Descending down the stairs, you see a large, empty room with a few empty crates on the concrete floor. On the far side of the room is a giant, circular metal, standing upright, with the word Neodymium and Gifted by Dr Vujica Simić -2C 6988 CY carved into it.

Vujica Simic... that is a Lubhrosian name, Lubhros is one of the countries in Sehul, another region not too far from Perkwunos. They're rich in iron, gold, and trade resources thanks to their close proximity to the Twero Sea, the only passageway between the eastern and western sides of the planet.

But... Vujica Simić... Simic hybrid, she might play a part in the creation of this mysterious race.

The First Planetary War began on -2C 6994 CY and ended on -2C 7040 CY, so its creation date was somewhat close to the major events in history too. Paulis will be happy to see this, too bad it's so big that you won't be able to move it.

Behind you, there is an altar with a big red button to the left and a bunch of buttons with numbers 0-9 on the right. The wall behind the altar contains a comically large map of Lancea and a...

Oh... it's the flag of the United States of Lancea.

Red and white cross over a black background. To them, red symbolises power, black symbolises order, and white symbolises balance, but to you and everyone else in the present day, red is the blood of thousands of people and races that have been killed, white is their bones, and black is hopelessness.

Every Independence Day, the day when the rebels triumphed over USL, there is a tradition of stomping, spitting, and burning this flag, just like how your ancestor did aeons ago when they stormed the Palace of Parliament, maybe you should do the same too—after all, flying this flag outside of festival or educational context is illegal.

Just below the large map is a pile of papers, probably notes and documents.

Descending down the stairs is a dimly lit room, the rods that produce light on the ceiling seem to be broken; they flicker on and off at random intervals.

In every direction, there are countless tubes with green liquid and all sorts of creatures inside—most of them are humanoids like elves, goblins, and halflings, but there are also less common races like Githyanki and Vedalken. All of them have wires hooked on their vitals, and you have no idea if any of them are alive or not.

Below each tube is a small piece of paper, detailing the subject's name, species, and date of birth.

A while later, you arrive at the section for a more 'monstrous' race, there are harpies and gnolls here, all suspended in the liquid like everyone else. And beyond that, there are races you don't see on Sword Coast or present-day Lancea too.

There is a winged humanoid with bird-like clawed feet named 'Strix,' there is a humanoid plant with a face named 'Leeshy.' But of course, your eyes are set on the thing you've been looking for... Kitsunes.

In front of you are two glass tubes, the one on the left contains a female kitsune with three tails, the right contains a male with one tail, both of them have labels on the glass surface, which read:

Subject 102

Name: Mihoko Watase

Gender: Female

Race: Kitsune

Location of Birth: Unknown, somewhere in Sekuris, Prihyeh.

Date of Birth: 5th December -2C 3986 CY.

Note: "Subject has very potent healing and support magic, might be possible to extract her magical essence to make potions for the army. Has some affiliations with the Rebel, torture if necessary." —Dr Vujica Simić

Subject 103

Name: Rei Suzuki

Gender: Male (Intersex)

Race: Kitsune

Location of Birth: Unknown, somewhere in Sekuris, Prihyeh.

Date of Birth: 36th June -2C 6995 CY

Note: "Subject has high endurance and is physically strong despite his appearances, might be possible to extract his genes and implant them on our soldiers to boost effectiveness. The subject has de la Chapelle syndrome, a rare intersex condition with only 200 known cases. The subject was raised and identified as male, and continued doing so even after the diagnosis." —Dr Vujica Simić

And that's it, these two are the only kitsunes in the entire lab.

To your left is a tank of oxygen, and to your right is a control panel. There are two notes, one reads "1, 14142, 1732, 2, ???", and the other is flipped upside-down. The control panel has a screen and buttons with numbers 0-9 on it.

Whoever left this note here could've gone an easy route and just written the password down, but instead, they forced everyone to complete a sequence puzzle first. This really feels like an escape room.

Flag of United States of Lancea (Room 1)

Mihoko Watase (Subject 102)

Rei Suzuki (Subject 103)

"Okaa-san... os-s-shietekudasai… kiite inai n-n-nodesu ka? (お母さん…教えてください…聞いていないのですか？P-p-please tell me... y-y-you didn't hear that...?!)" I pant in our usual accent as we both slowly descend the steps and scan the internal decals of the room we're in right now. Given the state of her face though, she did too. This was something that could easily understand on her own... and she did. But then I snap out of it, telling her to just proceed and forget about it for the time being, and, much to my relief, I'm thankful she follows suit rather than just panic even more.

Inside the second room I kept gesturing to Okaa-san to stay close to me, even if it means activating her lovey dovey side of her whilst she cuddles me like I'm still her newborn pup. Well... I am technically still her pup; A grown up one now. Her only child in fact too. Just that I'm not used to her level of affection especially now that we're alone together. Just by glancing at her youthful despite knowing that she's several hundred years old, I wonder if people kept mistaken her for a young teenager... she looks incredibly young to be mistaken as my wife... *Slaps his face* Damn, it! Yurime's my girlfriend. Not Okaa-san, you idiot! Ugh...

