Back to the Future II, Track II - No McFly's here Options

[fistandantilus4....]

Michael's next suprise is a complete lack of any gear, including clothing. All he has is his golden arm band.

We're in a really really really bad place. Ummmmm.... I think we should go. Like now! The gargyole recovers quickly and get sup flapping, flying down the cave and waving for holder to follow quickly, "her" glowing red eyes illuminating the way.

Suprisingly, the cave for is very smooth. As smooth as a tile entry way actually. It's been worked by man.

[Callidus]

What the frag? Where the hell's my gear? Guess it's really a Alice in Wonderland time.... Wait I'm naked too? Crap crap crap crap.... Well at least no-one else is here....

Oooookay, well lead on.

And heading after the tiny gargoyle as fast as he can Holder can only guess what he's getting himself into.

So I wonder what it is? Really a gargoyle? Never heard of one so small.... Maybe an earth spirit or elemental?

Rolls

[ Spoiler ]

Magical Theory 6 + Logic 6 - Wounds 2: 6 3 4 1 3 6 6 6 2 1 = 4 hits
Paranormal Creatures (North America/Africa) 6 + Logic 6 - Wounds 2: 4 6 3 1 4 1 3 2 5 2 = 2 hits

[fistandantilus4....]

[ Spoiler ]

It appears to be some sort of free spirit, of moderately strong force. Perhaps 6-9

The little gargoyle zips and zoms down different cave tunnels. The caverns them selves look to be about 20 feet wide, with a height of about the same. The gargoyle looks more worried most of the time it zips back from a side cavern. Soon Holder can hear what sounds like the sounds of metal striking stone. A lot of it.

[Callidus]

Trying to move as quietly as he can Holder follows through the caverns.

What the hell is causing the tapping sounds.... People! Finally! Wait what did the spirit say? It's dangerous here? Guess we hide for now... In no condition to do anything else.

[fistandantilus4....]

The gargoyle leads Holder farther through. At one point, they pass a tunnel with people just off the lip off the main tunnel they're in. Holder gets one good look at them in the gargoyles red light. The view horrifies him.

They're dead. Most of them having rotting flesh, or bones exposed, a few are missing limbs. The stench is terrible, nearly causing him to wretch. They look liek they're mining.

[Callidus]

The sight of the corpses moving and working the mine is almost too much for him but thankfully the vision goes by quickly.... but that almost makes it worse.

Shedim? A lot of Shedim.... God I hope we get out of here soon, and without them noticing us.... can almost feel them clawing at my shoulder blades.... Why insanity? Why? What happened to the nice young women and green fields? Well maybe insanity isn't a nice place.... damn it.... Ah well better make the best of it

Following along behind the gargoyle and hoping that it knows the way.... and not he way to his painful death, Holder mentally holds onto the comforting lightline that is the red glow from it's eyes....

[fistandantilus4....]

Drek! I almost forgot to tell you, don't cast any spells! Especially not here! It's like .... it's a really bad background count here. It'll hurt a lot ok?

The gargoyle spirit keeps zipping along. Passing down what seems to be the main corridor, he passes a gourp of undead diggers right in the main hall. The gargoyle keeps her eyes off the diggers, keeping them from Holder's view.

They pass two more groups, apparentl digging in to the walls. Occassionally there are lone diggers, picking at what looks like large carved runes.

Don't astrally perceive either! That's just as bad

[Callidus]

Okay.... Really not in the shape to try so guess that's all good....

Hmmm, guessing today's just been too hard, brain's going a bit fuzzy, ah well.... just follow the pretty gargoyle.... ignore the freaky dead things.... at least they ignore us too....

[fistandantilus4....]

After a few more minutes of running, Michael and he gargoyle come out into cool night air. The cave is apparently a hole in a ill, leading deep in to the ground.

Moonlight gives him a whole new horror. Arrayed all around the cave entrance are probably another hundred of the undead, simply wandering aimlessly. The moonlight bathing them, out in cool green grass, the horrible walking dead are a nightmare come true,

Composure test

Ths way quick! The gargoyle zips what looks like south.

[Callidus]

Holy.... Drek! Where to go.... Where to go.... I want to go home.... this is sooooo not funny.... Damn you Hood what did you do?

