IC: Vein of Truth, An adventure into the wilds Options

[Beast of Revolut...]

As his blimp cruises down to the site of the skirmish, Thor jumps back into his van and runs a quick active sensor sweep of the area. Jumping back into the blimp, he scans the skirmish site.

[TinkerGnome]

Belfast attempted to summon forth one of the spirits from the mine, but its resistance was too much for him. Instead, he turned his attention to drawing another spirit from the earth itself. As the gnome took form, he could already feel its resistance to his control.

[Panzergeist]

"Given that these spirits are a mixture of three different magical traditions," Swift Eagle says, "They couldn't all have been summoned by a single metahuman mage. If they are not free spirits, then they are either controlled by a combination of at least three powerful mages of different traditions, which is unlikely, or else a dragon. Dragons can control all kinds of spirits. We may have to deal with a wizworm after all."

[Number 6]

[Number 6]

Hellcow stepped over to the now-formed gnome with a vague grin on his face.

"Hello there. I apologize for the inconvenience, but my friends and I have some questions that must be answered. The sooner we can complete our task, the sooner we can be out of your hair."

Hellcow peered at the gnome. Does he even have hair under that red felt cap?

"Now, to our questions...."

[JaronK]

Paris, seeing an elemental appear within the camp grounds, moves his rifle around to aim at the intruder. Seeing the less than startled reactions of the party below, he decides not to fire immediately. Instead, he subvocalizes in to the radio

"You folks seem to have company... is everything all right?"

He then carefully takes aim, awaiting the response.

[crechebaby]

"Just chatting with the local townsfolk, it appears," Brand's placid voice crackles over the radio. "No big worries. There's some magical whateverthehell going on here... don't ask me exactly what. Bel's on it."

[Shadow]

Since she finished with what she can do, and Bel and Hellcow seemed occupied, Raven found a nice patch of dirt to relax on. She drew her weapon and gave it a quick cleaning, no need for dirt or grime to ruin it when she needed it.

[JaronK]

"Gotcha. Good luck with that."

Paris resumes sweeping the area for threats.

[Number 6]

Hellcow turns to the gnome and bows low (or whatever is applicable to spirits)

"What, precisely, are you and your companions down there protecting?"

"Who is controlling your companions now, and controlled you immediatly before my brother here?" Pointing at Belfast.

[TinkerGnome]

The gnome cocks its head to the side, as though listening to something greater than itself. Belfast knows that this equates with communing with the domain of the mountain and talking to other spirits, though the spirit grows even a little more rebellious after doing so. It takes quite a bit of Belfast's control to force answers from the spirit in response to Hellcow's questions.

"No one controls us," it says, the shiny ebon coals which seem to represent its eyes glare at Belfast. "The golden soul of the earth calls to us. It is what we protect."

[Panzergeist]

Swift Eagle strings his camoflagued hammock up in the branches of the tree he is in.

[Number 6]

Hellcow raises an eyebrow at the somewhat mystifying answer.

"Please clarify what the 'golden soul of the earth' is, as descriptively and expressive as possible. Indeed, feel free to run on as long as you like."

"Also, what are you protecting this golden soul from, exactly, and why does it even NEED your protection?"

The elf looks down his nose curiously at the short spirit.

[TinkerGnome]

The gnome looks quizically at Hellcow. "The golden soul of the earth is the golden soul of the earth. It shines with the purity of the earth itself. It was and always has been, though not here in all of that time. We protect it from anyone who would take it. It is ours, and ours alone."

The gnome seems to grow a little more rebellious as it answers the last question and Belfast realizes that it does not appear to head for the metaplanes, but rather to the mine below. Acting quickly, he loops another band of magical control around the spirit, keeping it from joining its brothers. The effort costs Belfast much energy, but he controls the spirit. It glowers at him.

[Misfit Toy]

Belfast's expression turns acrimonious as he struggles to recapture the spirit and stares the corrupted gnome deep in its eyes. In a tone quite uncharacteristic for the Mickey, Bel turns to the others nearby before speaking.

"This place must be clensed. Rally everyone together and prepare for a front assault inside. We're going in in thirty minutes. I'll run anyone through a crash course who hasn't had any experience battling hostile spirits. Likewise, if anyone has any suggestions on how to go about this, now's the time to speak."

