[IC] Earth's Dawn, [Closed Game] Oh... the HORROR! Options

[Fortune]

Ignoring the activity around him for the moment, Gypsy sits forward, wincing with the effort, as he concentrates on Rebo's words.

"Wait a n...nano-second. What do you mean gone. D...did Dogma send them out to scout out a settlement? Or d...did they find an alternate way back to where we came from? Or ... or do you m...mean they are ... dead?

Running his fingers through his long golden hair, he once again leans back against the rocky wall of the cavern, before continuing in a lower tone.

"What exactly happened up there anyway?"

[HMHVV Hunter]

"They're dead," Rebo says. "They took a dive off the edge of the cliff...some sort of fear reaction to those shades."

"I tell ya, these things are worse than Aztlan blood entities...they managed to assimilate this mountain entity that was called forth. I had to shatter the thing before it turned on us too."

"I'm trying to find a way to counteract these things, to damage them, but it'll take time."

[Fortune]

"Drek!"

Gypsy eyes the psychic warrior as he continues to speak, glancing to Slinky for some sort of confirmation of the tale before returning his gaze to Rebo.

"Shades? What shades?"

[Sphynx]

Blasting away at the creature doesn't even slow it down, it scurries past so fast it's hard to even make out its details. Moments later it disappears into the darkness you came from, apparently finished with whatever business it had in the depths below, or perhaps just fleeing from the falling mountain. You continue your journey, into the depths of the mountain, none saying much, for fear that the others might be thinking the same thing you're thinking. Dreary hours later you arrive at the entrance to the Caern to the most inhospitable sight you could imagine. The rock entity which protected the caern is in pieces, its body now being mostly powder which covers the floor. Stepping into the Caern, you see the bodies of thousands, dead and shrivelled from having spent ages dead in the stale air. Almost as if some horrible deed had happened years ago, and the process of decomposition were nearly complete.

Meanwhile, Rebo and Gypsy have a heart to heart, describing to each other the horrible things that happened, while Sleel and Slinky scrounge the drones together and rummage for supplies. The Caern Dwellers, with the exception of the Doctor, seem to do their best to avoid the Chosen Ones, almost venomously. A dark emotion can be felt in the Caern whenever one of the Team gets anywhere near other Caern dwellers. The Doctor explains that they were un-trusting in how the Chosen Ones could let this happen. Apparently they believed the Chosen Ones were here to protect them, but the Doctor states that he knows the Chosen Ones were here to save the world, not neccessarily to protect a small caern. He recommends the team move on quickly, for whatever their destiny was, it wasn't here.

[Sandoval Smith]

"I think I could deal with this all a little better if things responded properly to being shot," Jack said, as he, Tevos, and the Boss backed down the corridor, careful in case that thing turned around and came back. They finally picked up the pace once it became clear that the thing wasn't, hurrying to get back to the rest of the team.

And then they made it back to the entrance to find the guardian dead.

"Fuck," Jack said, too numb to feel much of anything. They entered the Caern cautiously, but were stopped short by the sight of bodies everywhere. "Double fuck." He was too tired to deal with all of this. He just wanted to shut down and stop moving for a year or three. Had they lost everyone else too? It was like they were the patsies for a particularly insipid joke with the punchline, "And just when they thought it couldn't get any worse..." He didn't even want to go home anymore. He didn't want to do anything. He just wanted it all to stop.

[Backgammon]

When they finally arrive back to the Caern to find the Guardian a powedery memory on the floor, Dogma merely pauses an instant and steps over the remains. Again, seeing the withered corpses everywhere, the elf merely takes a look around, assessing the situation.

I feel nothing.

He switches his attention to his headware communication cyber, sending a team-wide message of <<Status report>>

He casts a sideway glance at a few live Caern dwellers gathering heavy baggages with sour expressions, noting the situationnal change.

[HMHVV Hunter]

"The shades," Rebo says to Gypsy. "You know, the...'spirits.' The ones that attacked. Those two teammates of ours just freaked out and tried to climb down the cliff after seeing them, but they didn't make it."

Rebo sighs.

"If it takes two of our lives just to ward off one wave of these things, we're in big trouble. I'm sure I can come up with a psi attack to hit them, but I'll need six days. I'm just hoping these attacks aren't a nightly occurance."

[Sandoval Smith]

"Present, fully functioning," Jack transmitted back. If he thought he was being funny, he gave no indication of it in his tone or facial expression. Nor did his expression betray how intently he was listening to the radio bands for a response.

