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[WillowLuman]

[These ancient ruins aren't connected to the caverns. This was originally going to be just a medium-sized temple, but you've upped the scale a bit. Didn't intend for there to be anything lootable, just something very worrying...]

[wierd]

More like...

Ok. You know what grey goo is right?  It's a self-assembling swarm of nanomachines that alter their environment, replicate more nanomachines from raw materials, and construct artificial tructures out of themselves, based on a core program.

The grey goo catastrophe is when such replicators interact with an organic biosphere, and they wipe it clean, breaking it down for raw materials.

wikipedia on grey goo

According to the MTG wiki, the phrexians have a convoluted artificial structure as their home. On the outer layer of this structure, synthetic evolution takes place, with synthetically derived lifeforms. The human-like protoforms of the phyrexian populace are often "abandoned" on this surface for testing, before "completion". These protoforms are called newts, and are grown in tanks. They have no gender, nor body hair. Other layers of their artificial habitat artifact-world serve various industrial and social functions, including a prison...if you can call it that. Its more like a hell reserved for torturing organic designers of machines, when encountered. (Artificiers).

The "oil" that permeates their world instead of oceans has mutagenic properties, and is directly implicated in the conversion of newts into phyrexians proper. It has all the halmarks of programmable grey goo, issued build order construction commands to "restructure" the newt. It also appears to maintain they cyber systems, and the integrity of their realm, as best it can. The one pulling all the strings is essentially a transhumanized intelligence, who's whims are given axiomatic truth status. It is this aspect that causes the potential exploitation I mention.

The phyrexians believe that this intellect is fundementally incapable of error. This is why only machines engineered and diected by this intellect are sacred, and why all other machines and artificiers are abominations that must be destroyed.

This intellect was halted, and destroyed.

When this happened, the phyrexian forces were fundementally demoralized.

However, the grey goo itself was not halted. One of the combattants in the conflict to destroy the tansuman intellect responsible for the horrors of phyrexia happened to have a cybernetic heart of phyrexian origin, and as such, contained grey goo. Unwittingly, when he created his own world of argentum, (amusingly, another mechanical type artificial realm) he released some of it, and it contaminated the service golem he left in charge when he left to explore the multiverse. This contamination has culminated in the independent and directionless re-evolution of phyrexia on that realm, later called mirrodin.

I presume that ZTG is referring to this new re-evolution of the cyber plague, and not the original incarnation.

In the scenario I outlined, you collect a sample of raw grey goo, contained inside a sentient artifact from both worlds. You then use them to cross contaminate the afflicted planes.

The original programming in the original phyrexians would identify the new, independent evolution as being "profane", since it came into being without the direction of the creator. It would seek systemic destruction.

The new evolution synths would consider the old synths to be obsolete, inferior, and seek to recycle them for raw material.

By cross contaminating both worlds, you afflict them with an autoimmune disease at the fundamental level. They are fundementally the same thing, but following nearly identical but different axioms. It would be like transfusing blood from an incompatible donor, and causing graft vs host disease.

The resulting conflict would demolish all higher order constructs that rely on the grey goo, because the conflict would ultimately be waged on this fundamental, pre-sentient level.

Both worlds would become reduced to a roiling sea of nanoreplicators making copies of themselves, and deconstructing the rival strain. Both would evolve in equilibrium, and prevent the emergence of higher order structures.

Without larger data storage devices and converted organic hosts, the phyrexian "race" would go extinct.

[WillowLuman]

[What I meant with that clip from Life of Brian was that he would go, do something exciting, then come back and we'd be like "WTF happened to you?"]

HugoLuman noticed something on the wall then. Could that be? No. "Um, guys?" They didn't seem to hear him. Well, time to get a better look. Very slowly, he spead his wings out, hoping they wouldn't scrape the wall or bump anyone, and gave them a good flap. Instantly the room was a hurricane of dust, and it took a whole minute of cursing and coughing before it all settled to the floor. When it did, though, he just stared. "Um, guys!?"

