Archaeological site
The Sentinels
Les Sentinelles
Description
Silent giants stand watch on …. Nine monumental statues placed along a wide perimeter at strategical points in the landscape appear to be guarding something at its center.
Their skin is covered in fine scale plating, their postures vigilant, ready to spring to action, and their unmoving eyes follow your every step. Yet there is nothing in the area in apparent need of protection. Perhaps their ward did not survive the passing of time. Many of the Sentinels themselves bear marks of assault.
Dig stages
Rewards read from the event effects. Some depend on conditions (empire type, earlier choices) or on chance.
Stage 1 · difficulty 2
The Sentinels Did It
Console: event ancrel.4052
Description
Something has gotten into the archaeologists. The excavation thus far has been impeded by freak accidents, injury and misfortune and now even senior researchers, with decades of field experience, are blaming the Sentinels.
Overcome with superstition and paranoia they claim the statues move about when no one is watching yet there is nothing to suggest their jointless limbs are even capable of motion. Matters spun further out of control when traces of biomatter, indicative of heavy bleeding, was found lodged within a series of tiny cuts on the terminal portions of a Sentinel.
Whether the Sentinels are just a convenient scapegoat or there is a more sinister explanation remains to be seen.
In every case
- Then: Archaeologist Missing
« Curious. »
- +50 to +250 Minor Artifacts
Stage 2 · difficulty 3
They Were Here First
Console: event ancrel.4053
Description
A compositional analysis of the Sentinels has revealed that they are made from an unknown hybrid metal ceramic composite. Such a material could not have been forged by a prehistoric society, yet preliminary readings suggest they predate all known civilizations on ….
Unfortunately the scanners cannot yet pierce the Sentinels' metal coating.
« Curious. »
- +50 to +250 Minor Artifacts
Stage 3 · difficulty 4
Radiant Core
Console: event ancrel.4054
Description
The archaeologists have reconstructed …'s modified scanner. Set to pierce deeper within the statues' hybrid composite material it has picked up on weak radiation emanating from their cores. To investigate further it would be necessary to break one of the Sentinels open, very likely destroying it in the process. Since one of the statues has already lost part of its wing our archaeologists recommend starting with that one.
« Open the Sentinel carefully so that we can reassemble it. »
- +50 to +250 Minor Artifacts
« We will not desecrate a sacred monument. »
- +50 to +250 Minor Artifacts
- Modifier: « The Sentinels »
- Deposit: Sentinels
« Level the Xeno monstrosities to the ground. »
- +50 to +250 Minor Artifacts
« Dismantle the statues and salvage the alloy. »
- +50 to +250 Minor Artifacts