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

[HMHVV Hunter]

"I can try," Rebo replies when asked by Dogma if further communication is possible.

Pressing his fingers to his temples again, Rebo tries to communicate telepathically with the rock again.

"Do you have a name? What is this place? What year is this?..."

The questions continue flitting through Rebo's mind as he attempts another communication.

[ Spoiler ]

Another Telepathic Communication attempt:

Force 5

Sorcery Dice: 6
Psi Pool Dice: 5

Drain Resistance test:

Willpower Dice: 6

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack passively observed the interaction between the mages and the rock. When he heard people say that it was moving, he was ready to whip out the shock gloves, since someone had obviously left an earth elemental behind. That didn't quite seem to be the case, since something about the elemental (what else could it be, it was a moving rock) had all the mana sensitives in a tizzy.

"Can do, Boss," Jack replied to Dogma. He prepared to follow James and the drones, mottling his skin into subdued earth tones. It certainly wasn't as effective as James' full ruthenium outfit, but it broke up his silhouette, and as long as he walked softly, it was better than nothing.

He paused long enough to pull on his shock gloves. If there were any spirits or elementals out there, bullets weren't going to do that much good. On that note, he swapped out the ExEX for regular rounds, so that he could equip the silencer without looking like an idiot.
----------------------

[ Spoiler ]

4 dice for stealth, if needed

[ Spoiler ]

[Sphynx]

The rock stands up, definitely bipedal in form, and standing just a bit taller than twice as high as a human. As he moves to the side, you see many people standing behind the opening, their eyes wide with either excitement or surprise. There is much whispering heard from within, and although none of it can be translated, it definitely feels, both in the mundane world and from astral perception, that the group of people is awed. James, who paid too little attention to the opening, fades from view directly in fromt of these people, causing a rustling of noise as the crowd weakly steps back from the team. The only person who seems to not notice the crowd now is Rebo, who is mindlocked with the rockman. Nothing seems to work though, due to a problem in the translation, the rock does nothing more than shrug both physically and mentally. Slinky, who had her eyes momentarily closed, opens them and is the first to see that the crowd of people sports various known races, as well as what appears to be a few Draconic like people, as well as half-versions of the rockman. Humanoids seemingly made of pure rock.

The style of dress tells you that these people must not have a walmart near by. Their clothing is ragged straps of leather assembled in ways that appear barbarically colorful. They hold tools made of stone and wood. As everyone observes these details, and elder looking man approaches through a part in the crowd. He seems to be the leader, and he bows down before you, which the crowd quickly immulates. "Creiuld vergrentshulin orgrantishiamputer corder voor apperentenshi, siquionixonerfil.", he says.

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack freezes in mid color change. He should've been paying more attention to what was down the corridor instead of what type of bullets were in his clip. His eyes dart over the crowd, falling back on his mental reflexes as he takes another shock, recording each face as his eyes pass over them, a few words leaking out over his transducer.

Tir? Negative. Hostile? No. Surprised. Hiding from those things? Possibility. Allies of those things? Possibility. Identities? Troll/male. Dwarf/female. Human/male. Ork/male. Ork/female. Elf/female. Saurian/Dracoform?: Unknown. Gender: Unknown. Elf, male. Dwarf, male. Earth elemental? Negative. Rockform: species/gender unknown. Human/male: approaching. Leader/ authority figure? likely

Both his visual and audio recorders were rolling as the man bowed and spoke. He replayed the sequence three times to try and make sense of what the man said. "Did anyone get that?" he asked via his transducer. It didn't sound like anything he could think of. His chipjacks were itching. He wanted to slot every linguasoft he had and start processing. The repeated shocks he was begining to grow numb to. However, they were being replaced by too many not-knows. Very rarely did a situation arise where he didn't at least know what chip he needed to slot in order to understand what was going. There were no chips for this. He didn't like that.

[Backgammon]

As Dogma circulated around instructions to his team, the big rock man moved aside to reveal the crowd. He finishes his orders to Sleel, and turns to the rest, but instead of words coming out, only his intake of air is heard as he stops cold talking, taken by surpirse by these new people.

"Well, this is nice" concludes Dogma as the elder finishes speaking his incoherant language. More surprises.