[Fortune]

After an initial few moments of confusion, Gypsy and Rebo manage to fill each other in on the details of their experiences since the team seperated. The shade-like creatures that the psionicist describes puzzle the sorcerer just as much as the eight-armed, sword-weilding monstrosity that assaulted the cavern.

As they discuss the problem, the elf remains resting against the wall, trying to regain some of his strength from the exhausting encounter. By the time the remainder of the surface team returns to the cavern, he finally feels up to the effort of spellcasting effectively.

Running his hands over the barely-healed wound in Rebo's abdomen in a series of practiced gestures, Gypsy gathers the mana necessary to perform magical healing and channels it into the psychic warrior's body.

[ Spoiler ]

Casting Dice: 14 (7 from Spellcasting, 7 from Spell Pool)
Drain Dice: 7 (Willpower) + Trauma Damper

Complex Action: Casting Heal 6 [Drain 3M]

[Sphynx]

The team is together again, for the first time in almost a day. Shy 2 members, but seemingly fit enough for further adventure. The rocks seem to suggest the same thing as there's more rumbling, and dust starts to fall on the heads of those gathered. The doctor seems to have joined your group, his family had died in the attack, and his sole goal in life seems to have become an obsession with insuring your success against the Horrors. "Come, let us get out of here. The citizens have already left, it is only us, and I fear that if we don't move soon, your destinies will come to a frightfully short halt."

[ Spoiler ]

SpellDrain note: I don't do spell drain except in stressful/important situations. Nonetheless, the hours have passed, and nobody suffers any stun drain anymore.

Karma rewards for this week are based solely on the number of days posted, in an effort to encourage daily posting.

Karma Rewards:
Hunter: 2
Backgammon: 2
Sandoval: 1
Lindt: 1
Fortune: 1

[Backgammon]

[ Spoiler ]

Gonna assume everyone reported in with the status report, since it's not a big deal

Once everyone radioed-in or verbally check-in when gathering to the elf's position, Dogma was relieved to see he had not lost more companions, and that Gypsy had expertly taken care of a wound Rebo had sustained.

The tale of the eight-armed Hate entity was howver considerably troubling. Once again, bullets had been useless. Even Gypsy's spells had bounced, this time. No deals to be made with common enemies. No information to trade to avoid hostilities. No bullets to the back of the head to end trouble-makers. Dogma continued to feel out of his element. He concentrated on his leadership, instead.

Having no other options, Dogma had everyone follow the good Doctor. Once they were underway, the team leader got around to asking the doctor where they were heading, almost as an afterthought.

[Tarantula]

After finishing his maintanence on his drones, Sleel checks in with the rest of the team on what happened. Upon hearing that the cave system is likely going to collapse, he sadly goes to check his drones power levels.

"I'd like to know the fastest possible way to get out, so that I can send my drones down it to conserve the most power. I don't need to lose more of them simply because we were too slow in finding an exit."

Sleel decides to leave his drones where they are for the moment, giving them orders to catch up every 100 meters, then power off then catch up, and so on.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Feeling the healing psi power wash over him, Rebo suddenly feels a lot better.

"Thanks, man," he says to Gypsy, very appreciative that such a severe wound has been dealt with so fast. He needed to be in top form for the coming fights.

Rebo's thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the rumbling and feeling of dust falling on his head.

"Damn," he says. "This place isn't going to hold up much longer. I think we oughta follow the doctor; anywhere's gotta be safer than here."

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack watches Sleel's prepartions with his drones for a bit. "If you're that worried about power, we could just haul them. Rig up a travois if we have to."

He turned to Dogma. "We should probably stay on combat until, although I suppose that's more an 'if' than a 'when,' we find some safe place to rest up. Who do you want on point, and who do you want brining up the rear?"

[Sphynx]

The team begins its trek up the mountain, the depth they were at meant it would take a good 6 hours minimum to reach the surface at a fast pace. The shaking mountain seemed to be doubling that time. Dust rained almost as regular as rain itself, making visibility and breathability nominally difficult. The doctor followed you, as he had no idea how to get out, having spent his life in the Caern. It did seem odd though, that not a single caern dweller was passed, despite them leaving only minutes before you, and quite a few of their numbers being very old, or too young. Almost as if they'd used a different exit. By the end of the first hour, you're positive that you're taking a very different path than the other dwellers. Wether that was good or bad was debateable, but it seemed wise to stick with what you know instead of branching out to try to find whatever other path might lie ahead. Behind you, to the read, a large groaning sound is heard, as the mountain begins, what was surely, its crumble. As if to verify, a dust cloud swept past you like a sand storm, through the caves. Everyone is nearly knocked off their feet in the attack of nature. The drones would need serious cleaning after this excursion.

