epidemiology | EVENT ★ LABYRINTH III: THE ESCAPE

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EVENT ★ LABYRINTH III: THE ESCAPE

LABYRINTH III

The correct passageway to the inner ring of the maze is hidden behind a thick wall of vines. After cutting through the plants, the structure of the maze is noticeably different: the overgrown plants continue creeping up the walls, but the walls are no longer brick and stone, composed instead of some sort of blue metal with holes and divots carved elaborately into the surface. From some holes gush forth pure, clean water; from others, acidic liquid. The air is cool and crisp, the plants creating a lush, dim environment lit by eerie blue lights spread throughout this section.

The lizards, rats, and other monstrous creatures seem to be absent from this area of the maze, replaced instead by rhinoceros-sized beetles. The beetles each have a single horn protruding from the head, and their hard carapaces make them difficult to kill -- a better method might be to simply climb somewhere high and wait for the beetle to get bored. But unlike the other monsters encountered in the maze, the beetles seem to have something else on their mind beyond wanton violence: they can sometimes be found rolling massive balls of dung throughout the corridors of the labyrinth. (This might explain why the plants are so lush closer to the center.)

There is little time to explore this section of the labyrinth before there's a flicker of light all around and more ALASTAIR recruits suddenly appear, most dressed in a freshly pressed uniform and carrying extra food and supplies. They have been told that the cloaking surrounding Asterion Labyrinth is so strong and complex that Oska was only able to send in a handful of recruits at once for a relief effort.

In order to leave, they'll have to locate the escape mechanism that lies deep within the labyrinth; the remaining Asterion Prison correctional officers know its general location, but not precisely what it entails. All they know is that it will require technological cunning to operate and that it's heavily guarded.

After five days, the portal room is found.

THE PORTAL ROOM

The center of the labyrinth is a large, circular room with a raised platform in the middle. On this platform rests a circle of computer consoles surrounding another platform, on which sits an empty circular frame 2.5m (8') in diameter. This is the dormant portal, and it is now Audentes's task to turn it on and find their way back to Oska.

Because the portal is not made for interdimensional travel, it must be overclocked, which will cause it to burn out and explode once it is used. In order to override the safety protocols in place to prevent such dangerous tampering, the control panels must be unlocked -- and unfortunately, the locks are all complicated puzzles, ranging from the numerical to sliding pieces into place to complete a pattern. There are many of these puzzled scattered around the portal room, and once they are all unlocked, it's a simple matter of flipping the power override switches. Ignore the dangerous humming sound and the way the frame suddenly fills with violent purple energy. That's probably normal.

The new recruits have the correct coordinates to locate Oska, which has temporarily lowered its cloaking shield to allow Audentes to return. So there is a bit of a time crunch.

Adding more to the difficulty of the situation is the presence of a monster lumbering around the circular portal room. Six meters (20') high, the beast is best described as a minotaur, but perhaps not in the traditional sense: while it resembles a bipedal bull, it is an amalgamation of flesh and machine with its body covered in pistons and glowing lights. One of its hands is an enormous axe and it belches fire and acid. Despite its head resembling an herbivore, the piles of desiccated bones scattered throughout the portal room tell a different story.

Upon seeing the group, the minotaur charges. Mavahari, the Zymandis recruit, rushes to meet it with her sword drawn. Inmates and correctional officers do their best to fight it as well, but something becomes quickly apparent: it cannot be harmed by projectile weapons. The machinery of the beast keeps it protected from most attacks, though electricity will stun it and acid will corrode its metal. But in order to injure the minotaur, it must be stabbed between the metal plates where its vulnerable flesh remains.

During the battle, the minotaur fights viciously and without regard for its own safety. The first casualty comes early: the minotaur swings its axe toward Mavahari, who is pushed out of the way by George. The axe connects with him solidly, sending him flying into the wall with a shuddering impact. George lies there still, but there's no time to mourn. The beast continues its rampage.

Once the minotaur is defeated, you'll have to quickly decide what to do with the correctional officers and inmates who have followed Audentes through the Asterion Labyrinth. The overclocked portal won't hold forever, and the longer Oska leaves its cloak down, the better chance they have of being found by their enemies.

OOC NOTES

This log will last for six IC days: five days for exploration and one day at the center of the maze. We have also recently altered the calendar this month, so make sure you review it!

IMPORTANT: Participation in the solution poll is mandatory for August AC. Failure to participate will result in an automatic strike. The only exception is for those who are exempt from August AC. The poll will close on 11 August 23:59 UTC.