"Rebo, never mind the rock thing, try communicating with this guy. Everyone else, stand by. No sudden moves..."

Dogma raises his arms in gesture of peace, walking forward with Rebo, with the biggest, warmest smile he could muster.

[Lindt]

I'm loosing my mind....

"Umm... We come in peace?" Pipes Tev from the back row, standing on his toes to see over Rebo and Dogma.
Tev turns to Slinky "I'm getting some strange vibes, they are worshiping us... I have seen enough Trid to know thats got to be a bad thing somehow."

[Tarantula]

Sleel listens to Dogma's orders, and tries to decide if he should follow them or not. He decides that since the big drones are already guarding their rear, and the orders only were to scout ahead, that he'll send the little bird drones ahead over the mass of people to make sure there isn't anything behind, under, or around the people. (Also to check if they have any weird readings on sensors).

[Fortune]

As the Living Rock moves away from the opening, Gypsy is not terribly surprised to see the motley collection of metahumans appear. Of course, the whole situation was surreal, but taking things at face value, another small bit of the puzzle seems to slip into place.

Taking a step to rejoin the rest of the team, he hears Dogma's command to stay in place. Shrugging, the elf stops and leans against the wall of the tunnel. Concentrating on the strange words coming from the old man, Gypsy surreptitiously touches his ear and lips as he shapes the mana for a small spell.

[ Spoiler ]

Initiative: 7 + 4d6
Defence: 11 (Combat Pool)
Spell Defence: 7 (Spell Pool)

Casting Dice: 7 (Spellcasting)
Drain Dice: 7 (Willpower)

Free Action: Shift Sorcery dice, leaving 7 from Spell Pool for Spell Defence.
Complex Action: Casting Translate 1 (TN 4) [Drain 2M]

[HMHVV Hunter]

Rebo is astonished to see the collection of lifeforms walking towards them from the cave opening. Their weapons barely look past the stone-age level, and the language is incomprehensible.

I just hope I don't freak these guys out from telepathic communication, Rebo thinks as he readies his mind for communication once again, training his focus on the leader that has stepped forward.

[ Spoiler ]

Telepathic Communication, Force 5

Casting: 11 dice (6 Sorcery, 5 Psi Pool)

Drain Resistance: 6 dice (6 Willpower)

Rebo projects any images he can think of approximating "calm down" and "we mean no harm" to the leader during the communication before he tries to discuss things any further with him

[Gremish]

"See, this is exactly what i told ya.... if the rock wasnt gonan kick your butt other things would definitly try." With a sigh gremish fades back inot the party preparing spells and making sure everyone stays up and running if a battle may come. He does all this with a very loose muscled non threatening appeal so as to not have any of the natives freak out and attack.

" I bet that meant, hey drekheads why did you move my rock? Took me three bloody years to get him to sit down, hes like a baby on crack." Gremish says so that only the team can hear and with a chuckle and noticing that no one else probably found that funny, Grem puts on a grim face and goes back to letting the others take care of negotiation which had never been his strong point.

[ Spoiler ]

Preparing Imp Ref and Phys Barrier if these things attack theres suddenly gonna be a wall where that rock moved from... And yes i realize they are not hostile looking at this time.... but god only knows how fast that can change.

[Toptomcat]

!?!
James hurredly turns his stealth outfit back off, grinning sheepishly as he steps back with both hands to the group, palms to them in a sign of peace recognized around the world, no matter what freaky language people speak or what crazy metatypes they display. He speaks to the group behind him, using a friendly and soothing voice to keep the situation from turning into anything either side will regret.

"Not my department, you brainy types get to work...I'll just stand here and look friendly."
And I'll use what narrrow specialties I do posess to see if I can't tease out a few solid facts from this craziness.

[ Spoiler ]

Etiquette 5, Negotiation 4 to project a nonviolent and friendly attitude.
Biotechnology 6: do they look like artificially-created genetics projects or natural organisms? Magic 6: paranormally mutated metatypes?

[Sphynx]

[ Spoiler ]

OOC: My apologies to ES_Sparky for posting without her posting. Since on this rare occasion, almost everyone's posted before my bed time, I chose to post a 2nd time today.

