The Swirling Abyss

<h1>In to the Abyss</h1> Your Kill team has been assembled and sent off to location of the swirling abyss. Your transport craft pauses before the opening of the swirling maw before you. The rest of the kill team checks their gear. There's nothing left to do now, but give the order to enter the abyss. [[Enter the abyss|The Abyss]] [[Inspect your team |Killteam]]

The transport craft is shaken to-and-fro as you enter the swirling entity and then everything ceases. Sensor readings pick up nothing. Literally nothing. You've stopped moving completely. It's possible you have landed. [[Leave the craft |Lobby]] [[Try and get some readings |In the dark]] [[Inspect your team |Killteam]]

(if: $comms < 1)[Your comms specialist is dead.] (if: $comms is 1)[The comms specialist's radio is playing up.] (if: $comms is 2)[The comms specialist is grumpy and has given up trying to fix his radio.] (if: $comms is 3)[The comms specialist is relieved to have a working radio again.] (if: $comms is 4)[The comms specialist has become difficult to talk to and seems constantly distracted.] (if: $comms is 5)[The comms specialist frequently startles for no apparent reason.] (if: $comms is 6)[When you go to talk to the comms specialist, he screams before calming down.] (if: $comms >= 7)[The comms specialist [[asks to talk to you|Comms dead]]] (if: $demo < 1)[Your demolitions expert is dead.] (if: $demo is 1)[The demolitions expert is looking twitchy. You don't like the way they keep checking their grenades.] (if: $demo is 2)[The demolitions expert keeps glancing at you when they think you're not looking their way. They are constantly fiddling with spindly wires and muttering louder than they probably realise. You wonder if you should [[Shoot him|Kill demo]]] (if: $heavy < 1)[Your heavy weapons specialist is dead.] (if: $heavy is 1)[The heavy weapons specialist is attempting to remain still whenever they can in a way that they believe makes them appear stoic and calm. It does the opposite.] (if: $heavy is 2)[The heavy weapons specialist is increasingly jumpy. With even the slightest noise, they swing their weaponry round and fall into a firing crouch.] (if: $rookie < 1)[The rookie is dead.] (if: $rookie is 1)[The rookie seems completely fine. Of course, the rookie hasn't done this before and therefore doesn't know how bad it can get. You're not sure why you were forced to take them along.] (link-goto: "Return", $lastPassage)

(if: not ((passage:)'s tags contains "menu"))[(set: $lastPassage to (passage:)'s name)]

(set: $lastPassage to "") (set: $comms to 1) (set: $demo to 1) (set: $heavy to 1) (set: $rookie to 1) (set:$lobbyVisits to 0) (set:$radio to 0)

<h1>The Lobby</h1> (if:$lobbyVisits is 1)[You leave your craft and step out into...well whatever you were expecting, it was was not this.] (if:$lobbyVisits is 2)[Your transport ship has disappeared.] (if:$radio is 1)[The comms' expert's radio crackles.(set:$comms to $comms+1)] Your team is standing in a large high-ceilinged lobby that stretches far out in all directions. The space is large enough that you could easily set up multiple artileray encampents on each side and wage a significant war. The distant walls and ceilings are designed with a degree of elegance that makes you feel uncomfortable. It is dark although shafts of light pierce through from various doorways and chambers around the edges of the room, illuminating out long beams of dust. (if:$lobbyVisits is 1)[[[Head back to the craft|The vanishing transport]]] [[Head to the central plinth|Central plinth]] [[Explore to the West|Western corridor]] [[Explore to the East|Eastern corridor]] [[Explore to the North|Northern corridor]] [[Explore to the South|Southern corridor]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]] (set:$lobbyVisits to $lobbyVisits+1)

(if:$comms >0)[The comms specialist reports atmospheric static, but nothing else.] Navigation systems on the craft continue to give you absolutely nothing. [[Try to get more readings|In the dark]] [[Take a leap of faith and leave the craft|Lobby]]

(set:$rookie to 0) You give the order to head back to the transport. The rookie steps halfway through the crew hatch before the ship blinks out of existence, along with half of the rookie. The rookie dies instantly, a blank and unsuspecting expression on their face. You take comfort in the fact that the rookie will now never know just how bad it can get. [[Onwards |Lobby]]

A plinth in the centre of the lobby gives a series of readings in a language that shifts and adapts to something you understand. Although it makes little sense to you, it states that **"the library is bleeding"** and gives a series of codes. A single part of this stands out - **L7** - as if the plinth is despearate for you to remember this or **write it down**. There is a terminal set into the plinth that is awaiting an 11 character input. [[Use the terminal|Terminal]] (if:$lobbyVisits is 1)[[[Head back to the craft|The vanishing transport]]] [[Explore to the West|Western corridor]] [[Explore to the East|Eastern corridor]] [[Explore to the North|Northern corridor]] [[Explore to the South|Southern corridor]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

