The purpose of the machine was to be able to open an access point to an area away from the cult's eyes. It already wasn't ready by the time of the explosion, as the magical components that some of us aren't used to working with would've made travel back and forth near impossible from the way that your being would need to be unmade and remade in the transition. One of our tests went awry and Death paid the price, though these discoveries are also useful.

[ group projects are hard. anyway, ]

We still have the parts, though we haven't been working on rebuilding that just yet since we were searching for other avenues that wouldn't risk blowing one of us up.