To everyone's amazement, well to those astrally perceiving anyhows, there's a definitive oddity about the group of beings emerging. Every single one of them is magically active. There's not a single mundane in the whole of them. The elderly man who comes forward, bowing, continues his fervished speech as Gypsy completes his spell. He finishes his oration with the words "Quardina Meofercent", and the crowd murmurs, with those words heard repeatedly, followed by a bit of cheering. Gypsy turns to you, and says, "Chosen Ones?". Rebo has 0 success with getting across the message of peace, the translation seems almost impossible to do. Doves enter the mind of the old man, but he seems to ignore such daydreaming thoughts with no comprehension of where the images came from. However, there's no time for suspicions, as the people quickly draw you in with open arms, handing you all sorts of things that appear to be a mixture of beads, food, and other misc things. A grinding of rocks is heard over the commotion from behind you. Quickly spinning around for the ambush, you see that it was just the rock man returning to his place as guardian of the entrance.

[ Spoiler ]

James notices that they're quite normal beings, nothing unusual about the identifiable races anyhows. He would guess that they were not artificially created.

[Toptomcat]

"Uh? Uh. Um. Um? Urgh. Gypsy, can you ask them why?"
James is heartily confused by this turn of events, and isn't sure he welcomes it- he's read about what happened to European explorers after the primitives figured out that they weren't gods, and knows that...
Frag that line of reasoning. The rock-thing over there could rip him limb from limb. This wasn't the adulation of a primitive people overawed by technology: he might buy that if they'd given him this treatment after having seen a demonstration of his Roomsweeper, but they'd greeted them enthusiastically as soon as they saw them. There was no known primitive people of crazy things beneath the hills of Ireland, leprechaun legends be damned.
Who were they?

[Backgammon]

Dogma cocks an eyebrow when informed that all of these people are magically active. He also thought over what Gypsy said. Chosen Ones. That can't be good. That means they're chosen to do something.

For now, Dogma was smiling for all his worth like Miss UCAS and politely accepting the gifts and trinkets given to him, letting the welcoming comitee lead him to wherever they were going. However, he used his headware to trace a map of the tunnels they navigated.

All this unknown and surprises had exhausted Dogma. For now, he waited to see where this was going. It didn't seem like the right time to ask all the questions he had, about the warp, about the undead things, about going home... The... tribals seemed to excited to be of help for now.

[ Spoiler ]

using orientation system to map our route. Saving to headmem.

[Tarantula]

Sleel looks a bit apprehensive when he realizes that the team is being called the chosen ones. Isn't that always how people end up dieing? They got chosen for something and the WHAM!.

All of his drones raise up high in the cave, to avoid any natives having an accident with spinning rotor blades or breaking someone. Who knows how far it is to a repair shop. The little birds continue flitting about exploring around the main room everyone is in as well as a few feet into any exits that are found.

Looking to Slinky Sleel says, "Ya know... if they're jsut going to give us stuff, it might not be that bad."

[HeySparky]

Slinky opens her eyes. Drek. Drek. Dr- She’s not at first sure what it is she sees. That tears it. This is some elaborate mindfrag. The gaggle of people look unlike any she has ever seen. The small woman nods her agreement with Tevos’ assessment.

Chosen Ones? Wh-- Us!? In a twinkling the strange tongue takes on a note of jubilance and – They’re advancing! – Slinky crouches, rolling onto the balls of her feet, hands flexing. Drekdrekdrek. A flash of cloth, the clack of beads, Dogma is enshrined in strange fabric and glittering primitive finery.

Uh. She blinks and looks at Gypsy and across at Andy. He laughs as gifts are pressed into the other’s hands. A giant stone man gives her a small leather pouch. She blinks up at the towering rough-skinned man, a small, small creature next his towering form, but if anything it is the rock man that seems hesitant, reverent, shy even.

Uh. She smiles awkwardly and fumbles with the pouch. I should probably… uh. She bows holding the pouch close to her chest. As she straightens another approaches with a cloth similar to Dogma’s. One she now sees several of the others have as well. She looks sideways as she bows her head for the cloth and sees Andy and Gypsy being likewise draped. As she catches her brother’s eye he says, “You know… if they’re just going to give us stuff, it might not be that bad.”

