Rumors of the Lost

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Gillian originally wished to do a superhero-landing, making a unique entrance so to speak, but perhaps due to some timing issue, he ended up kneeling on both legs as if he is giving a prayer. Meanwhile, both Gevurah and Chesed just kind of splattered into two puddles behind Gil, before resuming back into their humanoid appearance.
After spending a few moments judging the surroundings and the assorted people, as well as the information in Halcyon's little explanation, Gillian slowly stands back up, and bows slightly, once towards Hal, and again towards the replicants.
"Erm... hello there, we are from the Crimson Republic, was just taking a little stroll before getting into....this"
Gil gestures to the surrounding darkness for a bit.
"Hal...um... how do you know about that?"

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos Dumb
"A key eh?"

He also feels the interior of the pedestal with his left hand, whilst with his right, he grabs the cigarette and draws a heavy breath from it, expelling the fumes from the nose, and then smudging the cinders on the side of the pedestal.

"Anyone's got a key thing that's like three concentric octagons?"

He looks around, seeing that his party isn't in possession of anything like that, before turning back to Hal again and tapping him on the back.

"Well unless you have something like that, or those gel fellas don't wanna become some shapes, then we're as stuck as you are bud."

The rest of the replicants surround the whole event in a circle, but for now, they don't do anything.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
Halcyon looked at both groups then he shook his head.
"Certainly not me."
He chuckled humorless.
"Would've been long out of this otherwise."
As the replicant examined the pedestal with his fingers, he... felt something, aside from the three glowing octagons, there seemed to be two overlaying rectangles etched into it which wren't glowing yet. Arranged in a manner in which they formed an eight pointed star together...
Halcyon continued.
"Though, two more of of those octagons began glowing a while before you came here.
What did you do since your arrival?"
He nodded towards the pedestal they were all standing besides.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Hmm..."
Not receiving an answer to his question, or rather, receiving the predicted answer to his question, Gillian slips both hands into his pants pockets, occasionally shifting his gravity to the sides while shifting his eyesight between the two other parties.
"We've been going around in circles...the octagonal path which the surrounding 8 plazas connect into, following some purposefully laid clues regarding a planet near the Core..."
Gillian carefully inspects any sort of expressional changes of Hal, before turning to face the replicant checking the pedestal.
"As for the key, doubt this can be solved with just masses of the same shape, so might as well share whatever hints we all received after entering this first, unless you already got the key that is"

Fort_Master_Gustav

Dumb Drakador_Chaos
"Aye that's true. So I can think of some options here off the top of me head."

The replicant leans over the weird pedestal, and stars citing off what he means.

"Now either Hal here has to go take a walk through these eight temples out there, maybe we have to activate them or something like that. Or there's another set of 8 things we have to go through, or a more inner realization, innit?
Because we did go through some odd places before we got shoved into this darkness, then we went through this second level, two octagons lit yes? Maybe there's another, more inner level. Could be Hal here, he's the first that got here after all."

The replicant shrugs in the end.

"But your guess's as good as mine, y'know how these things go, they are made to be confusing, every precursor or eldritch or secretive thing gets off on being secret and confusing, just how it be."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
Hal seemed to be thinking, as the other two gave their answer, he lifted an eyebrow as Gil mentioned the planet, though didn´t show any other particular reaction. As they concluded he raised his finger and a red glowing construct formed above his fingers in the shape of the pattern atop the pedestal.
"Yes, I can affirm a physical key doesn´t work, tried that."
The construct dissipated, however, Hal seemed to have had an idea.
"Well, if the second and third formed when you came, the first one probably did when I was walking in circles, considering it was already there when I originally came here. The additional definitely makes sense, considering we seemed to have made some progress but are obviously not finished yet... Which would mean, those two..."
He pointed at the top of the pedestal with his open hand and lifted both eyebrows, as if demanding a supposedly obvious answer...

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Hm?"
Following Hal's pointer, Gillian inspects the top of the pedestal and notice the overlaying squares
"Say, if the octagonal shapes light up when we walk the octagonal path, would the squares work the same way as well?"

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos Dumb

"Well if you lads want to take a walk around the place, take the kid wit'ya. Since the shape seems to be inside, then A'reckon that it's sumwere in this darkness 'round us. I've had enough walkin'."