This is a wall. It appears to depict an interpretation of history...

[WillowLuman]

The 20 foot wall of the large chamber was covered in one of the finest carvings they had ever seen. All craftsmanship was of the highest quality, the details were minute and immaculate. Many things were heavily stylized, and thus hard to discern, but the wall was even more stunning for it. The things carved on it, however, were not all so wonderful.

On the far right of the wall, at the bottom, was a river source, with a river running along the whole bottom of the carving. This was obviously to show which way time was flowing in the events above. Before the river source was nothing but swirling clouds of fog with occasional vague faces poking out, barely discernible yet this was evidently intentional. Just before the river source, though, and overlapping it were the faces of demons in fire. They were in the caverns of Hell, but there seemed to be gaps in the ceiling. Some of these gaps were filled with pieces of turquoise, and from the turquoise on the floor the others were probably meant to be as well. Shortly after this, though, huge fissures appear in the surface of Hell, and at the same time (shown by their position above as opposed to next to), strange shapes. There were five of them, somewhat conical and pointing upwards, but instead of a point at the top they ended in a single great eye each. Their sides were seemingly adorned with hanging globes or large studs. Bolts of lightning carved from them and through the demons, making a path for them through the ranks of the demons and into some kind of great fortress.

This tower going to the top of the caves cut the scene off from the rest of the wall, the lightning-spewing shapes not seen again, nor the Underworld. Instead, the wall was divided into an upper and lower section by a line with what seemed to be hills on the top and stalactites on the bottom. On both halves, various bizzare beasts sprang from the beginning, though the many of the ones of the upper half sinking into holes within the line. A few of them, and all the ones one the lower half, continued to charge about in the open across the wall, disappearing into the background and replaced by the skeletons of incomplete towers and castles or mountains with pickaxe-holding figures standing at the base of them. Other figures stood at the edge of tall trees, next to still growing saplings, and some tiny figures danced among all of them...

[Eric Blank]

"An origin myth! A wonderful first glimpse into their culture! and possibly entirely accurate, considering how Dwarf Fortress worlds are generated."

[wierd]

"actually, Yes." he replied brightly. "My mom was an interdisciplinary student in several hard sciences; Geology, Botany, Biology, Archeology, and Anthropology. She wanted to be a paleontologist, and specialized in extinct plant and animal fossils, but the far reaches of all those disciplines had her studies go all over the place. I had a very interesting childhood. I never did understand my mom's fixation with dirty rocks and minerals, other than the purely utilitarian applications it offered, and preferred pure chemistry. Plants arent really my thing, except for how to use them, but biology, archeology, and anthropology are all----"

Hugo interrupted him by flapping his wings, and blowing dust everywhere.

"Awesome."

[WillowLuman]

All these figures and in-progress buildings faded into the background as well, one particular civilization rising into more prominence out of them. This must have been the beginning of events for the nation that carved the wall. Perhaps they might have been more powerful than the other civilizations, or perhaps the focus of the story was changing to them now. At first, they seemed to start as a village surrounding a wooden keep. The figures were jovial, seeming happy with their simple life. Then, further along the wall, several new figures appeared, seeming to either fall from the sky or rise from the ground; it was not clear. The carvings did make it plain that they appeared suddenly and inexplicably, though. These figures were depicted as much taller than the ones of the village, and walked among them to a hill. They dug into it with pickaxes, tunneling to the center where the wall became clouds of smoke for a foot or so. Shortly, they emerged from the hill on the other side, bearing very curious artifacts. These were depicted as oblong rectangular shapes, each consisting of a square of green glass embedded into the wall and a small grid beneath each green square. In miniscule detail, some Arabic numerals and European lettering could be seen on some of the grid spaces.