Anyways, as I finally take off my hood and unveil my fox ears and tail in front of her in private, we both eventually agreed to keep moving, free of our disguises for now. Being the quiet foxes we are, we again didn't strike a conversation with each other, instead we only scorned about how ridiculous the interior layer looks in comparison to the enemy bases we had infiltrated in the past. Those ones were just as scary as this one, only more advanced and rigged with more complicated traps... Who are those races in stasis?! I can pick out the goblin, halfling and elves inside there; They deserve my sympathy, but the others?! What the heck are those races?! Actually... maybe this room might be scarier... judging by Okaa-san's face turning incredibly pale upon noticing the suspended bodies floating in liquid, I think she's telling me something else... or worse. I can't read her face properly... And even worse is that she's now pulling my right shoulder closer to the ground after hoisting her entire weight onto me... What is wrong with her all of a sudden? As I sway my tail nervously and take a big gulp as we enter the depths, I notice her teeth chittering as she whimpers in fright and points to my left. What is Okaa-san trembling over?! Wait... she's pointing at something... what is... she...? Oh...

And then, as I peer towards the direction that . I begin to imitate her but punch myself in the stomach, telling myself that I have seen even worse than what I'm seeing right now. But even so... Kitsunes... suspended in a zero sensory environment... Dead?! Uh...?!

I slowly tread towards the control panel in fright; Okaa-san does the same thing because she's still latched onto me. But, those kitsunes aren't like the ones we are or have seen in the Sword Coast and Japan. These ones look more fox like in appearance. I mean, they do have multiple tails, or at least, the female one does. But the male? I need to read this to Okaa-san. Though as I do I felt my stomach sinking in accordance with the position of my white, fluffy tail too as I progress through the notes written on their tanks... 

I read the one of the female Kitsune first in Japanese for Okaa-san as I run my claws across the glassy lining of her container. "Watase Mihoko... Taishō wa... hijō ni kyōryokuna chiyu mahō... to shien mahō o motte ori, kanojo no mahō no essensu o... uh... chūshutsu shite gun'yō no kusuri o tsukuru koto... (What?!) ga dekiru kamo shiremasen. Hanran-gun to nanrakano kankei ga ari, hitsuyōniōjite... (Oh my, why?!) gōmon o okonau... (渡瀬美穂子... 対象は... 非常に強力な治癒魔法と支援魔法を持っており、彼女の魔法のエッセンスを抽出して軍用の薬を作ることができるかもしれません。反乱軍と何らかの関係があり、必要に応じて拷問を行う)" What the heck. I couldn't even fathom what I just read out loud. She was caputred for her healing and now they're trying to infuse it into everyone else in this planet?! This feels like a repeat of how the people of the Sword Coast and Japan treated me and Okaa-san, only worse. And the male's one wasn't any better... I noticed both of their names are Japanese though. Then again... "Suzuki Rei... Taishō wa jikyū-ryoku ga takaku, mitame ni hanshite nikutai-teki ni tsuyoi... (鈴木玲... 対象は持久力が高く、見た目に反して肉体的に強い...) UGH?!" I immediately halted as soon as I finish the first sentence. What the heck is this person responsible doing?! I feel so sorry for those two already... I don't even know if I can save everyone from their stasis chambers, let alone imagine us two being the ones in stasis for such purpose... assuming that they're not dead or anything... right? Okaa-san? Okaa-san? Hello?

Great, she's staring into the containers for some weird reason I cannot explain. Whatever. Trying to distract my mind from all of this though, I then head over to the control panel where I notice another passcode plus some... sequence. Is this a secret code or something? "Okaa-san." I say as I pass the sheet over to her in hopes I could at least distract her mind a little. And then I go through the one that's upside down as I flicker back fourth from it and the control panel's passcode... What did we get ourselves into again?! This is nothing like the bases we scouted in the Sword Coast or Japan I swear... "Karera wa ikite iru no ka?! (彼らは生きているのか, Are they even alive?!)" I also had to let out as I try to make sense of the note that has been flipped upside down whilst Okaa-san reads the other paper with the sequence.

Yeah... we are in an actual escape room. Only this time, we might not even get this right. I don't even know which is worse... seeing our fox-faced cousins in Lancea plus atruckload of scary, unidentifiable (to us at least) races suspended horribly in stasis just for mad science stuff or have our undercover disguises blown in front of some dangerous Lancean strangers we can't even befriend.

Mira does glance at Alex over his description of Renar. In way, it kind of reminds her of herself; Up until now she had been a timid wallflower who only interacts when she has to. So to actually hear that there's someone shyer than her might present an opportunity at some point to unlock his soft side. But not right now, though. They have a puzzle to solve first.

"Well then, shall we proceed, my boy? Lead the way." Mira nonetheless chuckles with her northern accent as she follows him into the first room. Though once she had already entered and close the door behind her she maintains a neutral body language even as she passes by the dreaded USL Flag as her fur sands on the edge of her body...

