We'll keep in contact as often as possible. If anything goes wrong you'll be the first to know.