Portal Mission Summary
Jan. 31st, 2019 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wynnGold, Faye, Emma, Astrid, Mars | May 2014
The Knights were briefed by Hasmed about rumors of a town in Germany where magic did not seem to be working at all. Convinced that this might be the key to breaking Amara's curse, he was sending them there to investigate the situation and see what they could learn.
Arriving in Heimbach, they decided to split up and ask around. Gold, Emma, and Faye bluffed their way inside the Town Hall to find records, and discovered some records of a company called Luckman Industries asking for permission to do excavating in the area earlier in the year. Astrid & Mars headed to a local bar, where they heard rumors of plants withering and dying and strange lights in the sky. She also learned that the magic had stopped when a construction crew came through to fix the quarry - which didn't seem to need the work done. They also heard about a guy named Franz, who had seemed to go crazy, and talked to his dad and learned it had happened when Franz and a friend were trying to do magic by the quarry. Astrid texted the others a warning not to use magic while they were here.
They all met back up at the bar, where they put their heads together on what they had found. They decided to check out the quarry and went to buy a bunch of supplies from the hardware store.
At the quarry, they discovered what seemed to be an underground bunker and started to explore it, and found some kind of high tech mysterious machine shooting out sparks of blue energy that Gold identified as magic. Emma speculated that the machine was absorbing the magic in the area. Faye hit a button that closed the doors, sealing them inside and a giant magnet lowered from the ceiling, taking all of their metal items away from them. When Emma tried to fry the control board, blinding rainbow lights shot out instead. A voice abruptly spoke up and insulted them, welcoming them to "the Luckman Industries computer-enrichment center".
The AI, GLaDOS, told them that they had been lured there as test subjects in furthering Luckman Industries' research into anti-magic technologies. She explained that they would be subjected to a series of (lethal) tests, where they would have to cast spells to survive. When Astrid revealed that she didn't have any magic, she found herself clamped to a track leading her into an incinerator, and the others were forced to rescue her. GLaDOS explained that they would need to use magic to save her, but that the large machine would cause half of their magic to produce random effects instead. Emma cast a spell that left her reading everyone's thoughts, while Faye managed to slam the incinerator door shut with magic. They managed to get her shackles off, and were herded into the next testing chamber.
This room was blocked by several big hunks of ice. Faye tried to cast fire, but instead filled the hall with noxious gas. Gold's attempt to do the same turned all of them invisible. After ineffectively trying to get through it with brute force, Mars managed to get through with a scorching ray.. only to face another ice wall. Gold burned through that one, exposing a third. Emma wound up telepathic again as Faye rolled a flaming sphere through that wall.
They headed into the third chamber. The test involved a platform that could lift two of them at a time, but one person would have to stay behind to push the button. Mars offered to be the last up. When the others got up, Gold used mage hand to hit the button and raise Mars up as well, with no problems.
The fourth chamber lay in wait: where laser beams blocked their way forward. Companion cubes were perched far above, and Gold tried to mage hand one down, gaining a moment of prescience. Faye and Emma managed to get two down, and then Mars tried to cast the same and got turned into a statue - which they didn't realize at first, because they were all invisible. Gold dispelled the invisibility and they realized what had happened to Mars. Faye tried to barter for his life, but GLaDOS insisted she both could not do anything and would not even if she could. They were forced to leave Mars behind.
The fifth chamber involved a massive wall of fire! Gold got lucky and his wild magic created heavy rain that put it all out.
The sixth chamber involved a pool of water filled with piranhas. Emma used shocking grasp to fry 'em all. However, the water was electrocuted and they had to use boxes to get across. When Gold tried to mage hand one, he accidentally enlarge personed everyone else instead.
The seventh chamber had a hexagonal formation of poles, on top of which were numerous keys. One of them would open the door, but the wrong keys would get them zapped. They started mage handing keys down to try but one of Gold's spells went awry, disintegrating two poles and keys. Faye caused grass to grow all over the floor and Gold tried to melt the door with acid and Emma pried it open the rest of the way, after they discovered that Astrid could also cast acid.
They were ushered into a chamberlock that took each of them to a separate Relaxation Vault for the night. Emma found a message under her bed that read "The Cake is a lie" and GLaDOS woke them up with a charming speech about how their other friends were plotting to kill them during the testing that day.