As you progress down the corridor, you see four lithe masked warriors wearing brightly coloured red, purple and blue motely cavorting and tumbling towards you. [[Cut them down|Western corridor 2]] [[Surrender|Surrendered]]

As you enter the corridor, you slow down because you feel like you're about to walk full pelt into a mirror. You then realise the reflections of your team are moving slightly differently to you and there are subtle differences. This is no mirror - this is an identical Kill team coming the other way towards you. These are your exact doubles. Your doppleganger says to you: "Look, can you just write these down - **C1**, **R3** and **S11** - and let us pass?" [[Let them pass |Eastern cloister]] [[Fight the imposters | Fight yourself]]

Halfway down the northern corridor, your comms specialist runs ahead and retrieves a battered device from the floor and holds it up next to another device he retrieves from his pack. It's the same device, but with a significant amount of wear and tear. "This one's working. I've been getting nothing but static since we got here. Permission to keep this one?" he asks with a shrug. [[Permission granted|Radio fixed]] [[I don't trust it - leave it here|Radio left]]

You push down the corridor to the south and the walls quickly start to shrink in on you. You get to a point where you can progress no further and turn back around, only to see a wall suddenly before you blocking your path. Snapping back around again, you find yourself in a wide open chamber with a great pulsing orb in the centre. [[Approach the orb |The sundered stacks]]

They didn't stand a chance. As you progress down the corridor, you see four lithe masked warriors wearing brightly coloured red, purple and blue motely cavorting and tumbling towards you. [[Cut them down|Western corridor 3]] [[Surrender|Surrendered]]

You lower your weapons and the warriors close in on you fast. Their lightning fast blades fly towards you. Their assualt does not slow and then... ...three off them pass right through you and dissappear. The fourth stands before you and removes its mask, revealing another identical mask. The second mask breaks out into a wide grin and then the warrior is gone. [[The way ahead seems clear|Western Cloister]]

The passageway leads to a small but well lit cloister where grinning masks line the walls. In the middle is a scroll of parchment that shifts to read: "Giving up is wise, but where does wisdom really get you in a world of madness?" Burnt into the bottom right corner of the parchment is **G9** (if:$demo is 1)[(set:$demo to 2)Your demolitions expert seems exceptionally irritated. The way he constantly clicks a detonator switch unsettles you.] [[Return to the lobby|Lobby]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

They didn't stand a chance. As you progress down the corridor, you see four lithe masked warriors wearing brightly coloured red, purple and blue motely cavorting and tumbling towards you. The definition of maddness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [[Cut them down|Western corridor 5]] [[Surrender|Surrendered]]

They didn't stand a chance. As you progress down the corridor, you see four lithe masked warriors wearing brightly coloured red, purple and blue motely cavorting and tumbling towards you. Then again, this was a different result. Are you still mad if your expectations were what transpired? [[Cut them down|Western corridor 6]] [[Surrender|Surrendered]]

They didn't stand a chance. As you progress down the corridor, you see four lithe masked warriors wearing brightly coloured red, purple and blue motely cavorting and tumbling towards you. There's a fine line between persistence and bloody-mindedness. You should just give up. [[Cut them down|Western corridor 7]] [[Surrender|Surrendered]]

Give up. Abandon all hope. Continuing is pointless. In this way madness lies. [[Cut them down|Western corridor 8]] [[Surrender|Surrendered]]

You find yourself without opposition mid-swing. At the end of the corridor, it opens out into a single room with a single plinth in the centre of it that has a perfect obsidian cube suspended in midair above it. Carved onto each side are a series of dots. Where there are **4** dots and **6** dots, the letter **O** is also carved. Your heavy weapons specialist looks rattled. (set:$heavy to 2) (if:$radio is 1)[(set:$comms to $comms+1)] [[Return to the lobby|Lobby]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

The comms specialist activates the dropped device and is immediately relieved to hear regular noises coming from his equipment. "We now have a fucntioning comms relay!" (set:$comms to 3) (set:$radio to 1) You nod and see a very slihgt wince from the specialist at a faint screech emenating from one of his radios before it calms down again. [[Continue down the corridor|Northern cloister]]

The comms specialist places the device back on the floor with a certain degree of reverence and is overtly irritated. (set:$comms to 2) [[Continue down the corridor |Northern cloister]]

The chamber you have found yourself in is completely empty, but carved into a high ceiling is **N5** [[Return to the lobby |Lobby]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