"My gosh... the stupid states of Lancea flag... If my people saw this they'd never hear the end of it." Mira whispers as the two of them traverse deeper downstairs; Many of her friend's extended family members were, and are still, part of the rebels that destroyed the USL for good, so if they were to discover this place as a USL base in the past, they'd never let this place survive to operate another day. Though... as she hops over towards the massive neodymium cylinder, thinking that it would be used for... something. "What's neodymium? I've never heard of it. Either that or my chemistry just sucks." She pouts as her rabbit ears droop. Paulis would like this for sure. Thing is neither her or Alex are strong enough to carry this alone, let alone combined. She glances over to Alex, who seems occupied with something else and decides not to disturb him, though... part of her is telling her to go investigate on this... Vujica Simic dilema. Her mother always tells stories about this terrifying Simic Scientist when she was a little kid, so to actually see part of her works for real is just... frightening. 

Before she double checks the Simic Hybrid things though, Mira first investigates the notes, though she is having trouble in organizing them all at once. "Hey uh, not to interrupt but when you have time, can you kindly assist me once you're done?" She calls out to Alex.

The notes you organised are mostly scientific reports, most of them are about neodymium and magnetics.

In summary, neodymium is the 60th element in the periodic table. It has magnetic properties, and it's so strong that even a grain of cereal (which naturally contains traces of iron) is attracted to it. For some unknown reasons, it seems that even magic spells are attracted to magnetic powers; if a spell is cast near a neodymium magnet, it will curve towards it instead of sailing straight, even a spell like Magic Missile will hit the magnet instead of the intended target.

But there is another note which stands out in particular...

No way... this changes everything, how is such an important note left in a place like this?

Right now, not a single person on the planet knows what the artefact's actual name is... until now. And it appears that USL also has no clue what Project Bahamut actually is—the sun-bombs did drop and reset everything back to zero, which means the former government failed to obtain it.

And there is the Space Elevator, which appears to be a structure that contains Project Bahamut. It's located at the North Pole... but which one? There are three types of north poles on every planet: magnetic north pole, the place that every compass points to; geographic north pole, the axis of rotation of this planet; and geomagnetic north pole, which is the place where the poles of the planet's magnetic field are. 

This might not be a lead, but it's a start. Just knowing the name of the artefact is enough to change the world.

And... wait, the cave mouths aren't actually real? Everything starts to make sense now, Paulis' tower is very far from the mining village you started at, there is no way you can travel that far in just a span of a few days. 

The upside-down note reads:

You have no idea when this letter was written... but it seems like Vujica's plan to breed supersoldiers like some sort of Marvel supervillain failed because USL collapsed. At least these kitsunes are still alive, all that's left now is to unlock the control panel and release them.

A lot of people might think passiveness is a personality, something that is taught or learnt from the environment—but evolution says otherwise.

Before humanity conquered the stars, they, too, had to start from somewhere—just like us in the past, there was a long period in their history where they lived in caves and used stone tools too. And during that time, they formed a bond with wolves. We don’t know what exactly happened, but a few millenniums passed and they became dogs—evolution typically takes millions of years, but by being domesticated, evolution can be accelerated.

Fast forward another thousand years, there were Solic scientists who wanted to breed foxes for fur trading. They captured wild foxes and relocate them to a special facility, isolated from the rest of the civilisation. If a fox is more friendly, they’re allowed to breed, foxes that are more fearful of humans are simply left alone.

About ten generations later, or 32 years, things changed. Their fur turns from white and orange to black and silver, and of course, they are much less fearful of humans. Humans might have successfully ‘domesticated’ foxes, but they’re still foxes, not dogs or cats. They are very mischievous and destructive, they like to chew on wires, and they relieve themselves all over the place. Just like cats, they are very independent and won’t bow down to anyone, and just like dogs, they are full of energy and happiness that doesn’t seem to go away.

I believe that with enough time and resources, we, too, can modify sentient beings just like humans did with foxes. We can make them bigger, we can make them faster, we can make them stronger, but most importantly—we can make them more obedient, and that is my objective. We can create an army of soldiers and creatures who will listen to every word we say without questioning it.

However, the Rebels are advancing closer and closer to our capital every day, and they will surely destroy my hard work should they discover this facility, which is why I create these stasis chambers as a backup plan. My subject needs to be alive for as long as possible, else I have to start everything all over again. I have provided them with enough nutrients to survive 5 Cycles or until 3C, they will be alive as long as no one breaks the glass.

If you need to transfer these subjects to another facility, I installed a security system which will put them out of stasis, all you need to do is to type the password in the control panel. Keep in mind that if you type the password wrong three times, the security system will activate. The door will be locked and the system will flood this room with chlorine gas. In case you forgot the password, I wrote down a small puzzle for you to solve, it’s a bit tricky, but you can probably do it.

Good luck and glory to Lancea.

Vujica Simić

Maya enters the second room first, gesturing to Renar to come in quickly so the two of them could have a mother-and-son bonding time again. Or at least, that what she thought, because the next thing she notices is Renar shuddering violently and going wide eyed over what Venet said. And to be honest, whilst she was hidden behind the door, she had the same reaction as him, especially considering that this time, she could actually make out what the triton actually said unlike previously, when all she heard was a bunch of Lancean gibberish.

