The Broken Gates

The ruins seem to be centuries, if not millennia, old. At first it seems to be only a large open-air dome, but as we are excavating the outermost parts we quickly find ourselves in what appears to be the derelict slums of a city. As a large gate blocks our progress deeper into the city, our scientists speculate that it is split into a hierarchy, each layer holding one class of the people of the city.

It does not take long before one of our scientists finds alien remains in subterranean ruins under the broken concrete floor. After the first corpse is found, however, we start finding remains all over the slums, be it in the streets, in what would have been their homes, or hanging from the most remote parts of the ceiling. It is unclear what killed them, but it is a grisly sight.

Whereas the first circle seemingly consisted of the ramshackle dwellings of the outcast and destitute, this second circle has more in common with the … notion of proper urban planning.

We find several open squares our scientists assume used to be marketplaces, though anything from back then has long since decayed to the point where it is impossible to make out what it might have been.

It does not take long before we start finding unusual remains in this part of the dome too. They seem to have perished in much the same way as their poorer neighbors, and we find the dead strewn all over.

When the gate into the third layer finally opens, our scientists - curious about what they will find next - flood into what is soon identified as a yet wealthier region of the old dome. At this point we can make confident assumptions about what to expect from this city.

Shortly after we enter the layer, one of our people suddenly turns around and savagely attacks a colleague. The victim is already dead on the ground by the time the unexpected assailant is restrained. In the aftermath we are completely unable to get anything sensible out of the crazed scientist, and get no better understanding of what happened to them.

This layer is significantly smaller than either of the previous two, and it is most likely the final one before we reach the center of the dome. Only one gate remains.

As soon as the final gate opens up, waves of intense psionic energy wash upon our scientists. Most of them collapse in apparent agony, leaving only a few to make their way into the actual layer itself.

It seems to be a large temple, with a massive dais or altar in the middle of it. All across the walls there are huge diagrams of different star systems, and a repeated one seems to center on … itself.

Making their way closer to the middle, the few scientists that remain find that it is in fact an imposing machine fashioned in the form of an old altar.