A bloody battle ensues. At the end of it, there is only one of each member of your team instead of two, although you have no idea if everyone is their original version or their doppleganger. Thinking about it for too long is going to give you a headache so you continue, stepping over your own corpses. [[Continue onward|Eastern cloister]]

You continue into a small chamber at the end of the corridor. The letter and number combination **O8** is scrawled in blood on the stone floor. (if:$radio is 1)[(set:$comms to $comms+1)] [[Return to the lobby|Lobby]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

The world falls away around you. You wittness a great clash of motley-garbed acrobatic warriors battling against the warrior-sorcerers of the Thousand Sons. You look down the pulsing corridor you've found yourself in and see a great pair of doors open before you. The leader of the Thousand Sons warband is fighting harder and trying to push towards it. He's almost within reach. He can almost get to the doors. The doors to the Black Library are within his grasp. The doors close. The rage that billows forth from the Astartes sorceror shakes the very fabric of reality and you feel cracks form within yourself and something large and impossible shatters and drifts out of the webway and into the void. You know within yourself that this is a section of the Black Library. It is drawn towards a system of 56 planets. You recognise Tuhinga Prime, Demikoss, Cagos, Arrakanis, Biss and Krystallia, and the sundered part of the Black Library comes to rest in the heart of the system before forming a swirling energy field around itself, almost like an astral coccoon. [[You are shaken loose by a pair of hands gripping shoulders that you had forgotten you had |Perdus]]

A wiry square jawed man wearing the tattered livery of the Ordo Xenos branch of the Inquisition stands before you glaring into your eyes. He slaps you hard with the back of his hand. "It doesn't want just anyone to have it, but I think I've got it. Or at least, I think I'm going to get it. I've seen myself holding it and becoming something...else." "I don't care what your motives are, you need to take these parts of the code and give them back to yourself: **C1**, **R3** and **S11**. Also, take **H2** and **U10** but you mustn't pass that through." He takes a breath and spits. "Get this information to your fleet, and send everything you've got to break this place apart." The inquisitor leaves and strides off down a passageway you hadn't seen before. [[Follow|Eastern passageway]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

You follow the inquisitor but he has already disappeared. You step out into a corridor and then slow down because you feel like you're about to walk full pelt into a mirror. You then realise the reflections of your team are moving slightly differently to you and there are subtle differences. This is no mirror - this is an identical Kill team coming the other way towards you. These are your exact doubles. You feel like you should say something. [["Look, can you just write these down - **C1**, **R3** and **S11** - and let us pass?" |Loop complete]] [["Just take these - **C1**, **R3**, **S11**, **U10** and **H2**."|Loop tainted]] [[Cut them down instead|Fight yourself 2]]

Your doubles look to be unsure how to proceed and you feel like they might be about to attack you, but ultimately they move asside and you both go about your own business. [[Continue onward|Lobby]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

(set:$guess to "") (set:$answer to "chronologus") (put: (prompt: "Enter code (all lower case)") into $guess) (if:$guess is $answer)[The terminal dissolves. Everything around you fades out of existence. You see before you a great shining pulsing blue crystal. At once, it appears as dust and as a glowing multi-faceted gem. Out of nowhere, you see an imperial inquisitor reach forward and grasp it. The inquisitor is instantly transformed into a being of pure light and terrifying energy. [[The vision clears|Safe on the transport]]] (else:)[[[The terminal does not respond|Central plinth]]]

<h1>Returning to the fleet</h1> You find yourself back on the transport craft, staring into the Swirling Abyss, the entrance to The Sundered Stacks. You now know the name of the source of power - the Chronologus. Now you must report back to your fleet and the final battle to destroy or claim this power must be fought. (if: $comms > 0)[Your comms specialist survived.] (if: $demo > 0)[Your demolitions expert survived.] (if: $heavy > 0)[Your heavy weapons specialist survived.] (if: $rookie > 0)[The rookie somehow survived.] -END

You shoot the demolitions specialist before they can do anything to endanger the mission. (set:$demo to 0) (link-goto: "Return", $lastPassage)

Despite you handing over all the codes, including the ones you were told not to, nothing terrible seems to have happened. You are still on your own on your solo mission. You're not sure why they didn't send you in with some kind of dedicated Kill Team. (set:$comms to 0)(set:$demo to 0)(set:$heavy to 0)(set:$rookie to 0) [[Continue onward|Lobby]] [[Inspect your team|Killteam]]

The Comms specialist looks at you dead in the eyes and says "We shouldn't be here. This power should stay hidden." He pulls a pistol and then shoots himself in the head. The faint cackle of laughter can be heard from his radio before everything falls silent. (set:$comms to 0) (set:$radio to 0) (link-goto: "Return", $lastPassage)