1.111

Your work done, you find a place to rest within the sheltered chamber. Harlan dampens a rag with his canteen and begins to wipe the tears and grime from his daughter’s cheeks. Kal unlaces his boots and pours a surprising number of jagged rocks from them onto the floor. No one speaks.

Every few minutes you feel another quake, but with each subsequent tremor, the intensity seems to decrease. Eventually, there is only a deep rumbling sound, coming from somewhere far below.

You hear the sound of approaching footsteps, and then the space is suddenly filled with light. Silaro Mako stands at the threshold, his brightly glowing lambance rig held aloft.

“I thought we might need some light—” he starts, then looks and sees you, Quisi, Harlan, and Kal disheveled, covered in dust, battered, but alive. “Oh, thank the ancestors!” he says breathlessly. “You’re all safe! Oh, thank goodness!”

Silaro slumps against the wall in relief, and for once, his boundless enthusiasm seems to have left him. “When we felt the first quake, I just knew … I knew that I had put you all in harm’s way. ‘Silaro,’ I said. ‘Silaro, if your foolish meddling has gotten your friends hurt … or worse …’ I don’t know what I would have done.” Silaro wipes the tears from his eyes and turns away.

Complete the BURIED SURVEY TEAM mission. Record SAVED THE TEAM on the campaign tracker. Return each card that was attached to it and the remainder of the Rescue deck to the collection. Go to 1.111A.

1.111A

Suddenly, another intense quake rocks the chamber. You instinctively place your hands on the ground or against a wall, trying to maintain your balance. Silaro stumbles, drops his lambance rig, and falls to the floor. Above you, the countless tons of rock and earth groan and creak … but hold.

Without missing a beat, Silaro rolls into a sitting position and places his hands against the wall, feeling the vibration in the rock. When it stops, he opens his notebook and hastily scribbles something on the page. He speaks to himself under his breath, then looks at up at you, his eyes wide.

“It’s as I feared,” he says. “Whatever I did woke up the arcology alright, but not in the way I expected. I thought that maybe the lights would turn on, all the doors would open, or the 'preserved day' mechanisms would stabilize, but instead I think the whole system is trying to reactivate—machinery that’s been dormant for centuries—perhaps attempting to execute some final directive instilled in it by the last of the Estians. There’s no telling what will happen with all systems switched on and no one there to guide them. It could be collapsing on itself! What if the arcology systems somehow caused the Estians’ extinction? The people of the Valley could be next!”

You put a hand on SIlaro’s shoulder and remind him that there is no need to panic. You’ll get to the bottom of this and set things right.

“Of course,” he says. “I’m being foolish. I honestly have no idea what’s happening or what will happen in the days to come. All I know is that this is all my fault. I’ve put the entire Valley in jeopardy with my shortsighted behavior.”

Silaro’s voice is grave and firm. “Whatever I hoped to learn down here doesn’t matter anymore. We need to find whatever it is that's causing these quakes—perhaps a malfunctioning engine of some kind—and shut it down.” He looks at you, his eyes grim. “I must ask for your aid once again, my friend. Please, help me correct this grievous error.”

Gain THE LONG DARK and RATTLING THE CAGE missions.

If you FELT A SUDDEN QUAKE, continue reading:

You tell Silaro that you'd be happy to help, but that you need to know more about what happened first.

“Of course," he says. "It was at the Concordant Ziggurats where it all went wrong. You see, I had found references to the Ziggurats in the Estian engravings down here. I've always theorized that the Ziggurats were once a power source for the arcology. Then I found another translation that spoke of an ‘activation sequence.’ This was my chance to put my theory to the test!”

“I assumed that if I could activate the Ziggurats, they may give the systems down here in the arcology a boost. Perhaps they would cause some new passages to open, or power up a few ancient machines that we could investigate. Only I severely ... ah ... miscalculated. I had no idea how much power the Ziggurats would generate, nor how that power would affect the arcology.”

“What's more, not only do we now have these earthquakes, but when the Ziggurats discharged their power, they also blanketed the entire Valley in electric fog!”

Silaro bows his head, clearly mortified.