“Right. It’ll all be just fine,” Slinky says, smiling weakly as she takes an elaborately wrapped knife from a woman, it’s hilt gleaming with polished beads. She smiles again, swallowing nervously as she the group is swept along with the throng. My pack! She plants her feet and turns, an arm stretching back. The celebrant sees her intent and dispatches a pair of human looking folk to gather her bag, their chests proudly puffed out as they work out the best way for both of them to be able to carry the pack. Slinky finds herself smiling at their jockeying before the crowd is sweeping her away again and the deep uneasy clench of her stomach returns.

[Sandoval Smith]

"Chosen ones?" Jack gives Gypsy an askance look as they are swept up by the people. That didn't sound particularly reassuring. If this was following the sim script, then they would be expected to face down some terrible evil, and face some heart wrenching losses along the way, most notably the poignant scene where the obnoxious comic relief would redeem himself in a suitably heroic and lethal fashion. Maybe that'd be Gremish.

Maybe Gypsy had mistranslated (how did he even understand it? Either magic, or Gypsy was fluent in WTF?). If these people had been keeping some sort of eye on that outer chamber, then they'd defintely have a high opinion of a group that just popped up out of the ether and wiped the floor with the legion of baddies that had been about to tear their door down, or had kept them trapped, or whatever the relationship between them had been.

He kept his ears recording at full resolution to not miss a single word, gratefully accepting everything pushed at him. If Gypsy really could understand this, Jack could play it back to get a full rundown later.

[Fortune]

'Chosen Ones!?! Considering all that had happened so far, up to and including Pale and Scaly's involvement in sending them here in the first place, 'Chosen Ones' might not be that far off the mark.'

The din raised by the strange assembly of people as they welcome the team washes over Gypsy, making it all but impossible to hear any one particular person enough for his magic to work effectively. Regretfully, he drops the spell for the moment and warily lets himself be manhandled, albeit gently, into the large area beyond the Rock.

The elf tries to decline most of the small gifts, but there are too many people, too many hands filled with offerings, and he still ends up with a few strands of beads around his neck, and his slender shoulders draped in a smooth-textured, robe-like garb of pale orange.

His eyes, wide with wonder despite himself, are constantly moving, taking in everything from the size of the cavern to the way the various races differed slightly in dress, filing each new piece of data away for later consideration. Hopefully he'd soon get a chance to fill Dogma and the rest of the team in on his theory about what was happening.

[Sphynx]

[ Spoiler ]

Gremish: My apologies for posting before you've had a chance.

You are finally herded, for lack of a better word, to a giant cavern where people immediately start sitting on the outcropping rocks around it, making it look almost like an auditorium with you, the older gentleman, and 4 other older gentlemen (one being one of those Rock men) sitting on special rocks to one side. Pillows are brought for you to sit on, and food is served along with a very strong drink that you'd guess was made from a rice alcohol. Over the next few hours you sit there, listening to their stories about the past centuries within this cave. You'd guess it's been at least 500 years that this civilization has cowered down within these depths. The "Chosen Ones" are the ones who will remove the "Horrors" from the lands, they are positive you're the ones due to the fact you've killed one already, something nobody else has accomplished for centuries. At least... nobody they know of which is limited to their small civilization of a few thousand within these cavernous walls. The RockMan who protects the caern is the oldest living creature they know, he's protected them as best as he could for years, the wards he is a part of prevented anyone from entering except those that live within who can literally walk 'through' the Rockman. The spies within the caves saw the display of power you displayed, and warned the elders that the Chosen Ones have arrived. Apparently the Horror was summoning a demon that could "break through the ward", a Dragonkind was suppose to have been summoned, but it seems there was some intervention....

[ Spoiler ]

Since I won't post again until Monday, feel free to post plenty on the weekend including little solo's. Imagine Stargate, the people welcome, explain a bit, and then sometimes the team is talking together, at other times, they're seperate, learning small words of the language, etc.

[Gremish]

[ Spoiler ]

No worrys, i cna always catch up doesnt bother me to have you post a few times between times i post.

"Awe man.... who signed up for chosen one duty?" Gremish Glares at Rebo. "Bet you did rock boy didnt you?" With a chuckle Gremish decides to just go with the flow.