The first test of day two involved a long bottomless chasm with a bullseye across the way. Emma tried to hit it with magic missile and instead illuminated it with faerie fire. Gold managed to strike with one and it moved their platform a small way across the gap and Gold nearly fell off but was saved by Faye. When Emma tried to cast again, she was turned into a statue. Gold again tried to dispel magic on her to no effect and Faye refused to leave her behind as they had Mars.
Meanwhile, in the basement, Mars awoke from being a statue and met a little round eccentric AI called Wheatley, who helped him escape the chamber....
Up in the chasm testing chamber, Faye & Gold kept using magic missiles to move slowly across the room and then Gold released a cloud of noxious poison and Faye accidentally capsized an entire testing chamber below them. Gold caused heavy rain to start pouring which knocked the Emma statue over and Astrid managed to catch it. Another spell caused grass to spurt once more and they realized that the room was actually breaking apart, and it began to tip on its side. Astrid managed to use Faye's gun to shoot them another five feet across. Inspired by the introduction of bullets into the testing chamber, a portal turret was placed in the chamber as well. Gold was barely dangling off the platform by his cane, as Astrid tried to shoot it down, but Faye managed to take it out with a ball of flame. Astrid kept shooting them closer, as more turrets were revealed and Gold tried to burning arc them - only to have his cane turned into clay. Faye kept murdering turrets with her ball of fire and Astrid finished getting the platform all the way across as GLaDOS chided them for killing the turrets and also Emma.
Faye again refused to leave Emma behind and planned to stay behind with her, but GLaDOS turned threatening, insisting they would all proceed or there would be "a problem". When Faye wouldn't budge, GLaDOS herself appeared physically and threatened to unleash her deadly neurotoxins, revealing that she was a robot the whole time.
However, at that moment, Mars and Wheatley used a bouncy gel to jump up through the floor... into the room everyone else was in. This totally threw GLaDOS off - as well as everyone else. They all jumped down after, just in time to escape GLaDOS' neurotoxins.
They landed on the bouncy gel below, where they met Wheatley and reunited with Mars. The little robot explained that he intended to rescue them and had dealt with "her" before. He claimed to have a master plan for shutting her down. He also explained that Luckman had placed her in charge of the facility after he had found both her and Wheatley and she had convinced him to chuck Wheatley into the scrap pile, even after he used to run a facility. He suggested they turn off the machine disrupting their magic and then sent them on a service elevator joy ride. That almost slammed them into a giant wall, but Faye opened it with magic at the last second and they crashed into the Tourism Center where a number of screens were explaining the life of George Luckman, who talked about gaining control over magic so that they could use it like we use electricity. They found a door that led back to the main hall, but their celebration was short-lived.
Wheatley returned to herd them back towards the magic generator room and told them to plug him into the panel so he could hack into it and turn it off. Faye did so, and he futzed with the machine, accidentally restoring all their magic first. They tried it again and this time Wheatley was attached to the machine and could tell how it changed their spell and bent time, creating a temporal disturbance. And then Wheatley went mad with power. Declaring himself a god of chaos, he seemed unwilling to part from the machine and they attacked, making him angry and he cast random strange effects such as causing Faye's presence to make people lose things, or for them all to lose their sense of smell and taste, or for Gold to become wracked with guilt every time he cast a spell. This made Gold second guess attacking him and Wheatley made his shoes weigh twice as much with every step. When Faye angrily said they should burn him to the ground, he transformed her organic tissue into circuitry. When she tried to cast a spell... she vanished. Gold became convinced that Astrid was deeply in love with him and then Mars' spell caused the local government to collapse amid scandals. Wheatley tried to alter another spell but was burned out of the socket by a scorching ray from Mars. Astrid grabbed the damaged AI core, and they headed out.
However, in the lobby was a woman... who was apparently GLaDOS, now trapped in the human form of the woman whose brain had been used to create the killer robot in the first place. Gold suggested she come with them, because they might be able to find a way to get her back in a robot body. In return GLaDOS showed them how to get back to the scrap chamber and they got Emma's statue and headed out of there.
...Meanwhile, Faye found herself in the mouth of the tarrasque. Which was, blessedly, asleep. Somehow, she managed to escape and eventually get home.