Now the hill was full of passages, at the center of which was a circle. This circle contained one of the cone-shapes with an eye at the top, surrounded by more of the tall figures. Worship? No, wait. It was imprisoned. They seemed to be interrogating it. Shapes like light bulbs and wires could be seen running through the passages of the hill. On top of the hill was a great tower. The village figures gathered in reverence of the tall figures; either the villagers were short, the figures were giants, they were depicted as tall due to reverence, or some combination of these. A stream, a river of people then seemed to flow to the tower from far away to gaze at the wonders that the tall figures worked within. Along the way, some of them left the stream to meet the villagers. Soon a great city grew up next to the tower, made wealthy by the trade of those who came to meet these gods or wizards.

At this point, the river on the bottom came to an end in a waterfall, yet the carvings went on; into the future. Another fog with vague shapes went on for a few feet. Then, a great mountain near the city seemed to explode, raining fire and a huge cloud of dust drowned the city. The tower was just out of reach of the destruction, though, and remained unburied. The land where the mountain had stood sank into the sea, forming a large bay, and pulling the city far underground. The figures in the tower seemed to grieve, though not for long. A stream of other figures, pointed of ear and sharp of tooth, were shown looking at the smoke from the death of the mighty city, and then looking to the tower. They streamed into the tower, seeming to cut down all the tall figures, the last one to be slain reaching for something as it died...

[wierd]

"Ok.... Just how long were we in that timelocked bubble hugo?" wierd asked, turning to his draconic friend. "Because it looks to me like it was a long time. A VERY long time. That big explosion there? I'd bet that's the old fortress."

His gaze fell on the final stele.

He looked at the tinman.  "Do you remember this?"

[WillowLuman]

For a moment, the carving seemed to end, but it was only more fog. The clouds stretched on for a whole eight feet, far, far into the future from when the wall was carved, when more tall figures suddenly appeared. They were sparsely detailed, showing that not much was known about them, other than that they dug into a mountain, and seemed to do magic. There seemed to be some kind of vague battle, during which several of the eye-cone shapes were shown disappearing through the bottom of the wall. Looking back, they could be seen swimming up the stream towards the beginning of time. Further on, though, after the great but vague battle, this new mountain seemed to explode as well, just as a huge and horrifying figure full of images of gears climbed on top of it. After that, several tall figures were staring at a long rectangle covered in symbols.

[WillowLuman]

Vemini turned to Weird. "How can I? Even to an elf, this place feels ancient. It must have existed for many ages before my birth."

[wierd]

"That's funny, because I'm 30, and I remember some of this."

He pointed at the clockwork monstrosity.

"That's clockwork Hugo. This guy's alter-ego." He gave Hugo a bump with his shoulder. "Omnicidal. Crazy. Its a long story, but he came into being when hugo here started studying how cage traps can warp and shape reality. The result was a .....Improperly labled.... Time machine."

"Time machine?"

"Yeah. It bends space and time, and allows the occupant to move through both at will. I'm afraid............." He took a deep breath, and pointed at the final stele, depicting the exploding mountain. "That I'm responsible for... THAT."

[WillowLuman]

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a minute," said HugoLuman. "Is that US, looking at this very wall at the end?"

[wierd]

"Clearly someone had a sense of humor."

[WillowLuman]

"Either that, or this is a prophecy. It probably means that they knew we'd read this, and that there's something for us to know in here somewhere. What I don't get is how the hell they did know about us coming here, and who are those figures that seem to proceed us?"

[wierd]

"I'm more concerned with the path these daleks took....  Here, they travel UP river. but both instances are WAAAY up river from where we are here."

"Daleks?"

The poor tinman looked shocked and bewildered, if such expressions could even cross his iron face. It was mostly something wierd read in his posture.

"I think that's what those are..." he said pointing at the eye-crowned conical creatures. "Why only 5 though.. there were... HUNDREDS... THOUSANDS of them in the final hours of the old fortress."

"What's a 'Dalek'?" he asked again, fear and irritation mixed in his tone.

"Monsters." wierd breathed. "They hate anything, and anyone that isn't what they are. I thought they just showed up because of the temporal instabilities caused by the time machine.... But why only 5?! I killed like, 50 of them MYSELF!"