Is Pas an imposter? Perhaps the avatar of a god made by a machine? These are the questions Roondar asks himself as the party plans their next move. Maul is similarly skeptical if less erudite in her arguments. Owynka and Carric, on the other hand, truly believe in their mission.
Returning to the priest Jude Blackstone's secret headquarters in Viron, Owynka tells him, flatly, "We met God." Jude is ecstatic, and asks them to tell him all about their divine encounter. Roondar outlines the plan of exodus that Pas laid before them, keeping his skepticism to himself. Jude asks what he can do to help them, with reverence in his voice. Carric, his eyes shining with the light of the lord, lays a beatific hand on Jude's shoulder and says, "You have a role to play, my friend."
Jude, it's clear, is overawed and prepared to do anything the party asks. He shows Carric the ancient, supposedly apocryphal texts he found in the Secret Archives that speak of an exodus. He volunteers that he is in contact with other insurrection cell leaders within the clergy both in Viron and in the other major city-states of the Whorl. They have a vast communication network in place that can be utilized very quickly.
But before the party puts Jude into action, they resolve to investigate the catacombs and find the transports that Pas referenced.
Their first stop is the Cathedral of Pas, a grand building with which they are very familiar: the vaulted ceilings, the penitent worshipers, the colossal statue of Pas at the far end of the nave. From there they find the door that leads to the crypt, which lies below the cathedral.
The crypt beneath the cathedral is vast and empty. At the far end are two passageways and a staircase leading up. The passageway on the left contains a steel door with the symbol of the Order of the Crescent Sun, which slides open as the party approaches. Beyond the door they find a high-ceilinged, dimly lit room that seems to stretch on into infinity. It contains endless pillars that run from floor to ceiling. Every surface is damp, with many puddles of water scattered about the floor. As they proceed, the pillars change shape and the room narrows to a sort of corridor flanked by even larger pillars. In the distance, a bright blue light shines forth from an open-ended chamber.
This chamber is filled with hundreds of odd capsules, about seven feet tall, fashioned primarily of metal with wedges of glass on one side. Many of the capsules slide along tracks in the floor, crashing into each other at the end of the line. Others are hoisted aloft by cranes from the ceiling. In the background, a crackling, droning voice utters familiar words: "Bay 6-3-2-K-7, sublevel 1, purge capsules 9 through 33. Transport to outtake vessel 17B for decontamination and disposal. Error: transport-calibration malfunction. Amend protocols for colonist retention and recalculate inhibition subsystem parameters. Error: protocols offline." The room smells faintly of sulfur and smoke.
Roondar investigates one of the pods. The frosted glass is difficult to see through but after a moment or two of staring, he sees that the capsules contain humanoid bodies. Their faces are twisted and melted, like candlewax, and their bodies are severely misshapen. Maul smashes the glass on one of the pods to investigate the creature more closely. At first it appears to be dead, but moments later it gasps to life, its bloodshot eyes bugging out as it begins to scream and reach toward Maul. Though it seems that the creature is not hostile but rather suffering intense pain, Maul kills it to put it out of its misery.
Along the outer walls of this room are several corridors, about 30 feet wide. The party chooses one of the corridors and finds that it is about 100 feet long and lined with pipes and conduits. The floor contains glass panels, which offer glimpses of a similar corridor below. The ceiling, likewise, contains glass panels that show a similar corridor above. Along the walls at regular intervals are large round hatches, twenty in all, with a small glass porthole in the center of the hatch and a sign above that reads "EMERGENCY." A handful of these signs are lit in red. At the end of the corridor is a smaller open room with wide vents and a ladder that leads both up and down to the adjacent corridors.
Maul approaches one of the hatches with a lit sign above it, and the hatch opens toward her with a pneumatic hiss. Inside the long room beyond are dozens of upholstered chairs arranged in back-to-back octagonal shapes running through the center of the room. The chairs look like they would be quite snug, and each is equipped with straps and buckles.
But the sight that arrests our intrepid party lies beyond the windows of this long room. Through the round porthole and four rectangular windows on the far wall is a vast panorama of a landscape stretching out far below them--too far, in fact, to fathom its distance. The room they are in appears to be hovering hundreds of miles above an immense planet, its atmosphere gliding along in slow motion: cloud formations seemingly hundreds of miles wide sweep across the scene. Below them, vast oceans and green continents are visible. Above, the black sky gleams with twinkling stars. Then, to their right, they witness a brightly shining orb--so dazzling that it nearly blinds them--just rising above the horizon of this vast planet below.
Exhilaration is replaced by a sudden and intense feeling of vertigo. The geometry is all wrong. The Whorl, a concave land enveloping its sun like a life-giving seed in the self-contained cradle of civilization, is the exact opposite of what they see below: a convex world, alarmingly open and vulnerable to the cosmos that surrounds it, its own sun untethered and askew. What they see below them is not the Whorl. It is something else. Something alien.
The shock is intense. Roondar, struggling to accept the scene in front of him, tries to determine if what they're seeing is an illusion. But it seems not. The party retreats back to the room with the crashing pods. In the room behind it are several pods bolted to the floor and hooked up to an array of conduits and ducts that seem to be feeding them power. Many of these pods contain seemingly healthy humanoids.
Roondar waits to see if one of the cranes reenters this room. When one does, he follows it until it stops to retrieve a pod. After it delivers the pod to the other room, Roondar peers in to find that the creature within is a human man, gaunt and pasty-skinned. Maul pries open the pod, and the man, though he seems to have some vague recognition of Maul standing before him, appears to be in nearly as much pain as the other pod creature.
Roondar casts cure wounds on the man. He gasps, and his skin turns a rosier hue. In a croaky voice he asks, "Are we there yet?"
Maul demands to know where the man is from. He seems confused by this question. "Where are you from?" he says. Maul replies, "I'm from here. Where are you from?"
The man says, "I'm from Earth."
Owynka asks, "Do you know about the Plan of Pas?" To which the man replies, "Who's Pas?"
THE END, FOR NOW
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING ESCAPE THE WHORL....
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