The Thaumanova Reactor Disaster: No Scarlet Edition

Volume I

For this chapter, the Fractal participants take the roles of:

- Two unremarkable Asura technicians

- An Inquest technician

- A Human Priory scholar

- A Charr of Iron Legion

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The story starts off with the party inside the reactor complex, in a tiny room leading up to the reactor. The gates to the chamber are closed.

A voice broadcast over the loudspeakers asks them to come towards the gate to the reactor core and form a line.

The party has to comply. The voice will berate you if you fail at this simplest of tasks.

The gates then open to reveal the core surrounded by lots of Asura scientists hard at work. The murmur of the crowd and various arguably science-related noises fill the air.

[Cinematic Dialogue]

You are greeted by an uptight Asura scientist dressed in various shades of toxic green. A black skull is etched on his armor.

"Welcome, welcome, greetings! Welcome to the Thaumanova Core Research Facility!

I hope you will find your stay here quite pleasant, considering all you miserable sobs volunteered - or were volunteered - to oversee the safety of this progressive scientific establishment for the rest of your, um, [the Asura pontificates for a second] hopefully relatively long lives.

I am [the Asura pauses dramatically] professor Klein, and I am most pleased to make your acquaintance. If you have no further questions - and you do not - please proceed with the sample extraction and administration as soon as possible.

[Professor Klein pauses and continues in a gloomy tone]

By which I mean, now would be good. You're really late."

The players are left loose in the reactor room. They're asked to push a small cart containing a glowing crystal towards the glowing reactor core.

Professor’s voice blares over the loudspeakers:

"Good, good. [The next few lines sound like a sincere deathwish] And YOU [Klein pronounces "You" with utter disgust] don't think for a second I swallow your Inquest charade. Just because we're extending your kind an olive branch doesn't mean we're not watching. I'm watching. My minions are watching. And they've got a taste for the Inquest. [Professor Klein is now barking like a growling dog] So be it I won't hesitate to kill you! Kill you, resurrect you, and then kill you again if I hear one errant twitch. You hear!? You hear that!? Go! Go-go-go!"

The railcart requires all five players to interact with it to proceed with the pushing animation. At the halfway point, professor Klein comes over the loudspeakers again. He's back to being nervously pleasant.

"Okay, good. We're getting confirmation from our Inquest colleagues down below. Please make sure the output is nominal, everyone, we don't want to overshoot. Keep the read below 95,5 percent as per updated safety protocols. Uh, I'm receiving a warning from down below, but it's nothing to worry about, probably. Uh, probably. Just keep it below 94 percent then. Or one-two-one output.

Hey! How's our pushing-the-cart team? Did you screw everything up yet?"

As you push the cart towards the core, the floor beneath you starts rumbling. A shot of lightning spears across the chamber.

"I was just joking! What are you doing!? What have you... Done?.."

[Gameplay]

The party is thrown back from the core by a burst of energy. All players are heavily damaged, two players enter a downed state. All players receive non-removable Crippled conditions. A small number of random weak monsters flood the chamber.

By the time monsters are slain and downed players are revived, nearly all scientists surrounding the reactor have been downed or knocked out. Professor Klein rushes over to you, surrounded by a green aura and several undead minions.

"Protect the- I said, protect the reserve cables, or this whole place goes up!"

Players have to run across the room towards a large structure. Stronger and stronger chaos elementals materialize out of thin air as they progress. The monsters primarily rely on attacks that push the players back. Once in a while, professor Klein summons a magical wave that pushes all the monsters aside.

As one of the players reaches the destination, a big chunk of rock materializes inside the cable structures and rips them apart.

[Cinematic]

The air fills with the terrorized screams of the surviving scientists. A dozen portals open across the chamber, various well-known parts of Tyria visible beyond each of them.

A wounded Asura screams from across the chamber: "On me! On me! Over here!"

Players have to follow suit and arrive to catch the end of a conversation between the wounded scientist and professor Klein. Several monsters swarm around them as the conversation takes place.

Klein: "...Let it burn, I don't care! In the name of alchemy, forget research!"

