11.21.2006
Up
You return to the top floor with the glowing warning message. Ignoring it some more, you climb up the ladder.
It is all dark up there. Another blinking switch provides faint illumination, and cautious adventurers that you be, you flip it.
The room floods with light as the shades are automatically drawn. A mechanical 'whir' signals the motorized shields all around the circular room being drawn up into the ceiling.
The withdrawal offers an impressive view of the ocean surrounding the Institute. The sea, a hundred feet below you, crashes against the little rock this thing is built on.
Down below, you see the Bronze Dragon, still docked. A few of the sailors, tiny, can be seen playing cards or something.
Off in the distance, faintly, you see the Ivory City of Gorgos.
Also, in the water, you see what seems to be a series of buoys, stretching off in a line off from the island. They seem to go at 100 m intervals, and there are nine of them. Each buoy has a tall metal rod sticking up from it. Huh.
You can head up one more flight, to the very top of the GMI. A large beacon is up here, apparently able to act as a lighthouse. It is off.
Controls for the lighthouse beacon are down below, and fairly easy to figure out. Some more monitoring equipment, off, is here, and rather complicated-seeming. Other than that, you find nothing. Nothing but a locked iron strongbox, that none of your keys fit.
It's out or down the stairs into the sublevel.
...
Excuse the typing if there are any imperfections. I fucked up my back and am typing from a semi-prone position on my bed. I'm still going to get to Portland, painfully, but ugh, what a mess.
It is all dark up there. Another blinking switch provides faint illumination, and cautious adventurers that you be, you flip it.
The room floods with light as the shades are automatically drawn. A mechanical 'whir' signals the motorized shields all around the circular room being drawn up into the ceiling.
The withdrawal offers an impressive view of the ocean surrounding the Institute. The sea, a hundred feet below you, crashes against the little rock this thing is built on.
Down below, you see the Bronze Dragon, still docked. A few of the sailors, tiny, can be seen playing cards or something.
Off in the distance, faintly, you see the Ivory City of Gorgos.
Also, in the water, you see what seems to be a series of buoys, stretching off in a line off from the island. They seem to go at 100 m intervals, and there are nine of them. Each buoy has a tall metal rod sticking up from it. Huh.
You can head up one more flight, to the very top of the GMI. A large beacon is up here, apparently able to act as a lighthouse. It is off.
Controls for the lighthouse beacon are down below, and fairly easy to figure out. Some more monitoring equipment, off, is here, and rather complicated-seeming. Other than that, you find nothing. Nothing but a locked iron strongbox, that none of your keys fit.
It's out or down the stairs into the sublevel.
...
Excuse the typing if there are any imperfections. I fucked up my back and am typing from a semi-prone position on my bed. I'm still going to get to Portland, painfully, but ugh, what a mess.