"Kikoeta... Kanojo ga itta koto o kiita...! (聞こえた...彼女が言ったことを聞いた..., I heard... I heard what she said...!)" She shudders too as her son slams the door shut, confirming his worst nightmares as she clutches the edges of her chest. Uttering the word 'mom' was a massive red flag for her at this point in time. If people found out that she and Raiden are in fact a mother-and-son-duo this early, there goes their chances of even making it back to the Sword Coast alive. Even as Renar gestures her to stay close by her side, her anxiety continues to grow. Constantly fondling her only child like he's her newborn pup, she clings to his left shoulder in silence as they descend downstairs, whilst occasionally muttering scornful stuff about this place. Right now they're alone, so she's able to express her concern for him, but if the others were around, she'd consider drawing the line especially right now.

 However, as soon as the duo reach the rock bottom, the kitsune herself found her ears and tail stiffening in fright. Her fox-like whimpers became increasingly loud as she alerts Renar and points to those... races... in stasis chambers. Moreso, the fact that the first race she spotted were the fox-faced ones of their kind wasn't helping to lower her anxiety either as she cowers even more. This stasis thing, she's not a stranger to this, but it's the thought of ending up like them, the thought of being put inside a cramped, immobile space just because she's 'different' from anyone else, is a fear that she will never overcome even to this day.

Attempting to distract herself from all of this horrendous displays, she notices Renar skittering over the papers as if there was no tomorrow, whatever they are. Feeling that she needs to do the same, she hovers over some panels etched near the tanks of their so-called relatives, but as usual, she can't read anything, other than their names. They sound a lot like Japanese names, just like their own. "Korehanani to itte imasu ka, musuko yo? (これは何と言っていますか、息子よ, What does this say, my son?" She asks him as he reads them out, only to suffer from instant regret especially upon hearing Renar gasp like he had just depleted himself of air. 

Her heart sinks to the depths of her own ocean floor as her son translates the text. Those poor souls! Being stuck in here just so that their physical and magical capabilities are used for such malicious purposes, it again reminds her of her deceased daughter who was also captured for the same cause. And speaking of which, what if her son ends up as the same fate as them? What would she do to save him? She's already can't help herself from imagining the worst case scenarios for the two of them, even as Renar asks her to try and solve a puzzle whilst he investigates the other papers that-

Wait? A puzzle? Oh great. Mama kitsune is terrible at these things; Intelligence is not her forte for sure. But, seeing how occupied he is right now, maybe she could give it a shot. Maybe she could figure out what the next sequence is. Maybe, as she glances through the tanks again, she might able to figure out the password... Or not.

Investigation/INT Check to try and solve the puzzle (I can't tell but both are +1): She can't (Nat 1 again)

"Urghh... Rai Rai! Mama ni wa kaiketsu dekinai yo! (雷雷！ママには解決できないよ, Mama can't solve this!)" Maya pouts furiously after 20 minutes as her ancient brain swirls just by glancing over at the stupid passcode for... wait... is this the puzzle for the passcode that's in here? Or can it also be used to solve the outside one as well? Either way, Maya furiously shoves the paper onto him and interrupt whatever he's looking onto, before she tries to search for anything else that might be hidden in this room, let alone can be used to support their new, potential teammates. At least, she what she sees in the big picture she's imagining right now... (The other check if needed: She's hopeless at finding stuff; 3)

But... as she peers into the stasis chambers with both claws and her nose pressing on the glass, she really wonders if these kitsune are even related to the more human ones she and her son knows in the two worlds they're most familiar with... And they're alive? She wants to free them so badly. She really wants to at this point, even if it means... wait... She can see their chests rising up and down. But slowly. And faintly. Even so they not stationary. And then she looks at the oxygen tank again. That's the gas that enables them to breath even when suspended in stasis. Which means...

"Karera wa ikite imasu. Karera wa ikite imasu! Karera o koko kara oidasanakereba narimasen! (彼らは生きています。彼らは生きています！彼らをここから追い出さなければなりません！They're alive. They're alive! We need to get them out of here!)" Maya exclaims in both excitement and panic as she awaits her son's reaction.

Upon entering the room, Alex glances disapprovingly at the USL flag. Impulse would tell him to tear it down, but another part of him says to let it be. This flag was hung before it was made illegal. Even if he hates everything about the USL, even if the world hates everything about it (for good reason), that doesn't mean that they should destroy what little history is left. They can't learn from it if they tear it all down. 

His eyes move to the circular metal, quickly reading it and taking note of the date before turning back to the panel with buttons on it. It feels... well, odd standing beneath the huge map and the accursed flag. Almost like he's playing the part of some evil warlord in a show. He... doesn't like that feeling. Still, he forces himself to investigate the panel, even though he really has no clue what it would be for. 

Then Mira addresses him, "Oh? What is it?" He moves over to look at the papers Mira has pulled out and his eyes go wide. "Oh wow. This... This is..." He doesn't even know what to say. It's exciting, having found something so important, but at the same time it feels wrong to be happy about finding something so coveted by an organization like those in charge of the USL. Still... "Hey, now we have a gift for Paulis. It might not be an artifact but... well its knowledge right? Plus, even though we can't bring this metal to him, we could tell him where it is and maybe he could get a team out here to further investigate this place." He glances around the room again, "There's probably lots of stuff people could learn here, even if our group doesn't have the expertise to find it all." 

