What happens if you do nothing at all with the deathfog machine? [spoilers]

[CykutaVirosa]

SPOILERS FOR ACT III

I guess I'll still mark it, though the game is almost 10 years old.

In Arx sewers, there's the deathfog machine and you can do several things with it. The internet has the consequences of those choices pretty well mapped out.

But my question is: what happens if you deal with all the Isbeil-Justinia stuff, but leave the machine alone and never interact with it? So far I have left the sewers and nothing happened, although on exiting the "dwarf section" of the sewers my character did prompt me to go back there and deal with the machine "before some kid starts hitting the switches." Good call, since we do know inquisitive and quite fearless kids live in those sewers.

Is there a timer of some sort? An epilogue card? Does anything happen?

[CykutaVirosa]

Just in the interest of possible posterity, the answer to this question is nothing. Nothing happens. The quest just stays open, saying "the deathfog threat remains" but nothing else happens. There's no epilogue for it, either.