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The Sun-Shattered Dome
Clockworksun ambience
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 284362

The Sun-Shattered Dome is a Sunless Skies Story Event.

Story description[ | ]

"Exhibition-halls, built to accommodate sunspotter tourists and Sequence pilgrims – and abandoned after the dangers of the Sun became impossible to hide.

Priceless paintings hang in bleached rags. Magnificent relics have been left to accumulate glittering glass-dust. Is anything still intact?

The stained-glass sky has collapsed, and unfiltered sunlight gnaws savagely at your hazard-suit. It is currently State of Your Suit(suit_state)

Delving into the Dome(dome_discovery)"

Trigger conditions[ | ]

Clockworksun icon Delving into the Dome ≥ 1
Area: Limbo
Frequency: Always (100%)

Interactions[ | ]

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Return to safety
You've spent too long out here already. You don't want to return to your train with glass-frosted toes.
Search for a lost sigil
Light shifts and scintillates across the field of glass – exhibits and guests. Each glimmer catches the eye, like a fish on a hook.
A purposeful light
Beyond the glass foot, bereft of its owner. Away from the vines, coiling eagerly. Over the carousel and the bottles of unidentifiable liquid. There, glowing remorselessly, a sigil.
Collect the Clockwork Bomb
There it is, on display at the fringe of the crowd! The contraption the Sequencer mentioned: a bulging dark thing of wires and wheels.
Heavy as a child
The bomb is not exciting to look at; before they were glass, the crowd swept past it and accumulated around some other, less powerful bauble. You gently nudge aside the vitrified body of the lone gentleman who had paused to inspect it. It is the size of an ornamental globe in a London club. It is the weight of an angry child resisting being lifted. It rattles slightly as you heave it from the plinth. That's probably fine.
Your suit hangs in rags. Your crew are panicking.
Their suits are in a similarly lamentable state. You pushed them too far.
Disaster
Light floods you, and a sickening sense of peace that must be fought with every fibre. Something glass cracks inside your head.

A tumult, a stampede. Your crew run, shoving in their haste. Someone falls.

It's only when you arrive back to Azimuth and conduct a headcount that you realise one of your crew was left behind. In the Dome beyond, you hear a familiar voice raised in rapturous song.
Search elsewhere
It will cost valuable time and entail greater risk. But treasure beckons around the next corner, you know it...
Explore the Shalimar
The light has depraved these plants. The Dazzled Sequencer warned you away from here.
Failed event
The Shalimar
Acid roses. Predatory daffodils. Snapping tulips with lamprey mouths. Specimens that might be found at a street florist's, but bone-white and deadly. All attempts to hack through the jungle of flowers are rebuffed. One of your crew is overcome, tethered by a dozen thorn-vines and dragged shrieking into a hungry flowerbed. The rest of your crew retreat, and refuse to go near the Shalimar again.
Successful event
The Shalimar
Acid roses. Predatory daffodils. Snapping tulips with lamprey mouths. Specimens imported decades ago from Old London, the kind of common flowers that might be found at a street florist's, but bone-white and deadly. Your crew hacks through them all, leaving a swathe of slaughtered jungle in your wake.

After much sweat and panic, you come upon one of the Shamilar's treasures, hidden in a tangle of pale weeds. An oyster-shell encrusted with diamonds.

The vegetation has already reclaimed the path behind you. Sighing, you order your crew to resume their work.
Partial success event (61%)
The Shalimar
Acid roses. Predatory daffodils. Snapping tulips with lamprey mouths. Specimens imported decades ago from Old London, the kind of common flowers that might be found at a street florist's, but bone-white and deadly. Your crew hacks through them all, leaving a swathe of slaughtered jungle in your wake. After much sweat and panic, you come upon one of the Shamilar's treasures, hidden in a tangle of pale weeds. An oyster-shell encrusted with diamonds. As you approach it, a thorn-vine lashes out from the undergrowth and entwines your arm.
Fight the vine off yourself
No need to put the rest of your crew at risk.
The vine squeezes until your suit's rigging creaks. Thorns puncture, and the suit deflates with a hiss. But eventually you triumph, hacking again and again until the vine snaps. You retreat with your prize. Your suit is in ruins.
Call to your crew for help
They are shaken and exhausted. Hopefully they can handle one more battle.
Blades descend on the vine again and again, but only some fibres snap. More vines whip from the bushes. One of your crew is dragged screaming out of sight. Finally the vine holding you breaks. Your crew retreat, dragging you with them.
Abandon the treasure
Better to lose the money but keep your arm.
No reward is worth that risk. You don't look back.
Attempt to navigate the bad patch
If you're careful you can avoid the worst of it.
Failed event
An onslaught of hours
You attempt to guide your crew through the patch of lumpy time, but the dangerous areas are subtle and difficult to spot. You make a terrible misstep, and your hazard-suit takes the worst of it – leather straps wither, and the iron framework of your rigging rusts to nothing. The suit sags around you like a deflated football. It's too dangerous. Your crew simply refuse to go any further.
Successful event
An onslaught of hours
You guide your crew through the patch of lumpy time. Careful – a spot where fallen shards from the ceiling have turned to sand. Here, watch your step – a discarded tourist pamphlet is still frozen mid-fall. There are a few missteps, but your hazard-suit takes the brunt of it.

Once everyone is through, you find yourself in an area of the Dome untouched by previous explorers. A thorough search uncovers an intact exhibit – a shroud of fabric that, even here, ravenously consumes light.