He scotches back over to the buttons, "What do you think this is for? I... well I don't really want to try pushing buttons when we have no idea what they'll do. But... well they have to do something if we can figure out the right pattern..." He thinks for a moment, "We could try the date that's on the metal... but that might be too obvious." 

He looks up at the map, searching for anything that seems out of place (like differences in landmarks or perhaps something circled or pinned to indicate a location). 

Investigation: 7

This room has a lot of cages, and inside, you see bones and skeletons of all sorts of primates—orangutans, crab-eating macaques, spider monkeys, but the most prominent and numerous ones are chimpanzees. The cage looks like it can barely hold one chimp in it, yet most cages have four or five skeletons, which means they are squished inside like tuna in a can.

To your right are rows of hospital beds and a few desks, and on the desk are jars of blue liquid, a note, a cotton bud, a bunch of lithium pills, and a white card-like device with a hole on its side. The back of the device has small sections made out of glass with the letters C and T next to each other.

The note reads:

The blue liquid on the table seems to be horseshoe crab blood, these things are very valuable, it's used as components for healing potions, but the way one obtains it is rather... unethical. People fish them out from the sea, press them against the machine, draining half of their blood in their body, then they release them back into the sea and the cycle continues.

Mira's fluffy ears twitch in concern. Sure these would be nice gifts for Paulis, despite the fact that this neodymium magnet would be too heavy for the two of them to handle. In fact, does Paulis himself even know about this place and the fact that there are USL belongings lying around here? Gosh this has become so complicated... "You're right. We need to tell them everything. They need to learn all about this stuff. We can't just leave no stone unturned." Mira agrees before she recites a line from a special poem her mother read her to when she was a young child (Loveless Act IV). "Legend shall speak. Of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface. Quietly, but surely." Alex might not be able to understand this, but to her, it has a deep meaning, especially given scenario right now.

Her gaze then slowly turns towards the main concern in her fuzzled brain: Vujica Simic. She had heard of numerous stories of her, all told from the voice of her royal mother. Up until now she had always thought this woman and her works are myths. So to actually see the latter in person is already making her fur curl like she had been spooked by a ghost. And... "Uh what the heck is Project Bahamut?! Didn't the most recent war end thousands of years ago? SPT? Space Elevator? SUN BOMBS THAT CAN WIPE OUT THE ENTIRE WORLD?! WHAT THE HECK?! ARE THEY MENTAL?!" One giant leap for mankind it seems. Or Lanceakind in that- Wait... there was one line that was enough to give the Harengon tunnel vision however... "If we throw enough scouts at the cave system, we might end up somewhere below... the space... elevator... OH F-" She had to clasp her mouth at this. This entire cave that she was trapped under... is this it?! Or is it another cave and not this one? Wait no... the group's not in the North Pole so they can't be... Either way, to house something horrendous like that would be even worse if it falls into the wrong hands. And... did human actually build this place?!

This is bad. The entire group needs to be alerted of this as soon as she and Alex are done exploring this awful room. But right now she files the papers neatly into a folder and shoves it into her handbag for later. "Damn it. We need to ramp up our search of this place for stuff we've missed. If this cave or any other one houses what might be the world's deadliest artefact, then everyone, including us, will never hear the end of it. I hope that fire guy of yours hasn't found this place against our behalf..." Glancing back and forth from the room to the USL flag and then to Vujica's experiments, she just want to find something useful. Just anything, that could help the group, whether it be hints to the passcode outside or stuff to help prevent future disaster, just anything. "You see anything yet? I hope the rest have at least found something about the passcode outside too... I mean, we could try and punch in the date, but I doubt that will get us anywhere with this password..." (Investigation: 19) She punches the date anyways. If it doesn't work she'll leave it be and just go back to searching, since she's afraid that she'll trigger any security systems if she randomly presses buttons.

Mira then takes off the USL Flag and prepares to... wait... no. She can't burn. She's not a fire sorcerer at heart, so she'll have to scrap it, mayb hide it somewhere until either of them can get a chance to do so. "I know, my young one. I'd love to burn this wretched flag too, but I can't burn things without letting people other than mine know about why it exists. It's what my people would have wanted anyways: To quell the USL from rising and leave them stamped underneath their feet, but not alongside the backstories of it; Fools who don't respect the past are doomed to repeat it. Though I still can't believe that there would be remnants of this dreaded organisation hidden from the rest of society! And they call themselves justice?! Pfft!"

I'm at a loss for words. First me and Okaa-san encounter races suffering in stasis, and now, as I run across another set of papers, the person behind all of this wants to wipe out the entire world with the power of these helpless kitsunes?! Yikes... *Loveless Act III* "Their souls, corrupted by vengeance, hath tormented, to find the end of the journey... in their salvation... and their eternal slumber." This is the best I can describe the current situation. Furthermore, as I scan my golden eyes onto the letter that this strange Simic person wrote, for some reason all that my brain could trace back to is Ethan. Just Ethan alone. But why him specifically? Just because he's... a... wait...

