Oculus

Oculus
The eye of Underrail.
Location information
Music	Eldritch Currents
Located in	Upper Caves (top) Deep Caverns (bottom)
Areas	Apex Mainframe Floor Lower Floor Storage
Connections	Upper Caves
Fast Travel	Rift (Mainframe floor)
NPCs	Azif, Abram, Six, Twitch Constantine, Phyllis
Technical Map file(s) lux-wa wa-mon wa-mf wa-lower wa-shop

Oculus is the all-seeing eye of Underrail.

Description

The Oculus is a huge alien structure shaped like an elongated upside-down pyramid that extends from the bottom of Deep Caverns to the level of Upper Caves.

Its current custodians are a group of humans who call themselves Oculites or simply watchers. It is psionically hidden from plain sight, with oculites—or perhaps only Azif—being capable of revealing it to the minds of others. Its guards are silent and deadly psi-warriors from Khazum Morakht clan, informally known as Whisperers.

According to Azif, it was originally built by unknown beings whom he refers to as Godmen for the lack of better name. Its purpose is clear—surveillance. Though much of its machinery is currently inoperable, its operators can still gain considerable insight into the events of Underrail.

Crystal Mainframe

A central feature on the main floor of Oculus is the Mainframe, a glowing and humming crystal whose exact purpose and function is unknown to humans. It could be described and understood as a supercomputer, a database, a prophetic machine, a sleeping god or perhaps all of them.

Those who can withstand its intensity can psionically interface with it to receive its knowledge, but connecting with it is dangerous. In that regard, it is similar to the Monolith in Institute of Tchort west wing and the Mysterious Pillars elsewhere, although the visions received from each differ.

Vision (Requires 7 Will)

"After a while the walls of the pyramid start moving away from you. At first slowly, but soon they begin accelerating. They escape faster and faster, moving light-years away from you, but somehow you can still see them. Inversely, the rock shrinks to sub-atomic size. You can no longer see its light, but you can still feel its presence through the humming. In the vastness of space, surrounded by the pyramid's walls, a storm of memories, knowledge, and visions rages around you. Most of them seem well beyond your reach, but you might be able to glimpse into some of them." Focus on the two large objects revolving around one another (Requires 85 effective Psychokinesis): "As the Leviathan circles around a red planet, from half a galaxy away an invisible spear is hurled. It warps the space-time as it races towards its target, dislodging planets and shattering stars. These tell-tale signs will arrive too late to warn the creature of its impending doom, though. For these giants it is impossible to defend from an enemy who can kill by observing. The Eon of the Beast is over." Focus on the nearby superheated object (Requires 85 effective Metathermics): "The egg is cold and dark on the outside, but as you pass the membrane you can see and feel the hot core within. Immeasurable amounts of energy flow through the invisible network. So much more than they need to rule their domain, but not nearly enough to change their fate." Focus on the pervading background waves (Requires 85 effective Thought Control): "Countless thoughts of Godmen race through your head as you let the waves pass through you, but you can only make sense of small fragments. You sense their fear and wonder as they arrive close by. They lament as they learn their fate. Morbid curiosity makes them descend. You feel hatred and anger as they die. Three are now all that remain." Focus on continuously distorting constellation far away (Requires 85 effective Temporal Manipulation): "The stars around you start to spin and spiral down into a center from which a celestial wheel emerges. With each spin of the wheel the constellation is violently reconfigured in full and yet always ends up invoking the same image. The wheel spins faster and faster until in a single instant two shafts of light thrust out of its center, perpendicular to the wheel, along which all the constellations are strung and visible simultaneously." Escape back to reality: "With a sickening screeching the space around you implodes, and just as quick as it expanded, the pyramid reverts back to its previous state."

Oculus database

The Oculites have a large database of the centuries of Underrail's history, its geopolitical situation, its past and current residents of any notability. They also have a three-dimensional hologram map of South Underrail that they use to spy on South Underrail's stations, other communities and keep track of the geopolitical situation.

Characters

• Azif, near the Mainframe
• Abram, mainframe floor
• Six, lower floor (during certain events)
• Twitch, monitoring floor
• Constantine, storage floor
• Phyllis, mainframe floor
• Oculite Runners
• Oculite Stalkers
• Oculite Whisperers

Quests

• Meet Azif: You will gain access to the Oculus after this.
• Old man Nosek: Azif wants you to locate a former Biocorp researcher and find out what he discovered while working on "The Ark" project.

Map Gallery

• 

  Entrance

• 

  Apex

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  Mainframe Floor

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  Lower Floor

• 

  Storage