Diamond Pantheon

You break from the maze of passages into the furnace rooms, where row upon row of hulking metal machines create a confusing array of shadows, firelight, and spilled messes.

The fuel sources are also mined here. The furnaces used to be fed by some deep-delving race, then used to power strange machinery.



Layers of coal and mires of bitumen are everywhere; you pass a few animal carcasses preserved by the tar. After exploring the labyrinthine passageways between the hulks, you come to an impenetrable door of diamond, surrounded by a tangled ball of wiring and circuitry terminating in a glass saucer. Upon the door are the words “SCOUT BANDS GRIP KNOWN ERROR.”

What do you do?

A door surrounded by a what? I'm not sure what I'm seeing here.

Sorry about that. Fixed.

"Water drops on burning rocks. I finally find some wires and the solution is alchemy? Typical." A nearby furnace roars to life. I throw in a rock and, while it's heating, zoom back up the crevice to find some water. When I return I place the hot rock on the glass saucer, then drip water onto it.

A turbine lowers from the ceiling and clamps a copper ring around the lens.

Each drop of water produces a prodigious amount of steam - you detect a synergy of magic and mechanics. Energy streams through the wires and the huge diamond door comes open, revealing rows of geothermal furnaces, more rooms, and a diamond egg.

Hah. I'll snag that egg and explore the rooms.

The geothermal furnaces power an extensive conveyor system, connected by pneumatic tubes. The system darts in and out of the walls, through caves, and into complex organizations with one track feeding into several choices at a switch area.

I haven't hatched my egg yet. I'll do that now.