The child replicant steps fourth from the group of replicants that were gathered around everyone as the discussion carried forwards, meanwhile, the standard model reached for his trenchcoat and grabbed his lighter, flicking it back and fourth, obviously simply fidgeting for time.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
_
Hal looked at both groups for a while and each replicant specifically, though he apparently wasn't able to tell what exactly, he seemed to sense something was off about them, as he briefly narrowed his eyes when he was finished.
"Yeah, I guess that is likely. Although I would argue we should split up without anybody being here at the time, we don't know what happens if we mess things up and I frankly don't want to find out."
It was a weird way to put it... though what he did say seemed sensible, at least to some degree.
"I will go with those three and head to the..."
He scratched his chin and seemed to be thinking.
"Obelisk. The obelisk and you can probably head to the fountain. Any objections?"
The fact that he seemed to be knowing the places around the octagon could lead to some interesting implications, alas probably none that would particularly useful currently, regardless he was waiting for the others input...

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Consider how we start from a certain lizard statue, if your starting point isn't the obelisk, I would advise us to change our current heading, despite going on the same path"
"i thought you are just a spear eh?"
Gillian looks up at the pair as he fiddling something on the ground, before looking back at what he is building: a sheet of sort composed of purple rectangular pieces, all arranged in polygonal structure to maximize its surface area. After assembling the last few pieces, Gil stands back up, does a little stretching, and casually sits cross-legged on the metallic mat, followed by the pair.
"phew...well then, if you don't mind, step right in, we will finish this in no time."

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos Dumb
"Alll right, off to walking again I reckon then. Cya gents in a jiffy."

The circle of replicants dissasembles itself and gather around like a small platoon with the usual replicant model as the leader of it, he looks for a few moments inquisitively at whatever Gillian is doing, but ultimately he shrugs it off and begrudgingly walks away from the central area, dissapearing into the ominous darkness.
Once again they follow their telemetry data to get to the aforementioned point, taking to hurry in their strides.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav

Hals gaze followed the replicants as they left the plaza until the eventually disappeared in the darkness, he stood there a while longer, for a couple of moments only, then went over to Gillian and his companions.
"So, we are using this thing?"
He nodded towards the mat.
"Alright. Fine with me. It doesn't really matter where we start, so long as it's not on the same path as them we should be able to complete both cycles with adequate haste."
Without any further questions, or permissions, asked he sat down on the thing and waited.
He frowned.
"I don't know what, but something is off about those guys, we should move quickly, I feel like it would be better if we arrive back here before them."
...that being said, he eyed Gillian and his companions almost equally as warily, he did not seem to fully trust them either...

In the meanwhile the replicants made their way off into the darkness, if wasn't a straight path they were walking and if it hadn't been for them being Replicants, finding directions, or anything really in this darkness would've been an issue, however, it was an easy task for them, to navigate the swirling abyss they found themselves in.
Considering they had already made half the way there was an obvious choice to make, the others probably had already left the plaza by now...
Would it matter if they sent one theirs back to keep an eye on the central plaza?
On the other other hand, as biased as the mans words were... there was some logic to them.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Gillian looks Hal in the eye, then turns away with a hint of smile on his face.
"Speedy it is."
With a snap of the finger, two metallic panels spring up behind Gil and Hal, supporting the entire back as well as the head, and a set of six-point seatbelts firmly wrapped around their body. While two half-dome emerges right in front of the seats, with the twins tucking in each of them, possibly to shield against the wind
"Sorry if it's a bit uncomfortable, but we do not want to accidentally do any physical harm... Ahh yes, remember to tuck in your arms as well if your body cannot sustain high Gs, we prefer not to have broken limbs for our passengers..."
"Sorry to interrupt, but should we tune it all the way up?"
"Nah, just subsonic, we don't know what effects would be influenced to the actual embassy yet, and a sonic boom on a pavement is certainly not something we want to find out the hard way."
"Aight, Gev, coordinates set?"
"Since this is considered as abnormal territory, only relative coordinates are inputted. Otherwise, all lights are green."
"Good, speed set to 250 m/s, expect...well the hecc do I know about weather forecasts for some enclosed space......but all things aside, hope we don't collide into the other party..."
"Ahem"
"Yes....well then, 3, 2, 1, lift off!"
Following Chesed's command, the entire metallic complex floats up, before dashing to its designated destinations: The lizard sculpture -> Obelisk -> Bi-pyramid -> A dual-spiral monument -> lizard sculpture -> middle plaza