Researcher: "Don't you get it!? That's Divinity's Reach on the other side! And there's Black Citadel! There's - by the Alchemy - there's Metrica! We can't! We can't fire!"

Klein: "Just- ARGH! Just pick a damn desert! Warp it through reserve systems, just angle it towards- THERE! Angle it, now!"

Researcher: "It's not a desert… Chief, something’s alive on the other side!"

Klein: "There's something alive on THIS side! What do you want to me to say!? It's us or this weird alien desert thing, I said FIRE!"

Researcher hesitates as the room continues to fill with monsters. The Inquest party member is given the option to press the launch button in his place.

[Cinematic]

As the button is pressed, a large beam of light angles towards one of the portals. The party, and a good chunk of the chamber, is sucked into the portal along with the beam.

As you're thrown out of the other side of the portal, a deafening roar fills the air. You see the beam strike across the head and body of a gigantic dragon caught in mid-flight. The beast's jaw and lower body come apart with a sickening crunch. The dragon roars in pain. The beam abruptly stops, the dragon falls down to the ground with an Earth-shattering boom, and does not move.

The portal closes.

The party stands up in the charred-black ruins of a large city. Everyone is gradually losing health. The sky is dark and stormy, the horizon is filled with tall, black mountains. The dragon's body lies just out of view. A heavy, pained breath echoes across the dead-silent ruins. After a few seconds, professor Klein speaks up in the voice of a terrified child.

"By the divine- what did we just kill? Did we just destroy this place? [Screaming ] I'm not a murderer! It is an accident! I'm sorry, sorry, it was all that damned Inquest, somehow... It was always Inquest! Never us!.. It can't be..."

The party has to approach the dragon. Players get an option to speak to the dragon, though it will not reply. Priory party member has to examine the wounds and inform the party that the dragon is dying.

Professor Klein rushes over and kneels before the giant beast.

"No it's not!

What happened to all the people here? What did we do this place!? I just need your name, that's all, you'll be back up in no time!

We don't just go around slaying deities, I mean you ought to be one to your- Where are the survivors? Where are all the people?"

By now it's in the party's best interests to make generous use of their healing abilities. Dark ash fills the air of the ruined city, eating away at their health.

The dragon lifts its head, pointing to a nearby ruined monument with an inscribed tablet at its centre.

[Gameplay]

The party is pointed towards an inscribed tablet across a narrow walkway over a large amphitheater. There’s a dragon’s statue at the end, holding the inscription.

"I just need the dragon's true name! [Professor's tone gradually changes to childishly gleeful] That's all we need! We can still salvage this! We can still go back home! I know we can do it!"

The ash fills the air worse and worse yet; players can use their attacks to clear the air around them for a tiny moment.

At the end of the walkway, one of the players has to kneel down and decipher the writings on the tablet. It’s up to rest of the group to keep them alive.

[Dialogue Option]

The etchings in old stone are barely legible. You can only make out one word that looks like a name.

⇒

We have scorched our world

Even the dragons will not forgive us

Only one to show mercy

Zhaitan will guard this dead land

For no more harm to come

⇒

Our sins not in vain

We are not monsters yet

Remember us

⇒ Write down the dragon's name

[Gameplay]

The ash thickens. Two of the players are downed, and will soon perish. The player who translated the inscription has to make it back to professor Klein alive.

When you make it back, professor snatches the note out of your hand without a word and immediately proceeds with a magical ritual, drawing arcane marks in the ash and several on the body of the dragon, breathing heavily.

"Mark, mark, aether, mark, times the square, about twenty-one, maybe thirty, it's good, it's gonna be fine, we're not monsters yet, we'll make it right, we'll make it right, mark, mark..."

Professor breaks into heavy cough.

Only one party member is left alive. Those who haven't perished enter a downed state.

[Cinematic]

Professor throws his hands into the air as they glow with toxic-green energy of the ritual.

The view cuts to pitch black. Professor's words are audible in the darkness.

"Spirits of the dead! I command thee!"

The view fills with bright white light. An ear-ringing noise fills the silence.

You barely hear the professor's last words.

"...We're not monsters yet..."

Everything is silent.

The light fades to black.