[ Spoiler ]

Hour 1 passes, no attacks, though the mountain seems to be holding on just for you. :P

[Fortune]

As the team continues the arduous trek through the passage toward the surface, Gypsy falls in beside Dogma.

"So what's the plan? I mean, after we get to the surface, where do we go from there? From what you all have said about those Shade-things, we can't very well just venture across the countryside after dark. Not safely anyway!"

Gypsy looks around at the drawn faces of the remaining members of the team before turning his attention back to the other elf.

"That isn't even taking into account that eight-armed Hate critter."

[Backgammon]

Dogma found it very odd they did not meet other Caern dwellers. How could they have known of another exit, that the doctor did not know about? There was no reason to distrust the doctor, but Dogma set out to thoroughly discover his character and see if there wasn't anything he had "forgotten" to tell them. This was, afterall, Dogma's speciality.

The young team leader had of course put Jack on point. Sleel's drone, by virtue of the orders the rigger had given them, had the rear.

The trek would be long, which was good for Dogma's "friendly" interrogation method. It gave him time to pause between questions to the doctor. In one such loll, Gypsy came up to ask the elf some questions, questions which were on the mind of all, no doubt.

"So what's the plan? I mean, after we get to the surface, where do we go from there? From what you all have said about those Shade-things, we can't very well just venture across the countryside after dark. Not safely anyway!"
"That isn't even taking into account that eight-armed Hate critter."

"Yeah, I know. The good news is by the time we reach topside, it'll be day again. The shades only seem to come out at night. We could use the daylight to set up a ward, but staying in one spot isn't going to do us much good."

Dogma didn't specify they would die of dehydration if not from shade attacks, but the odds that Gypsy hadn't thought of that weren't very high.

"The only real option seems to be to reach the verdant coast we saw. But we don't have a boat, and we have no boat making materials. I'm hoping magic can assist us somehow on this. A water elemental, or seas spirit, or something, might be able to ferry us. Can you put your mind with Rebo's and see if you can think of any spell or magic trick that could help us in this way? I'll ask the Doctor if he has any ideas."

Dogma returned his steely gaze to the Caern dweller, and returned for another round of questionning.

[ Spoiler ]

1) Asking the Doctor about everything he knows (I also ask his name while I'm at it!)
2) Check if the doctor is holding something from us
3) Ask him about bright ideas on what to do topside/cross the water

I'm asking him in a friendly way, not trying to ruffle his feathers. I'm skilled enough to know when to back down or come at him from an angle that doesn't bother him...

Interrogation 6
Etiquette 6
Charisma 7

You can PM me if there are details only I find out about.

[HeySparky]

Dead. All dead. Slinky swallowed, gagging on the damp cool of the deep cavern air. They were fleeing the caves. To the surface and the hateful world of the Horrors. There was no question, this was their world. Slinky’s nerves still rang from their encounter with Hate. Thoughts of the abomination brought bile and wretched memories, bones singing with a sick ache. Stumbling, young woman pitched forward under her burdens, metal arms shooting out to catch her, reflex bouncing off her spinal column faster than she could register it with her more sluggish meat brain. She couldn’t banish the grim images of the cairn dwellers as they fell in writhing husks. Or the baleful looks of the cairn dwellers as they abandoned the only sanctuary they knew. She vomited. Again. The grate of a boot in the dust behind her let her know that Gypsy waited just behind her. She spat out bitterness and struggled upright, accepting Gypsy’s hand. Dead. His eyes are dead. I’m dead. We’re all dead. Her eyes fell on her small hand in the elf’s fine-boned one. Dead as that. Sensors registered warmth from Gypsy’s hand. More warmth than is normal – even for a hot-running elf. Sick? Is he sick? Dung lung? She stood, concern creasing her brow waving off the stale water the pale-haired elf offered, instead pulling his head down to her.

She shoved the bandana off of his brow and placed her hand across his forehead, peering into his eyes, “How are you feeling?”

Feeling Dogma’s eyes on her she queried their leader without breaking her sharp gaze at Gypsy, “You’re next.”