Then tries to follow the gargoyle, but the scene is almost stunning in it horror.

Rolls

[ Spoiler ]

Composure Test: Willpower 5 + Charisma 3 - Wounds 2: 5 4 4 6 3 4 = 2 hits (Combat Paralysis increases threshold by 1)

[fistandantilus4....]

Michael tries to run. The face of a little girl, no more than 7, mostly torn apart revealing a gory skull stops him cold. He collapses in a huddled mass, trying to scream, but unable to get it out.

Finally the gargoyle simply grans him under one arm, and lifts him, flying over the undead. Michael goes out, screaming in to the night.

[Callidus]

Cowering and mumbling in terror Micheal just can't make either his legs or mind do what he wants. Images of all the corpses keep flowing in front of his eyes, the mutilated children, the old stumbling along, the missing limbs, eyes, chunks of flesh ripped away but unknown creatures is just too much for his mind to handle.

Being lifted by the gargoyle is just the straw that broken the camel's back and as it flies off with him the scream finally looses itself from his throat and just won't stop.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! THE CHILDREN, NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[fistandantilus4....]

Sometime later, Michael finally starts looking around him self.

He's lying against someone... a woman... she's cradling his head in her lap. She's human, caucasian, blond and naked. She's stroking his hair saying *shhhhhh shhhhh* to him. She smiles down at him when he opens his eyes.

[Callidus]

Hmmm, comfortable.... Wait.... what? Who the.... pretty.... no focus.... naked and pretty.... damn you brain.... the square root of boobies.... no.... NO.... the square root of 2245 is....

Looking up and trying to concentrate Michael quickly covers himself before he really embrasses himself and then realises that she's probably seen everything already, but modesty is more than an idea really. And so he sits up and looks around and then back to her face.

Erm, hello. I'm Michael Holder.... er, this'll sounds bit strange but have you seen a small gargoyle around here? I think it was a free spirit and I really should thank it for getting me out of.... well for helping me.... Oh, I'm sorry thank you too for your help, I was a bit out of it there.... erm, do you know where I could get some clothes?.... and a medkit?

[fistandantilus4....]

I would tell you to sit down for this, but since you're already here...

For starters, well, I am the gargoyle. So you're welcome. My name is Bedlam. I uhh.. well I am a free spirit, more or less. This is just one of my forms. And sorry, no, I don't exactly have any spare clothes on me either. As I understand it, this is how these things work.

Ok, um, explaining time. We're not, we're not in Kansas anymore. Ok that didn't help. We're not in Australia anymore. You weren't supposed to be here. Only Hood was supposed ot be here. She starts talking very quickly. In fact I'm not supposed to be here either. THis whole thing is just completely wrong . Hood was just supposed to destry the shadows and I don't really know how things got this messed up and we really aren's supposed to be here and this is Hood's job and not mine and ... and...

She slows down, apparently remembering that she's rambling.

Michael, ok, here's the deal. We're not home anymore. Hood was supposed to go through the cave. He was sent her by our Master to stop the creautres ... the demons ... that were trying to take control of the cave. The cave is a sort of gateway. To different places... and well, well you like archaeology, right? Well, now you get t osee history in the making!

We're umm, well, we're about 7,500 years in the past. Give or Take.

[Callidus]

He sits there carefully listening to Bedlam explaining what's going on and with the way his day is going so far, it's feeling almost normal. What is impacting him more is that fron tof him is a free spirit, that at least seems friendly, and seems to be more upset about the situation, because.... well there's really no way it can be 7,500 years in the past because that just isn't possible.

Oooookay, so 7,500 years in the past.... yeah right, we're just somewhere else.... or I'm still hallucinating, either way looks like Bedlam is starting to freak out and with the shape I'm in that's not good.... I wonder how you comfort a free spirit.... and female, naked free spirit.... Ah well here's goes nothing....

Well that's a doozy. At least I'll get to find out where this comes from as he points to his right hand But don't worry Bedlam even if only Hood was supposed to come we here now and going to have to do what we can to get back. I'm sure if we work as a team we can sort it all out, okay I might not be much to look at at the moment but give me a bit of time to sort things out and we'll be good as new and smiling confidently to her, he tries to restart her confidence

Just wish I was as confident as that hopefully sounded.... why do bad things keep happening to me.... I want a mocca....