The Knights were briefed by Hasmed about rumors of a town in Germany where magic did not seem to be working at all. Convinced that this might be the key to breaking Amara's curse, he was sending them there to investigate the situation and see what they could learn.
Arriving in Heimbach, they decided to split up and ask around. Gold, Emma, and Faye bluffed their way inside the Town Hall to find records, and discovered some records of a company called Luckman Industries asking for permission to do excavating in the area earlier in the year. Astrid & Mars headed to a local bar, where they heard rumors of plants withering and dying and strange lights in the sky. She also learned that the magic had stopped when a construction crew came through to fix the quarry - which didn't seem to need the work done. They also heard about a guy named Franz, who had seemed to go crazy, and talked to his dad and learned it had happened when Franz and a friend were trying to do magic by the quarry. Astrid texted the others a warning not to use magic while they were here.
They all met back up at the bar, where they put their heads together on what they had found. They decided to check out the quarry and went to buy a bunch of supplies from the hardware store.
At the quarry, they discovered what seemed to be an underground bunker and started to explore it, and found some kind of high tech mysterious machine shooting out sparks of blue energy that Gold identified as magic. Emma speculated that the machine was absorbing the magic in the area. Faye hit a button that closed the doors, sealing them inside and a giant magnet lowered from the ceiling, taking all of their metal items away from them. When Emma tried to fry the control board, blinding rainbow lights shot out instead. A voice abruptly spoke up and insulted them, welcoming them to "the Luckman Industries computer-enrichment center".
The AI, GLaDOS, told them that they had been lured there as test subjects in furthering Luckman Industries' research into anti-magic technologies. She explained that they would be subjected to a series of (lethal) tests, where they would have to cast spells to survive. When Astrid revealed that she didn't have any magic, she found herself clamped to a track leading her into an incinerator, and the others were forced to rescue her. GLaDOS explained that they would need to use magic to save her, but that the large machine would cause half of their magic to produce random effects instead. Emma cast a spell that left her reading everyone's thoughts, while Faye managed to slam the incinerator door shut with magic. They managed to get her shackles off, and were herded into the next testing chamber.
This room was blocked by several big hunks of ice. Faye tried to cast fire, but instead filled the hall with noxious gas. Gold's attempt to do the same turned all of them invisible. After ineffectively trying to get through it with brute force, Mars managed to get through with a scorching ray.. only to face another ice wall. Gold burned through that one, exposing a third. Emma wound up telepathic again as Faye rolled a flaming sphere through that wall.
They headed into the third chamber. The test involved a platform that could lift two of them at a time, but one person would have to stay behind to push the button. Mars offered to be the last up. When the others got up, Gold used mage hand to hit the button and raise Mars up as well, with no problems.
The fourth chamber lay in wait: where laser beams blocked their way forward. Companion cubes were perched far above, and Gold tried to mage hand one down, gaining a moment of prescience. Faye and Emma managed to get two down, and then Mars tried to cast the same and got turned into a statue - which they didn't realize at first, because they were all invisible. Gold dispelled the invisibility and they realized what had happened to Mars. Faye tried to barter for his life, but GLaDOS insisted she both could not do anything and would not even if she could. They were forced to leave Mars behind.
The fifth chamber involved a massive wall of fire! Gold got lucky and his wild magic created heavy rain that put it all out.
The sixth chamber involved a pool of water filled with piranhas. Emma used shocking grasp to fry 'em all. However, the water was electrocuted and they had to use boxes to get across. When Gold tried to mage hand one, he accidentally enlarge personed everyone else instead.
The seventh chamber had a hexagonal formation of poles, on top of which were numerous keys. One of them would open the door, but the wrong keys would get them zapped. They started mage handing keys down to try but one of Gold's spells went awry, disintegrating two poles and keys. Faye caused grass to grow all over the floor and Gold tried to melt the door with acid and Emma pried it open the rest of the way, after they discovered that Astrid could also cast acid.
They were ushered into a chamberlock that took each of them to a separate Relaxation Vault for the night. Emma found a message under her bed that read "The Cake is a lie" and GLaDOS woke them up with a charming speech about how their other friends were plotting to kill them during the testing that day.