And at that he grows quiet as he finds a boulder nearby to sit and regain his energies.

[Beast of Revolut...]

Thor moves his mini-blimp back into position 200 meters above the mine site. "I'm afraid I won't be any help in an underground battle; only my aerial drones are armed. I'll keep watch topside for you guys though. Eagle, set those two drones up so I can activate them if I need them." Staying in direct control of the blimp, he orders his drone-controlled van to keep it's active sensors active, in case the hostile force decides to sneak up on him while he is watching the mine.

[FXcalibur]

Evans pulls a canister of fresh water from his pack and hands it to Bel.

"I know the basics, but if you've got any advice now would be a nice time to share."

[Panzergeist]

Swift Eagle packs his hammock back into his backpack, comes down from the tree, and starts looking for places to set Thor's drones. He sets the microskimmer in between some bushes near the middle of the mine site, where it is hard to see but can easily move if it needs to power up. After a bit of thought, he climbs onto the roof of the guard shack and sets the spider drone on the middle of the roof, where it cannot be seen at all from below. "There, your drones shouldn't be seen unless you activate them now." He joins the rest of the team near the shaft.

[Beast of Revolut...]

Thor activates the spider and skimmer drones for just a couple seconds to find their position, then turns them back off. He activates the active sensors on his mini-blimp, determined to keep a good watch on the surface while his team is down in the mine. He spares one last glance at the status of the van to make sure it is continuing its sensor sweeps, and decides to warm up the strato-9. He orders the strato to turn on its electrical systems and activate its own active sensors, but not turn on its engine until further notice. Jumping back into the blimp, he watches the mine area.

[Panzergeist]

Swift Eagle leads the ay with swords in hand, taking advantage of his heightened senses to warn him of any danger.

[Number 6]

Hellcow double checks his gear, clothing and weapons.

Spirits, eh? Won't be needing these.

The elf pops the gel-round clip out of his Alpha, and replaces it with a clip full of red-tipped bullets. Finding everything in order, he grips his alpha and falls in behind Swift Eagle.

[Chance359]

Sedryk checks his gear and realizes that he forgot to bring his tazer. "You know this is probably going to sound unprofessional of me, but I did count of fighting spirits."

[TinkerGnome]

The elevator is more rickety than comfort would usually allow, but taking the ladder down the half kilometer shaft into the mine seems too dizzying a process to contemplate. Instead, the group takes the elevator down the deep shaft, hoping beyond hope that if the cables give out that the brakes would still work.

After a seeming eternity watching the cut stone slide past the front of the lift, a tall, open space appears beyond it. The darkness of the mines is absolute, the bulbs and lamps once used here no longer providing any illumination.

Belfast waves his hand over a talisman he bears and the light from the electric torches the group carries becomes stronger, illuminating a lot more of the mine than the individual beams could without some magic.

The main shaft stretches approximately 500 meters in length and varies in width between 8 and 10 meters on the main shaft. The group is able to traverse the artifacts of mining without incident and arrives at the corner in short order. Red Tom manifests and moves forward, ready to blast the spirits with his mojo. The concealment of other spirits gives him time enough to act.

The spirits certainly seem to wake up as he does so, and the entire area errupts on the astral with the howling of angry spirits. They rush the team, en mass, though only three are visible on the material plane.

[FXcalibur]

Evans braces his Ares Alpha against his shoulder and trains the sights on spirits down the passageway. Once Bel gave the cue, he swung his rifle at one of the three materialized spirits and held down the trigger. The rifle roaded ferociously and Evans did his best to keep it steady. "...-Six-Seven-Eight-break!" He thought, counting both from memory and the ammunition counter in his Smartlink display. Exactly on the eighth shot, the gun bucked far too north to hit, but the trigger was already depressed. He looked up at the rushing spirits and crossed his fingers that he was able to do some form of damage.

[Number 6]

Grouped targets, at range, good place to drop some HE grenades.

Hellcow glances up at the ceiling, and the old timbers spaced along the passageway. They appeared pretty sound, but.....

Probably not designed to survive a warzone, better save that for a last resort.

Raising the Alpha to his shoulder, Hellcow mentally switches the gun from grenade launch to 3-round burst, and squeezes the trigger.