If you have any questions about the labyrinth that aren't answered here, please direct them to the Leramzen dossier.

Questions about the game in general should be directed to the FAQ and you may submit mission ideas or player plots at any time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

maze.

[The walls are choked with vines, there are echoing skittering sounds drifting through the air, from a distance. The way is long, and the crew (mostly) makes its way through at pace with each other as they find their way toward the center of the maze. Fanning out to canvas the corners and dig for progress—the escape mechanism that the officers had finally decided to fill them in on. Which means it's not uncommon to stumble across a teammate while searching. Say, this one. Perched on the top of a cracked and carved hunk of bluish stone and rolling a piece of (so-far-safe, hopefully) alien maze fruit thoughtfully between his hands. (The bright blue H still branded on his forehead marking him as both prisoner and murderer.) Could be he's just taking a breather. If one follows his eyes upward, it's clear he's studying an odd breakup in the patterns on the mossy walls. A few stories above ground level, a gap that's wide and tall. A deep alcove, or a passageway, perhaps—it's large enough for it, that much is clear to see from the ground. There's a flickering of blue light bouncing off the walls from deep inside. A little more regular than the little motes that surround them. Not that it means anything, on its own.

He hears his company approach, if the way he cants his head over toward the ground is any indication. But without looking back down, just yet—]

What d'you think?

[Any of it seem escape-mechanismy to you? Of course, it's hard to see much from all the way down here, so there's only one real way to find out. Or maybe he's just making conversation.]

puzzle room/minotaur baiting.

[Later, after the escape mechanism has actually been found, things move much more quickly. (Guarded by a space-minotaur, that just figures. Almost too on the nose, tbh.)

Bullets don't faze the thing, which becomes clear pretty quickly. Luckily, there are some heavier hitters on the team and among the inmates that are happy to keep the big bad busy and at bay. So he figures he'll be better use trying to crack the codes and get them out of here.

Easier said than done. He's partway through fitting the complex workings of a puzzle-lock into place when he has to duck a gout of greenish acid as it comes flying out of the fray. It spatters against a wall and corrodes pits and pockmarks into the stone, just beyond the space where his head would have been. The good news is that he'd gotten out of the way in time. The bad news is the pieces of the puzzle he'd fit into place have fallen back into locked disarray the moment he'd stepped away from them. Maybe the solo approach isn't going to work, here.]

etc.

(alternately wildcard me or tag me here with a preference (maze exploring/camping/monstering/puzzle-room/aftermath/idk) and I'll write you a more character-specific starter. brief this time, as I'm still recovering from work hell, thanks for bearing with me, friends.)

[Connor comes around the corner muttering to himself a litany of complaints about the stupid labyrinth and the stupid vines, the stupid giant beetles and the stupid gross rations, and so on and so forth. (He's giving this place zero stars on Yelp; definitely would not recommend.) After five days of wandering the dim winding paths of metal, all of it awash in the same anemic blue light and draped in the same curling vines, he thinks that this must be what it's like to lose one's mind.

When he sees someone standing in the path ahead of him, he jogs over to the figure, plainly favoring one leg over the other. Then he tries to trace the trajectory of this guy's upward gaze, peering at the sheer face of the wall.]

What is it? Do you see something?

[Five whole days, Connor, that must have been so hard for you.

He leans back against his perch to consider the corridor—and it is a corridor, he thinks, if not a particularly obvious one—and then seems to put a pause on it to drop his eyes and consider his company instead. Too unfamiliar and too well-outfitted to be anything but brand new. Part of the rescue effort, then.]

I'd ask if you're a see-it-to-believe it type, but you don't look like you're up to spelunking.

[What with the bum leg and all. Still—]

Want to place some bets? Popular vote says two to one odds on the Goblin King, so far. But me, I'm a traditionalist.

[He'll regret this joke in a few days when they're actually playing to the trope. (Well. No, he probably won't.)]

Edited 2017-08-09 08:42 (UTC)

[Yeah, it has. Thank you for your concern.

His freshmeat status is made plain if not by his crisp black uniform (rumpled from nights of attempted sleep and using the coat for a blanket, but in conspicuously good condition nevertheless), then by the expression he wears, which is one of constant uncertainty poorly masked. Still he coughs up a laugh, which is really more a sharp wry expulsion of breath, and having had enough of squinting up at the potential passageway or cave or whatever it might be, he looks back to the guy perched atop the rock.]

My bet is on whatever gets us out of here the fastest. What can I say, I'm an optimist.

[Judging by his sarcastic tone, this is a blatant lie.

He does, however, want to get the hell out of here.]