You hear one of your crew gulp. Now for the return journey.
Partial success event (73%)
An onslaught of hours
You guide your crew through the patch of lumpy time. Once everyone is through, you find yourself in an area of the Dome seemingly untouched by previous explorers. A quick search uncovers an intact exhibit – a shroud of fabric that, even here, ravenously consumes light. On the return journey, however, you run into trouble. The stoker carrying the Bombazine makes a misstep, and begins to wail as his leg withers and rots beneath him. Unbalanced, he falls forward, and the Bombazine tumbles from his grip.
Catch the Bombazine
In the split second available to you, your economic instinct triumphs.
You wince at the crewmember's infinitesimally brief scream. In an instant, all that's left of him is dust and bone-fragments. The rest of your crew whisper angrily behind your back.
Catch the crewmember
Life before profit.
The crewmember sobs in relief, clutching tightly at your suit; the Bombazine unravels instantly to an ancient, valueless scrap.
Pick your way through the glass congregation
Years of harsh sunlight have sharpened the statues, turning elbows and fingertips to razors. You'll need to be agile to reach the other side unscathed.
Failed event
A crowd of glass
The mass of vitrified tourists are arranged in a circle. Whatever lies at the centre, it must be worth a good gawk.

In the bulky hazard-suit, it's a nightmare to try to duck and weave your way through the statues. A lady's jaunty elbow leaves a long rent down the side of your hazard-suit. You catch your glove on a child's sharpened nose, and it is torn from your hand.

You are forced to retreat, your suit much the worse for wear.
Successful event
A crowd of glass
The vitrified tourists are arranged in a circle. Whatever lies at the centre, it must be worth a good gawk. It's a nightmare in the bulky hazard-suit, but you duck and weave through the statues with only a few rips to your rigging. When you reach the middle you find a plinth, upon which rests a pale pink mask. When you frown, the mask's mouth turns up in a smile.
Partial success event (49%)
A crowd of glass
The vitrified tourists are arranged in a circle. Whatever lies at the centre, it must be worth a good gawk. It's a nightmare in the bulky hazard-suit, but you duck and weave through the statues. Just as you're about to reach the middle, you realise that a tourist's pointing finger has snagged on your suit's outer rigging. Attempts to extricate yourself seem to succeed only in widening the rip.
Tear yourself free
It'll cause great damage to your suit, but with care you'll be able to work your way free without shattering the tourist entirely.
Your hazard-suit hisses and deflates as you jolt yourself free, leaving a long rip down the side. There's not much time, now. When you reach the middle you find a plinth, upon which rests a pale pink mask. When you frown, the mask's mouth turns up in a smile.
Shatter the tourist
The flying glass might be perilous to your crew, but it'll save you from ripping a hole in your suit.
The shattering causes an alarming chain-reaction, as tourist after tourist crumbles in a rain of shards, leaving half your crew staggering and bloodied. When it's over, all that remains is a plinth in a circle of broken glass. A pink mask rests on the marble. When you frown, the mask's mouth turns up in a smile.
Give up and wriggle back the way you came
It's the only way to avoid damaging your suit further.
Investigate the carousel
Perhaps you can deduce its purpose. It might hide something of value.
Failed event
The tempest prognosticator
Brushing aside glitter-dust, you discover a label on the carousel's base – 'TEMPEST PROGNOSTICATOR.' Each bottle is similarly labelled 'PHILOSOPHER.' Something roils through the glass. You study the controls to no avail. You pull some levers at random, and nothing happens. You attempt to pull one of the bottles free, but it's moored far too firmly. Eventually you're forced to give up and move on.
Successful event
The tempest prognosticator
Brushing aside glitter-dust, you discover a label on the carousel's base – 'TEMPEST PROGNOSTICATOR.' Each bottle is similarly labelled 'PHILOSOPHER.' Something roils through the glass.

You work out the carousel's controls and set it going. Your assembled crew watch in astonishment as the bottles glide and rotate. Black shapes emerge from the fluid and slither up glass tubes. When they reach the carousel's top, a bronze bell tolls.

You pull another lever and the carousel winds to a halt. The slimy shapes slide back into confinement. The bell falls silent. You direct your crew to take one of the philosopher-bottles from its moorings.
Partial success event (51%)
The tempest prognosticator
Brushing aside glitter-dust, you discover a label on the carousel's base – 'TEMPEST PROGNOSTICATOR.' Each bottle is similarly labelled 'PHILOSOPHER.' Something roils through the glass. After studying the carousel's controls, you think you have some idea of how to set it into motion. But not how to stop it.
Leave the carousel stationary, and take one of the philosopher-bottles
You have no desire to see the carousel in motion.
The release mechanisms prove stubborn, but you figure them out eventually and the huge bottle slides free. It takes the strength of your entire crew to roll it back to Azimuth.
Set the carousel into motion
You wouldn't miss this for the world.
Bottles rotate. Black shapes emerge from the fluid and slither up glass tubes. Something metallic springs loose; a dark mass is messily expelled. Thrashing, wheezing, a scything beak. Your crew draw weapons and hack the creature apart, but not before it grabs one of them and snips him in half.
Leave the carousel alone
Curiosities from across the High Wilderness were displayed at this exhibition – best not tamper with one in ignorance.

Links[ | ]

Links In[ | ]

Clockworksun ambience Azimuth, Clockworksun ambience An Exchange of Burdens

Links Out[ | ]

Clockworksun ambience Azimuth, Clockworksun ambience An Exchange of Burdens


Template:Navbox story events

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