"Simic... Hybrid... Ethan... What the. This has to be a coincidence." As I begin to look over the letter, my thoughts swirled from left half of my brain, to my right half. Also... Ethan told me he's a Simic Hybrid; The race that puts aquatic-like limbs onto humanoids as weapons. This Vu... Ji... Ka... she's a Simic too isn't she? Is there like a relationship or something?! Some crazy brain cell inside me tells me she's his mother. Other brain cells tell me that she's the master of Ethan and Rixian before they formed the Wildland Shifters. Neither of this is true however; Just my own imagination going crazy as I slap my head multiple times... The Simics that reside here and Sword Coast... are they close, interdimensional relatives? Or is this a different society altogether? Didn't this mutant race come from somewhere else too? I'm sure he told me what is was... Rav... nica? Is that it? I need to ask him again and if he knows who this Vuji-Ka is. 

"They captured wild foxes and relocate them to a special facility, isolated from the rest of the civilisation. If a fox is more friendly, they’re allowed to breed, foxes that are more fearful of humans are simply left alone... I believe that with enough time and resources, we, too, can modify sentient beings just like humans did with foxes. We can make them bigger, we can make them faster, we can make them stronger, but most importantly—we can make them more obedient... Um... We can create an army of soldiers and creatures who will listen to every word we say without questioning it. Rebels are advancing closer and closer to our capital every day, and they will surely destroy my hard work should they discover this facility..." All of a sudden, as I slowly back away from the letter, I don't think this artefact, whatever we're trying to find to save the Sword Coast, really matters anymore. This right here is even worse. This isn't domestication. This is animal cruelty; Forced torture. This is playing god. All they care about is creating the perfect, indestructible soldier who can crush anything standing in this corrupt government's way. So this is what the entire USL drama was all about is it? If there still remnants of this USL hidden in the depths of this place, I really can't fathom what might happen if this falls into the wrongs hands or- huh? *Hears Maya complaining as she forces the puzzle paper back onto him*

"Okaa-san?! What's with your rude attitude?!" I snarl back in the English that Sword Coast and Japan can understand. Seriously, having to deal with an angsty mom is a literal concern, especially considering that I've been wishing for her academics to rise even as we- huh?

Hm... I think I've seen this pattern before... *He closes his eyes* My brain is really rusty and I don't know if I've encountered it before but maybe... if I backtrack... I thought I for sure have had to tackle this in the past... But it does look familiar to my eyes... This shouldn't be that hard to figure out, especially considering we only have three chances to figure out the password on this stupid key... And they're relying on those two's magic and strength to fuel this to life?! I can't imagine if that was me and Okaa-san in these vile chambers, trapped in there for eternity until our deaths.

(INT: 22)

*He hears Maya exclaiming that the kitsunes are alive* "Huh? They're alive?!" What?! This can't be! So... if I read correctly... and if I can figure out what this stupid sequence means, does that mean... this passcode is gonna help free them from stasis?! But... we have another passcode in the main hall! isn't that...? Or do we need to find more clues? And what if those two fox-faced kitsunes turn out to be enemies instead? What if they display abnormal behaviour and rampage over us two and our entire group? Then what are we gonna do? And how is this gonna affect everyone overall once we've dealt with them? Unless if they somehow travel behind us without letting Stupid Rixi and the rest of the group know...

Shugo shrugs when no one from Simo's group decides to team up with him and Venet. Oh well it's their loss. He couldn't care less. Entering the door, he walks just slightly ahead of Venet and to her right.

Once inside the room, he grimaces at the grizzly sight. This is animal abuse at it's max! Well at least they don't have to suffer anymore... Looking over to the desks, the elf walks over eyeing the evil sciencey stuff sitting there. Seeing the note, he picks it up and starts reading squinting as he does so. Immunodeficiency, bio-engineered, performs best with elves, passed from mother to.... At this point his eyes are wide open, he barely reads the last few paragraphs.

Mother to child, elves, immunodeficiency. Immunodeficiency... This sounds like... Akari...

Shakily, he passes the note to Venet and looks at the other items on the desk. While she's reading, he wordlessly pocket's the cotton swab and strange device with the hole in the side. Part of him wants answers now, but part of him also doesn't want to know. He continues to examine the area, though he looks visibly shaken. These people. They want to weaponize viruses? How is that not worse than just killing someone? This is all so much to process. ...a cure. They were trying to make a cure. Is that what these vials of blue blood were for? What about the pills?

He'll continue to look through the desks for anything else noteworthy.

Perception: 8 (guess he's really really distracted lol)

Venet lingers at the sight of th cages. How could someone do that to any creature? After a few moments she shakes herself from the sight of the skeletons, following after Shugo, and accepting the note. 

"What's this..?" Her eyes pass over the note, reading the contents as her face seems to drop more and more. "... How could they even think to do this? Any of it..?" 

She shakes her head but sticks the note in her bag along with the horseshoe crab blood. She loathes the sight of it but knows they could put it to use. She scans the room for anything else, rummaging though desks and the like. She glances at Shugo, was he shaking?

----------------------------------
Insight on Shugo: 17
Investigation: 11
Perception: 16

Deception to contest Venet's Insight: 12

"I-I don't know." Shugo says as he checks the same drawer for the third time. How? How could anyone be so cruel? If his theory is right... He starts spacing off, barely noticing as Venet takes the note and the horseshoe crab blood. He approves of that action, leaving it would be a waste. Sure it was inhumanely gathered, but leaving it here would be disrespectful.