[Being experienced in the intricacies of being absolutely full of shit, Jason takes that obvious bullcrap and rolls with it. Easily—]

You ought to be, you already missed out on the other eight circles of hell.

[So, y'know, lucky you. But since he hasn't had a chance to chat up the newbies, yet—]

Did they tap you for the heroics because of your sunny disposition, or just just dump you in and hope for the best?

[Three guesses who "they" are and the first two don't count.]

Yeah, now all we have to do is climb down Satan's legs and we're out of here.

[He has read a book or two.]

And I'm definitely thinking the second one. Heroics haven't really been my thing since I was seven and jumping around with a blanket tied around my neck.

[He then tilts his head back to point with his chin up the face of the metal wall.]

How exactly were you planning on getting up there anyway?

[Unlikely-looking lit nerds: the cr, ig.

The cape-and-cowl joke puts a strange bitter twist to in Jason's wry expression. Though he scoffs with a little more venom than particularly warrented (from an outside perspective, anyway,) he doesn't see fit to comment further. Instead, he skips to Connor's more-immediate question, spreading his hands in front of him demonstratively.]

Well, I don't see an elevator. How d'you think?

[There are all sorts of crags and carved ridges in the walls. By Bat-Standards, it's basically a walk in the park. But he's not above being obnoxious about it.]

[His frown twists a few degrees more severe, because he isn't sure how he could have possibly offended this guy, and his eyebrow arches upward for the ludicrous implication in Jason's words and gestures.]

What, are you gonna Spider-man your way up?

[Joke's on you, sad little gay man; there are no fewer than two Spider-mans (Spider-men?) on this team.]

[Google tells me the correct term for this is a "cluster" of Spider-men. The more you know. Breezily—]

Spider-Woman, wasn't it? [Gwen may have been more public about her persona than the Peters, in his experience. So she gets top billing. Anyway, he makes a point of looking himself up and down.]

Must have left my other four legs at home. Don't worry, I think I can manage without.

[Superpowers aren't everything, y'know.]

Edited (I wasnt done, dw.) 2017-08-31 04:01 (UTC)

[He rolls his eyes for the show of bravado, stepping back and gesturing sharply to the wall that looms before them.]

Be my guest. [Then he holds his hands up in a gesture of refusal, as if preemptively washing his hands clean of Jason's imminent fuck-up.] But I make no promise to try to catch you if you fall, got it?

[Please don't fall, weird edgy kid. He is not a fan of dead bodies.]

[Hey, hey. He was a dead body once. Don't be insensitive.]

Well, that's not very chivalrous of you.

[What kind of rescue party is this? The complaint seems pretty insincere, since he pulls his feet back underneath him to stand. Inmate, rescue thyself.]

Stick around, maybe I'll bring you back something nice.

[With that, he'll commit to hopping off his perch to the nearest carved outcropping. And then, up the geometrically scored sides of the labyrinth. Not with any Spider-person wall-crawling, but with the apparent ease of someone who makes a habit of freeclimbing—or, y'know, stupid vigilante parkour. It's high enough to look daunting, but not so high that he'll be at it more than a few minutes to scale. No grappling guns needed, probably. Hang tight, if you're curious. This won't take long.]

Oh no, now I'll never be welcomed back into King Arthur's court.

[The interjection is dry, his distress affected. Two can play at this game.

As soon as Jason begins to forge his way up the wall, however, Connor's expression shifts from deep-set skepticism to open disbelief. The kid moves like a monkey, flinging himself to the next point as soon as his hands or feet find purchase. Although he never falters once, and although he had denied responsibility for catching him, Connor finds himself hovering uncertainly below.]

[ Loki's route is always the sneaky route. while he was an Asgardian, and dangerous with a sword, he preferred to run away than to actually fight. if there was a smarter (or way to remain unscathed) route, he took it.

he's watching Jason barely miss the acid before stepping it. across the room is an entirely accurate and not at all comical representation of Loki blowing a raspberry, and illusion created from streaks of green light. the illusion is enough to convince the Minotaur for the moment, and he lets out a deep bellow and lumbers toward the offensive not-quite-Loki.

with the show over, it's time to get to work. ]

Isn't everything just a retelling of myth?

[ he's taking one side to begin to fit the pieces back into place. ]

[Nothing wrong with a little economy of effort. Jason may be fond of picking fights, but he's not stupid about when he does it. And ol' Ironhide over there looks like more trouble than he's worth to lock horns with.