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos
There was no reason for the replicants to sprint back to the center of the place, after all why willingly make themselves a target in this hazardous environment by screwing a plan up, when they could just take it easy. The small gimmicky thing the others had would buy them a few minutes at most.
The original version just waited for the others in a rendezvous point close to the center, but with the center still out of sight, and each of the replicants went to one of the points of importance, slightly staggered so that they'd arrive at them at the right sequence, and then they came back.
After the team was gathered back at the original and leader replicant, they went back to the middle plaza to meet with the others.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
The construct lifted off and charged into teh darkness before Hal could make any more inquiries or any form of objection, with a tense looking expression he seemed to hold into the construct for his dear life.
After the passed the sculpure and the obelisk he seemed to say something though the airstream was too loud to understand anything.
Like this they passed the Bi-pyramid and as the reached the spiral monument, Gil heard him screaming into his ears...
"HAAALT!"
Whether he was a warrior or not, he certainly wasn't used to this sort of technology...

Fort_Master_Gustav
...in the meanwhile the replicants made their way towards their respective monuments through the darkness, their advanced sense for orientation coming in quite handy.
The first one to reach their target was obviously the one to the fountain, as it was the direction they had been going to anyways, notably, nothing of note happened when they reached.
The next one who reported in was the one towards the cube though there was nothing of note there either.
Were they doing something wrong or did it just take the full sequence?
Then, the sign, which seemed to be broken, degraded similarly as all the other construct they had found in teh alst stage of the darkness.
...then as the the last replicant reached its destination, the pillar...
Suddenly, there was an actual, change.
...as expected.

[@ both]
As both cycles were completed, the monuments uddenly fell to ash, the was bright red light from the center, before eitehr of them could reach back onto the central plaza, shadows danced in the diffuse light, looking as if there were nothing but countless monoliths standing in the darkness, casting shadows and silently standing watch...
Whatever they did, they had certainly done it now.
On the central plaza a brigth red pillar had erupted, visable from each location they had went to or were standing at, the presence they had felt near the thin red line was now washing over the entirety of the dark realm, it felt... ominous.
...nothing new at this point.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Aye aye, halting!"
The metallic flying carpet immediately stops right in front of the spiral monument, almost propelling its passengers with the momentum if not for the seatbelts, but still left a bitter aftertaste in Gil's mouth when he and Hal dismount from the ride in one piece. As for the two slimes, they are barely able to maintain their shape, and simply seeps through the construct before reforming in a half-solid state
Grabbing a water bottle from one of the storage units to have a swig, Gil holds the bottle towards Halcyon after finish washing away the unpleasant sensation, while looking at the newly erected red pillar.
" Here, it's just plain water, let's do some tidying before we go find out whatever that is."

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos
The replicants observed the phenomena taking place, as the weird obelisks that formed the displayed geometries disintegrated themselves, some crouched down to observe the dust, checking whether it was something normal and ubiquitous or rather, specific and interesting. Nevertheless, they all coalesced back towards the main replicant in the end, and together, they made their way back towards the newly formed pillar at the centre.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal nodded and took the bottle, emptying it with a contemplative look whilst observing the pillar of light...
He handed Gil back the bottle and continued to look in direction of the central plaza.
"Hm... maybe I will finally get out of here."
Finally he turned towards Gil and the two slimes.
"Something is there, I can feel it."
He paused and narrowed his eyes.
"Let's not waste any time, remain cautious."
Once they were done tidying up, they collectively headed towards the center, the shadows making space for a red glow, the central place itself hadn't changed particularly... yet, the pillar of light emanating from the pedestal drew the shadows longer, and making them look almost... alive. Atop the pedestal, three octagons glowed and amidst them a star of two overlayed squares.
As they strode onto the central plaza, so did the replicants, it seems they had come back just in time.