A deep rumbling brings more flight panic bubbling to Slinky’s forebrain. Her stomach clenches, sore from bouts of vomiting. She dives away from the cave in, taking Gypsy down with her. She stands, brushing herself off and running quick diagnostics. She gives Gypsy a hand up and looks up the cavern, her eyes finding Sleel crouched over his drones speaking quietly to them. If that’d happened a minute ago we’d have lost Andy. She swallows grit and acid and her eyes move slowly to the pile of stone behind them.

“But, the circle,” she murmurs at the pile of rock and rubble sealing them off from the arcane circle that had brought them here. Tears well in Slinky’s eyes. “We have to use it to get back,” she runs at the pile of the cave in, hurling rocks away in a desperate attempt to recapture the sliver connecting them to her real life, her real world. Her home.

Home.

With a cry she flails at the rock pile, pounding it with her fists, sending shards of stone and dust flying. She shrugs off the others as they try to pull her away from the cave in. Andy’s voice, from the front of the group makes her stop, “Leola, we have go.” She collapses to her knees, shaking with sobs as his calm voice continues, “I need you to help me get the drones to the surface. C’mon Slink, we’ve got work to do.”

C’mon Slink, we’ve got work to do. An invocation as powerful as any of the spell caster’s – big brother letting his kid sister tag along. Slinky nods, lost, swallowing the knot in her throat and lets Dogma lead her back to the group.

She calls to the doctor on her way up to Sleel and his drones, “Got anything in your medicine pouch to treat a nervous breakdown, Doc?”

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack's nerves were wearing pretty ragged. The mountain was rumbling above them and he worried that every turn would bring them face to face with that hate demon. He kept his shockgloves on. The Boss had told them how little effect bullets had had on the demon.

At first, he kept constant radio contact, looking for signs of the people that had passed before them. It only took him a little while to realize that no one had. It made him feel a little disjointed, having gone from a regular guy, to chosen one, to pariah over the course of such a short time.

There was almost no warning before the tunnel started dropping behind them, the dust cloud and shockwave knocking everyone off their feet. Jack had to take the protective covers off his eyes and wipe the dust off, firing off a couple of extra electro-static cleaning discharges from his eyes to get the rest of the dust out before he put them back on.

"Everyone okay?" he radioed back, then proceded on when Dogma gave him the all clear. He wet down a handkerchief and wrapped it over his mouth and nose regretting that he'd never gotten around to getting that internal air tank.

[Tarantula]

"I need you to help me get the drones to the surface. C'mon Slink, we've got work to do."

Sleel waits for Slinky to catch up with him before putting his arm around her shoulders while they talk and walk. "Hey now, we've been in worse scrapes than this, I've got my buddies, and you've got me, and we've all got the rest of the team, we'll pull through this. Just like always."

Just like always. I just wish I could believe it myself...

[Fortune]

Disappointed in the outcome of his conversation with Dogma, the elven sorcerer drops back in order to discuss the subject with Rebo.

'Spirits! What the hell does that have to do with me?'

As they progress upwards, Gypsy once again surveys the remaining members of the team. Passing the remains of the Circle, now buried under the rubble of the cave-ins has a chilling effect on everyone, but seems to drive home the point that there was no returning to their own time there.

'This whole thing seems to be taking it's toll on everyone. Slinky seems to be close to totally losing it, and to be honest I don't feel that far behind her. There just doesn't appear to be any way out of our current situation.'

Settling in beside the psychic warrior, the elf again questions him on the conditions of the surface, discussing what they can reasonably expect to do about surviving beyond the relative safety of the cavern system.

[Sphynx]

Dogma's conversation with Meneer, seems to provide little to no information. Sheltered from the beginning of his life til now, he has no idea what's on the outside, except the tales told to scare kids into staying asleep. The spirits, or shades as Dogma liked to call them, sounded like one of the fairy tales told to kids to keep them under their blankets at night. In that tale, the spirits were not intelligent enough to perceive that a blanket was anything more than a minor object on the path, and to remain under it, one would be safe because the shades never looked under the blankets. Dogma talks for hours, learning much about Horror Lore in the process, but eventually the rumblings get far too loud. Realization occurs to the team, quite a bit too late to stay put, but, if the caves survived to the future, where they started, the caves were probably quite safe, despite every rumble that is heard. As a matter of fact, the only place lost in the future, is the Caern, and the top of the mountain.