After a few moments of staring at nothing, Shugo turns back to Venet trying to put on his usual smile, an attempt to hide his true feelings under a cheerful facade. "Have you found anything else interesting? I'm not seeing anything else..." Shugo's pretty good at putting on an act, but reading that note has shaken him to his core. Any stranger might not have noticed the slight shake to his voice, or that his cheerful expression didn't reflect in his distant eyes. However, Venet's no stranger. She's been around him long enough to notice these small shifts in his personality. Something's bothering him, and by the look of it he might even be a bit frightened.

"I havent found much either.." she says, pushing things aside and lifting up other things to try and find anything more. She looks over to him with a worried glance, her concerns only deepening as he turns back to her. 

"Are you okay, Shugo? You seem.. a little shaken up.."

Mira Investigation check Passed

Thankfully, typing in the date does nothing to the magnet. Maybe she should press the big red button first... but that doesn't sound like a good idea, because a big red button always means something big will go down.

The map of Lancea is different from the present-day: the lakes in Arusa are smaller compared to today, and the northern hemisphere in general seems to be warmer with less snow, less swampland, and more plains. It's been 7,000 years since the war ended, of course, a lot of things will change, especially the weather.

Mira sees a small strip of paper from the right corner of the map, she walks over and pulls it out, and it reads:

"If you see a note with my name on it, count all the words, and that's the password to the main sector. By the way, the chlorine gas in Room 2 is linked to the lobby too, if you get the password on the main room wrong three times, the security system will activate." —Vujica Simic

And that's it, that's everything this room has to offer, maybe you should go back and reunite with everyone in the main room. 

Wait... Renar and Maya went to Room 2, are they alright?

INT check passed

If you add dots after the first digit of the sequence, you get 1, 1.4142, 1.732, 2—these are square roots of 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, which means the next number should be 2.236—the password is 2236

Renar types the password into the console, and it flashes back to life. There is a simple interface in black and white, indicating the number of which chambers to unlock. He taps his finger on the numbers 102 and 103, and the liquid inside starts to drain downwards.

Meanwhile, Maya's eyes land on a panel of lockers, they all have numbers assigned to them, so of course, she naturally heads to the ones with numbers 102 and 103.

The locker 102 has a Sekurian kimono, a cloak which is large enough to hide a fox ear, a pendant (probably Mihoko's spellcasting focus), and a jar of natto—a fermented soybean. Locker 103 has a black shirt, short shorts, a cloak similar to the ones in 102, and an odachi, the big brother of katana.

After a while, the liquid inside the chamber is all drained off, the tube opens, and out pops the two kitsunes—both of them only have underwear and a bra (in the case of Mihoko), so they're practically half-naked.

Rei's legs are shaking, and he takes a moment to rub his eyes and adjust to the surroundings. "What in heck...?"

"Ugh..." Mihoko, who is equally confused, looks around the room and comes face-to-face with Renar. She opens her mouth to scream, but no words come out, because she notices his fox ears and knows he's a kin. "Oh... thank you so much, my brother and sister, and I thought that day would never come" She steps beside Rei and holds his paw. And together, both of them take a small bow.

"Before I ask you any questions, I'm Rei Suzuki, and this is my friend, Mihoko Watase." The kitsune beside him wraps his tail with one of hers. "Do you know how long has it been since we were sealed? Is the war over?"

The calendar system in Lancea is a bit confusing. Right now, it's -1C 4983 CY—the first C stands for Cycle and CY stands for Central Year, each cycle is 10,000 years, and the number before CY is the number of years after the last Cycle—you can view it like year -14,983 because Lancean calendars avoid five-digit numbers.

These two were born around -2C, which means Mihoko is around 10,500 years old and Rei is around 8,000 years old. Kitsunes can only live up to 9,000 years, but biologically, these two don't even age. You know what they say, age is just a number.

By the way, it seems like these two forgot they're barely wearing any clothes, because they're looking at you at not at themselves.

Opening the drawers, there are syringes, bottles of clear, unlabeled liquids, and six potion flasks, and that's it, unfortunately, it seems like you should return to the main room and wait for other groups to come and tell them what you saw inside.

Then, you hear the metal door open, and you see Kazimieras peek in, but he stays silent and closes the door. He's probably checking on you... and he probably feels quite lonely too. Or you can visit Room 4 where Simo's group went exploring too, the metal doors aren't locked, after all.

"Okay? I'm perfectly fine! Right as rain. Aheh...heh.." The elf responds a little to quickly, following up his obvious lie with a not convincing laugh as he rubs the back of his neck. However, with Venet still watching him, he gets the feeling that she's not convinced. After a moment of awkward silence, he lets his hand fall, then looks at the floor. He could tell her. It's not like saying it out loud would change anything... "It's just...that note. This...virus. An apparently bio-engineered virus...well it sounds exactly like what my sister has." He still doesn't meet the triton's eyes. He's spoken the first item that has shaken him up. This virus isn't natural, and if his sister has it...well that means whatever experiments went down here were used. Someone let the virus out. As for the other thing...he can't bring himself to say it out loud...at least, not in it's entirety. "...My mother...may have had it too." After he says this, he lifts his head to meet Venet's gaze. "Please don't mention this to the others. It's a bit personal...and I don't want them to worry. We've got plenty of other things to think about right now anyways. Besides, I'm just speculating at this point." He laughs, and absentmindedly fingers the device in his pocket.