So the distraction, once he catches on to what's going on, is much obliged. He pulls his eyes away from the spectacle and gets them back on the puzzle. Of course, it had rearranged itself into a new mess of interlocking pieces when he had stepped away.
But Loki's already working on sorting out one side.]

Guess you'd know. [Given Loki's, y'know. Everything.] Are you volunteering to be Theseus?

[Doesn't much fit the theme. Too bad they lost Achilles before the heist.]

[ and oh boy, does he know. becoming a new Loki meant making new myths, ones that had no connection to the corruption that he once wielded as a weapon, and he didn't want to admit just how much fumbling he had done through the whole "being a better Loki" thing, but it was enough to be embarrassing.

when Jason begins to fit the puzzle back into place, Loki focuses on holding the illusion. green tendrils lick his dark nailed fingers, his knuckles tight with the spell. ]

Do I look Greek to you? [ he clucks. ] Any joke I'd make would be at another pantheon's expense.

[ not like that's stopped him. ]

[Wow, that's rough, buddy. Jason's lucky all he gets to fuck up is being Jason Todd, these days, and no one really cares much about that. Loki gets a side-glance when he swaps to maintaining his magic, but little more. Better things to be occupying his attention and his eyes with. Luckily (?) that doesn't stop him from running his mouth, while he wrangles the interlocking shapes into submission.]

Surprisingly respectful of you.

[Don't lie to him, Loki. Though—]

Not that I can blame you, I guess.

[He's seen an Amazon or two at work, that's more than enough to put a fear of (Greek) god into you.]

[ there's lot more happening by Loki then there looks. spells affect reality, and there's a versatility that he's demanding of it with the magic. he's probably one of the few that would say that, while they're not a dichotomy, magic and science are not the same thing. ]

There's been wars over less. Please, ask my brother about how he met Hercules if you want to strike up a particularly long conversation. [ a pause, and Loki huffs. ] One that doesn't end in the drunken collapse of his own sense of self-worth.

[ because that's sure still a thing. ]

[Are you challenging him to push his luck, Loki. He cracks a wry kind of grin while he fits the pieces he's already figured into place. Rapid, for now, but it'll slow a little,
as he goes on. As he does, only a little ironically—]

Is that a warning or an invitation?

[Or six of one and half a dozen of the other? Jason might be able to relate on the subject of the golden-child-older-sibling.]

[ what??? create some tension?? why he would never do such a thing. he is innocent, and he has never done anything like it, in his life. ]

It can't be both? It's not as if poking a bear isn't fun before the mauling.

[ he says as they divert a minotaur, whoops. ]

Are you quite done yet? While I have impressive stamina, I can't hold the distraction forever.

[Innocent like a hole in the head. Nothing like a little gallows humor to lighten the mood, though. He'll take that as a "hurry up."]

Think of it as a workout.

[The distracting or the mauling? (Both. It's both.) He's helping, probably. He's at least gotten himself back to where he'd left off in rapid-fire, and the last of it is falling into place a little quicker as he narrows down the options. (Slot a, tab b. Et cetera.) The lava-bull wrangling may be above his physical paygrade, but he's a sharp guy. Puzzle-locks are actually kind of within his skillset.]

Almost there. Hold out a few more seconds, big guy, and you can have the next go.

[ while Loki sounds urgent, he doesn't sound as serious as he could be stuck between a rock and a hard place, whoops.

his eyes go flat at the mention of workout, there isn't anything that he wanted to do less. ]

Keep up your snail-like pace and I'll start charging for this!

[ he says hotly, as if he already might have something else in mind for poor, poor, poor Jason. ]

[Without even looking upward.]

Send me an IOU once we're home free.

[He's good for it, probably. (Hah.) Patience is a virtue, Loki. But, luckily, not one he has to exercise for much longer. He twists at something and then uses a little elbow grease to slam it down into place. Bam.

For a second or two, it's hard to say if it worked. But then something clicks behind the mechanism, and the console lights up.]

Looks like a jackpot to me.

[Time to get out of Dodge.]

[ he'll remember this later, Jason.

it's most likely no way to inspire someone who's working with you, but Loki needs a reason to complain all the same. in some ways, it cuts the tension and makes the whole situation more bearable. in others, well, he's been exposed to worse. when you're a god, the "mortal danger" scale gets all the wider. ]

Finally—my father's beard grows fa—

[ but he doesn't have time to finish that, because the bull is definitely turning toward them, sick of the illusion, and ready to vomit its poisonous acids upon them.

Loki darts out of the way, cursing that if his jacket is singed... ]

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EVENT ★ LABYRINTH III: THE ESCAPE

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puzzle room.

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