The first test of day two involved a long bottomless chasm with a bullseye across the way. Emma tried to hit it with magic missile and instead illuminated it with faerie fire. Gold managed to strike with one and it moved their platform a small way across the gap and Gold nearly fell off but was saved by Faye. When Emma tried to cast again, she was turned into a statue. Gold again tried to dispel magic on her to no effect and Faye refused to leave her behind as they had Mars.
Meanwhile, in the basement, Mars awoke from being a statue and met a little round eccentric AI called Wheatley, who helped him escape the chamber....
Up in the chasm testing chamber, Faye & Gold kept using magic missiles to move slowly across the room and then Gold released a cloud of noxious poison and Faye accidentally capsized an entire testing chamber below them. Gold caused heavy rain to start pouring which knocked the Emma statue over and Astrid managed to catch it. Another spell caused grass to spurt once more and they realized that the room was actually breaking apart, and it began to tip on its side. Astrid managed to use Faye's gun to shoot them another five feet across. Inspired by the introduction of bullets into the testing chamber, a portal turret was placed in the chamber as well. Gold was barely dangling off the platform by his cane, as Astrid tried to shoot it down, but Faye managed to take it out with a ball of flame. Astrid kept shooting them closer, as more turrets were revealed and Gold tried to burning arc them - only to have his cane turned into clay. Faye kept murdering turrets with her ball of fire and Astrid finished getting the platform all the way across as GLaDOS chided them for killing the turrets and also Emma.
Faye again refused to leave Emma behind and planned to stay behind with her, but GLaDOS turned threatening, insisting they would all proceed or there would be "a problem". When Faye wouldn't budge, GLaDOS herself appeared physically and threatened to unleash her deadly neurotoxins, revealing that she was a robot the whole time.
However, at that moment, Mars and Wheatley used a bouncy gel to jump up through the floor... into the room everyone else was in. This totally threw GLaDOS off - as well as everyone else. They all jumped down after, just in time to escape GLaDOS' neurotoxins.
They landed on the bouncy gel below, where they met Wheatley and reunited with Mars. The little robot explained that he intended to rescue them and had dealt with "her" before. He claimed to have a master plan for shutting her down. He also explained that Luckman had placed her in charge of the facility after he had found both her and Wheatley and she had convinced him to chuck Wheatley into the scrap pile, even after he used to run a facility. He suggested they turn off the machine disrupting their magic and then sent them on a service elevator joy ride. That almost slammed them into a giant wall, but Faye opened it with magic at the last second and they crashed into the Tourism Center where a number of screens were explaining the life of George Luckman, who talked about gaining control over magic so that they could use it like we use electricity. They found a door that led back to the main hall, but their celebration was short-lived.
Wheatley returned to herd them back towards the magic generator room and told them to plug him into the panel so he could hack into it and turn it off. Faye did so, and he futzed with the machine, accidentally restoring all their magic first. They tried it again and this time Wheatley was attached to the machine and could tell how it changed their spell and bent time, creating a temporal disturbance. And then Wheatley went mad with power. Declaring himself a god of chaos, he seemed unwilling to part from the machine and they attacked, making him angry and he cast random strange effects such as causing Faye's presence to make people lose things, or for them all to lose their sense of smell and taste, or for Gold to become wracked with guilt every time he cast a spell. This made Gold second guess attacking him and Wheatley made his shoes weigh twice as much with every step. When Faye angrily said they should burn him to the ground, he transformed her organic tissue into circuitry. When she tried to cast a spell... she vanished. Gold became convinced that Astrid was deeply in love with him and then Mars' spell caused the local government to collapse amid scandals. Wheatley tried to alter another spell but was burned out of the socket by a scorching ray from Mars. Astrid grabbed the damaged AI core, and they headed out.
However, in the lobby was a woman... who was apparently GLaDOS, now trapped in the human form of the woman whose brain had been used to create the killer robot in the first place. Gold suggested she come with them, because they might be able to find a way to get her back in a robot body. In return GLaDOS showed them how to get back to the scrap chamber and they got Emma's statue and headed out of there.
...Meanwhile, Faye found herself in the mouth of the tarrasque. Which was, blessedly, asleep. Somehow, she managed to escape and eventually get home.