Rolls

[ Spoiler ]

Ettiquette to try and sound all manager like and gee her back up

Ettiquette 3 + Charisma 3 - Wounds 2: 2 4 6 6 = 2 hits

[fistandantilus4....]

I don't think you really understand yet, but that's ok. You'll see. When people start speaking that gibberish they call "dwarven" you'll see.

Well anyway, come on. We need to get you some clothes, and I need to go find Morgan.

At that, Bedlam stands, slowly, so as not to dump Michae'ls head in to the dirt. Then she walks a few steps and shrinks into a flapping little feminie gargoyle.

We need to go this way. Hope you can walk bare foot for about a day.

[Callidus]

I can but try, oh gracious lady he says with a smile and a little bow and then heads off after her gargoyle form while trying to pick the flatist and least pointy bits of ground to walk on.

[fistandantilus4....]

The pair walked for hours. Quite frankly , after his exhausting trip through the Asutralian Outback, this was a walk in the park for Michael. No snakes, no crags, no mana storms, no burning sun. Of course there were no clothes either but the grass was soft and even the night air was warm. It must have been summer where ever he was .... assuming he wasn't hallucinating.

They made camp after a good long march. Despite his worries about being insane, Michael fell asleep quickly. When he woke in the morning, he gound the little gargoyle still there, still in grass,, and still naked. There was a small pile of rough sewn clothes. He'd never seen anything like them however. The shirt was loose , a simple pull over of rough cotton. The pants weren't much better, and secured with a drawstring of all things. The boots he suspected might be real leather. Not a one of them had batteries, or color changing features that he could find.

[Callidus]

Hmmm, grass feels nice underfoot, starting to see wht the trids were on about.... Strange to see so much about though without some signs of civilisation....

------

A New Dawn

Waking up on the ground is almost second nature now, as much as he wished it wasn't, although there's worse places to wake up and worse company.

Hmmm, still here.... Guess it wasn't a dream then.... well unless it's one of those freaky ones where you wake up.... *sigh*

Morning, sleep well? These for me? If so then thank you, might be strange to bump into people without any clothes. and laughs quietly before busying himself with dressing in unfamiliar clothes.

Man this is trickier than you'd think after having self adjusting clothes so long.... how can you handle drawstrings? Surely your pants'll fall off half the time... Heyho, better than nothing. Wincing as he pulls the shirt on and then again tying the drawstring it occurs to him that at least his arms starting to obey him again, so things are looking up.

So still no casting I'm guessing? Must be a heck of a mana warp to cover a large area like this.

Actually that's a good point.... And Bedlam seems almost uneffected by it.... Note to self do not piss her off.... she must be massively powerful.... or lying.... but.... hell she's had plenty of time to do anything she wants to me so I guess I can trust her.... for now at least.

[Grinder]

What do you suggest, Morgana? Would you like to examine the skeleton and search the room?

Ralo flies up and down, getting more and more impatient with every second.

[fistandantilus4....]

Michael Holder

Err... yes, something like that. Let me explain it this way. You know about shedim, and how they can take your body when you're out projecting? Well, there are ... a type of spirit, for lack of time, we'll just call them Horrors, that can do something like that, but they only need you to cast a spell. There's one of those around here. So it isn't safe to cast. Got it?

She looks a little pained, like she really doesnt' think she explained that right?

[Lady Door]

The astral here is strange. There are residual effects of a spell here but they feel old. Maybe something that killed this man or woman back before, when this was a kaer. I'm not familiar with the spell... at least it's nothing I've ever seen before. I think we should head back down.
Morgana looks confused. If this was a Citadel.. where's the rest of it? I mean... where did all the people live. This was meant to be a kaer. Is there more beneath us? Are we missing something?

[Grinder]

Ralo scratches his head. I completly forgot about that. You came up with a very good point. Maybe illusion magic is used here? Or we have to found a secret entrance.

[Lady Door]

Morgana nods. I think I may have a way to help us. Let's get back downstairs. It's strange up here.
Morgana leaves the room, heading for the main hallway they found when entering the Citadel.