He jumps slightly when Kas opens the door, but the just smiles at the vampire before turning back to Venet. At this point he's mostly gotten a hold of himself again, at least on the outside. "Well, shall we go see what the others are up to? I'm curious to know what is in the other rooms."

I thought I had seen this kind of puzzle before. These four weird digits are the square roots of the first four numbers respectively. Which means, as I gaze over the panel, the square root of 5, aka the password is... *He slowly punches 2236* Right. That should have done something. In the meanwhile once I'm finished with the password, I quickly file the previous notes I had as evidence for the team as I then quickly whip my head towards Okaa-san who's... Wait... where did she go? Oh. She's sick and tired of watching those dead kitsunes float in stasis huh? I guess that means- Wait... why is water-?! *He then stares at the stasis chambers draining themselves of water as his eyes widen in panic whilst the kitsunes suddenly come out alive and well* Oh no... what have I done?!

"Okaa-san!" I warn her as I reshift my right hand back onto the katana sheath. When I noticed the female kitsune about to scream at the top of her lungs, I open my mouth too and instinctively but slowly pulled out my katana, but then she... bows? What? Is she not afraid of me? Wait.. she says me and Okaa-san are her kin? What is she...? *His fox ear then twitch whilst his tail slowly sways again, causing him to realise* Ohhhhhhhh... She saw my fox ears and tail huh? I see then.

"Sigh... Ok... Watase Mihoko-san and Suzuki Rei-kun eh... where should I start...?" I breathes as I size up and straighten myself. "Well... just so you know, we're not even biologically related. We don't... neither of us don't know how long you two have been in there, um... It's... I shouldn't um, ask for your age, especially since one of you is a woman. But... basically... the war has long ended... um... almost a thousand years or so... I'm not good at um, keeping track of time..." I honestly don't even know what to say at this point and I am noticably shaking to the bone; Okaa-san's of no use for sure since she only speaks Japanese and English. "Thing is, whilst the war is gone, that didn't mean us rebels have managed to locate and rescue you two from captivity um... but... it seems that you two... I'm sorry to break it out but... I mean... you guys... are the last of your kind. The rest of your race um... they were wiped out. By the ones who captured you... We're sorry... We tried to stop it... But failed." 

I then take moment to pause as the two of them bow majestically. Seeing this, I felt compelled to bow back as a gesture of respect alongside Okaa-san; In Japan, this would have been customary. "Well uh, now that you two appear to be alive and well though, I seriously hope you don't turn against us two, plus some other group members that we're about to regroup with. We don't know enough info about any of you two, other than the fact that you're the last two survivors, so right now, we for sure say that you are our allies. If you really intend to keep on living, then I ask that you at least follow what we are gonna... say... uh... um..." I then made the biggest mistake of staring at the girl... Mihoko is it? Oh yeah... as I accidentally stare at her almost naked body complete with well accentuated curves running down her hip to her thighs, I suddenly turn red and widen my eyes in absolute horror as I then lose my sense of reasoning and panic...

"OKAA-SAAAAAN!" I scream with my hands covering my embarrassed face and my back turned towards the two, especially the girl. "KARERA NO FUKU WA DOKODESU KA?! KONO FUTARI WA HADAKADA! (お母さん！彼らの服はどこですか?!この二人は裸だ, MOM! WHERE ARE THEIR CLOTHES?! THESE TWO ARE NAKED!) I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU TWO WERE-!"

"Well to the surprise of absolutely nobody, that didn't work." Mira grumbles as she realises that punching the date on the passcode won't do anything. But then her eyes set onto something else... "Oh hey! Holy boy! I found something! Look!" She reads the new note carefully. "Hmm... "If you see a note with my name on it, count all the words, and that's the password to the main sector. Which means..." She then quickly takes out the papers she filed to see if any of them contain notes with her name on it. It turns out that note about the space elevator and the solar bombs does have her name. So she starts counting. "Hmm... Do you know how many words are on this letter, young one? I can't really count that fast... I probably need your assistance there..." Once Alex is done, she'll neatly file those papers again, but then she rips out the Lancea flag and secretly stuffs it in her bag too so she and Alex can burn it at some point. 

"Speaking of which, I wonder what the other three groups are up to?" She says as she taps her paws against each other. "I'm probably inclined to believe that the ones in door 2 must be concocting a nasty scheme behind all of our backs... Should we activate the chlorine gas just in case?" She jokes, even though she knows this would probably kill the two of them too. And then she frowns; If she killed those two weird people, she's pretty sure she will face a mass rampage from Alex for sure. "Sorry. Don't answer that... But still, I couldn't help notice the hooded boy jolting when Venet says Maya dotes on him like a mom... Don't you think that reaction's a bit weird to you for someone trying to remain incognito?"