Fort_Master_Gustav
The dust itself seemed to ubiquitous in nature, whilst they could touch it and it felt almost like sand, it disintegrated before they even had time to properly analyze, likely just anoteh rgimmick of this place.
As they headed towards the central plaza, the shadows in the corners of their eyes seemed to be almost... shivering, though never when directly looking at them, although the light at the center didn't seemed to move or even flicker.
The replicants, like the others, felt the odd presence as they moved ahead and when they stepped onto the central plaza they found out they were just in time, seeing as the others had returned in roughly the same time.
Amidst the plaza was still the the pedestal, now emanating the pillar of light, on the top side glowing three octagons and a star of two overlaying squares.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
The trio follows Hal from behind during the return, while the twins seemingly lagging behind on purpose.
"Do you think that this Hal..."
"...seems like so, but cannot confirm until everything ends..."
Meanwhile, with the RCDS transforming back to a pack on his back, Gil turns around and faces the twins while walking backward at the same pace.
"It's not good talking about others behind their back yall."
That said, he gently taps the concealed headphone on his right ear, before turning 180 again and pace up to move alongside Hal.

Drakador_Chaos Fort_Master_Gustav
As the group finally returns to the central plaza, and notice that everyone is here as well, Gil resumes his cocky posture, tucking both hands into the pocket once again.
"Well then......I suppose this is meant to happen, instead of being some sort of negative feedback?"

Fort_Master_Gustav

Dumb
"Well, I reckon that is so, I mean, something happened didn't it? That's already a step forward."

The replicants at general spread out around the central pillar, whilst the main replicant simply stood at the edge with his hands on his hips, looking up into the newly generated lightshow.
He awaits for reaction to the others, however, they seemed to stand back for the moment, so, he exclaims:

"Alright then. I'll be the one to test it out."

The main replicant moves up to the main pedestal and tries to interact with it in various ways, touching it or seeing if it reacts to any kind of stimulation it is given.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
Hal simply nodded in response to Gils remark, he also watched the Replicants enter the plaza and didn't make any more comments on them, it seems for now it was enough of a proof of trust to him that they did not simply wait on plaza.
"I would argue that if we did something wrong we likely would not be standing here, one way or another."
He continued to watch with faint signs of tension as the Replicant approached the pedestal, the hand reaching towards his back, or more precisely the hilt of his sword, without actually taking it.
Touching the pedestal seemed to be all stimulation it needed to activate, as the Replicant eveidently didn't get to do anything else before the shook and he rociled from teh pedestal, pushed by an unknown force, the obelisks seemed to be shaking and then, much like the monuments before fell to dust, carried away by an immaterial wind in all directions, out of the sight of the group...
The earth continued to shake, the pillar of laight began to concentrate back into a thin string and the presence seemed to intensify.
A mute yet deafening roar, unable to be defined, numbed their minds, as the pillar of light tore the pedestal apart and ripped open the skies...
Then, as sudden as thinsg had began... silence.
Calm, serene almost, the presence faded, the line split and opened to a elliptic shape...
Silence.
Beyond the shape was darkness, complete and perfect, yet moving almost a mind on its own, just for the fraction of a moment, then it... blinked?
...and the hollow ellipse turned into a portal.
Descending from the portal came a figure, clad in black and red robes, slowly floating to ground...
It was the Herald.
Hal reached for his sword but apparently wasn't quite sure what to do, eyeing his fellow captives warily.
As the Herald descended, he clapped a couple of times, slowly, deliberatly, until he came to halt on the ground, between the fragments of the pedestal.
"I applaud you, seekers, wanderers. You did better than expected."
He smiled thinly, with an expression that was hard to read, then briefly looked at Hal who was still holding the grip of his sword at the ready, the expression dropping for visible disapproval for a moment before it returned to the former one.
Hal let go of the sword and approached the man, the Herald continued.
"I suppose, you have earned yourself a key, each of the groups, or each one of them?"
He seemed to ponder, for the first time, the Heralds presence could actually be felt, there was so much power behind it, it was outright oppressing, preventing them from speaking up or even thinking about doing such.
"Yes, yes, everyone will get a key, it will be more entertaining that way."
He raised his hand and select few of fragments of the former pedestal rose.
"Go ahead, take one, though keep in mind the journey will not get easier from here on out."
He turned, towards the leading replicant, apparently addressing him directly this time.
"As for you and your friends..."
He paused.
"...do you, have any strong desires, any wishes, that are distinctively your own and not those of your masters?"
The oppressive aura faded, they were able to move normally again, albeit, a bit shaken.
Hal moved to the group taking one of the shards without a word, whilst he kept an eye on the Herald.