Suddenly, as if to bring falsity to these realizations, the mountain again rumbled, but this time to such an extreme that the earth shook. Shook so strongly that nobody could move forward at all, their bouncing forcing them to put all attention on not slamming into the walls head-first. Panic hit as the mountain finally gave way, there was no denying the sound, stone grated for miles, it was painful to everyones ears as the entire shelf above them slid into the ocean. Everyone grabbed at something, but fear caused them to let go, for who knew where the rocks would crash down, impaling their hands between tons of rocks? Minutes dragged by, the earth shaking as if to force the tram to fall back down the throat of the cave, into the caern, many many meters below. After what had to be at least 20 minutes, the rumbles started to die down, but the air was unbreathable. Dust filled the lungs of everyone, and every cough that was forced out of your throat caused you to inhale more dust than was cleared. It was obvious that your deaths were to be, not from battling horrors in the depths of hell, but to die of asphyxiation, as nature did its plunge into the ocean.

[ Spoiler ]

Dogma may spend some karma towards Horror Lore, everyone else may spend 1 karma on Horror Lore from overhearing things.

[Fortune]

Shifting the small pile of dirt and rubble that has come to rest on top of him, Gypsy gingerly rises, hacking and coughing up the dust clogging his lungs. As soon as he manages to catch his breath for a moment, the elf quickly passes his hand over the lower half of his face, working a small cantrip to enable him to breathe freely.

Shifting his perception to the Astral, the sorcerer scans his surroundings to locate the other members of the team. Acting quickly, Gypsy circulates among his companions repeating the small spell, starting with Slinky, then Dogma, followed in short order by Tevos, Rebo, Sleel and Jack before getting to the doctor, Meneer.

Only after he completes his initial spellcasting does he double-check to see if any of his team mates are actually injured and require further medical assistance.

[ Spoiler ]

Casting Dice: 14 (7 from Spellcasting, 7 from Spell Pool)
Drain Dice: 7 (Willpower) + Trauma Damper

Complex Action(s) x 8: Casting Oxygenate 1 [TN 4 / Drain 2M] (+ cumulative +1 per spell sustained)
Assuming 1 spell/turn plus movement. If any spellcasting attempt fails, he will repeat the casting before moving on to the next person.

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack coughed and choked, the dust caking so thickly over his handkerchief that it became a solid mass over his mouth and nose. He hugged tight to the ground, trying to keep from being rattled off the ceiling as well as the walls. Now they knew what happened to make the trek down to the chamber so short in the future.

After Gypsy finished going around, giving everyone a mana fueled areation, Jack rejoined the group, sitting back against the wall of the tunnel. Everyone was now the same monochrome shade of earth brown. As everyone else got themselves together, he mulled over the snatches of conversation he'd heard from Meneer. "So does that mean when we get back topside, all we have to do to keep ourselves safe from the shades, at least, is pitch a tent and sit quietly inside?"

---------------------------------

[ Spoiler ]

Jack will be taking that one rank of Horror Lore.

[Backgammon]

Dogma's conversation with the doctor, Meneer, provides much interesting insight both into the Caern Dweller's beliefs, as well as the general state of this world. The talk also stimulated the ultra-social elf, who hadn't had a good chat with someone new since getting to here. Or is that to "now"?

Jack radioed in every now and then, mostly after a particularly loud rumble would shake everyone. Sleel and his sister Slinky were chatting while bringing up the drones. Gypsy and Rebo discussed desperate theories on how magic could get them across the water. It was always funny to see the psionist automatically correct the sorcerer on his magical vocabulary.

All in all, at least until they reached the surface, everyone could relax a little, and it was nice to see.

Then the world slid from under their feet. Dogma lost his footing and slid to a fall. His air filters beeped alarms in his head, indicating they could not compensate for all the dust in the air. Dogma felt his brain rattle for what seemed like an eternity, while choking for air. No coherent thought formed in his head other than "I'm going to die in the past". The shaking stopped, but the air was thick with dust, unbreathable. Suddently, he felt a hand pass over his mouth, and then fresh oxygen filled his lungs.

Recovering his wits, he stood up, pebbles and rocks slidding off of where they had fallen on him. He saw Gyspy quickly move amongst the team and finish his spell on everyone.

His team seemed alright. Everyone was getting up, making faces at sore spots where they had fallen hard or where rocks had bruised them. Jack made his way back to where everyone was from the few meters ahead where he'd been. A sigh of relief at seeing everyone alright came from him.

"Well then." Smartly stated Dogma