[Backgammon]

After that amazing briefing by the elders, which Dogma only half-accepted, a part of him mostly chosing to ignore this, neither believing nor unbelieving. He would focus on his task of getting his team out of here. That did not require him to accept he was in some post-apocalyptic alternate universe, merely to treat situational variables as they came, just like any other mission.

However, just in case this was somehow real, and that they would all happily go home in the end, he sent a mass broadcast to the team: <<Collect samples. Take pictures. Research local history and information>>. It might be very interesting stuff once they got back home, but, more importantly, it gave his team mates something to do, to occupy their minds. Curiosity usually overcame fear. He hoped it would be so this time.

As soon as he could, Dogma once again sought out the counsel of Gypsy. The hermetic mage had tried to catch his eye a few times, and he was sure he had some theories and thoughts to share.

[ Spoiler ]

I have a chipjack, so if you wanna share with me that 4th age disc it's no problem. How big is it? I could even download it to headmem so I always have it

[HMHVV Hunter]

During the trip, Rebo assenses the various humanoids, mentally kicking himself for not doing so sooner. He was amazed to discover that each one of them had active psi force running through them.

Arriving at the meeting place, Rebo is amazed to hear the stories of these people. He doesn't quite know exactly what "The Horrors" are, nor does he have an inkling of what being "The Chosen Ones" really entails, but he guesses that if Hellboy back in that cavern was any indication, this is going to be one bad trip.

Not just one, but many malignant extra-dimensionals, all as powerful as that "demon" back there, plaguing...wherever this place is for five centuries...come to think of it, the issue isn't just where are we, but also when are we. Isn't time travel impossible?

With so many questions wandering through his mind, Rebo gets up and starts walking around the room, trying to make some sense of what he's been dragged into.

I wish there was some way of letting these people know that we're not gods. I know oppressed people need hope - what I saw during my missions in Aztlan proved that - but if we can't deliver on their expectations, we're just going to let them down...

Rebo visibly shudders as he remembers the Aztlan missions.

[Toptomcat]

Strange...primitive tech-wise, but powerful magically. If they want us to fight for them, we'll be having ammunition problems very shortly.
And-yikes-it'll be a problem if I can't get to anti-coagulants!

James gestures to both the leader and Gypsy, using Gypsy as an interpreter for his discussion. He lays his Roomsweeper on a table, and gestures to it.
"Our group depends on mechanical devices such as this, called guns, to fight effectively. They depend on these-"
He withdraws a slug from the chamber.
"to operate, and they are nearly impossible to obtain outside our homeland- and I suspect we have been transported very far indeed from it. Essentially, they propel a small piece of metal at very great speeds into its target whenever this part is pressed-"
He fingers the trigger.
"Not unlike an arrowhead without a shaft, but smaller, much faster and stabilization is provided by spin instead of feathers. Could you possibly make a similar device through magic? We will shortly run out of our 'bullets' if we run into much more fighting-"
He picks up the slug.
"and without them we will be useless to you."

[Tarantula]

Following up on James speech, Sleel lands one Hernandez and one Gunther drone down. Once James is done, Sleel begins his own speech.

"These devices here are also reliant on bullets. They carry much more than my friend over there does, so if we need to give you some to help in making more, they would likely be the place to get some from.

However, the other thing these devices must have is energy. They require power to work. They can get power either from electricity... which I don't see any down here, or from the sun. I'll need to get them into the sun for that to work. For now, I'm going to power them down and set them all here. I need your leaders to tell everyone not to touch them, as they can be extremely dangerous."

After this, Sleel orders the rest of his drones to land next to each other in a orderly fashion, and powers them all down to save energy.

[Lindt]

Tev catches on with the exposition. He turns his attention more directly at the elders then the rest of the crowd. He turns back over his shoulder
"Gypsy, seems like your on translation duty, would you mind if I worked on learning some of the language later? So far they seem very interested in the tech, lets see how they respond to summoning and magic, just make sure to back me up if they don't go with it..."

Tev turns back to the elders, and un shoulders his Mossberg more for freedom of movement then show and tell. He nods at Gypsy and starts to concentrate on the smokey taste of the dwelling, calling on the sprits that inhabit the cave.

[ Spoiler ]

summoning a F1 hearth spirit

Summoning 8 (7 summoning 1 totem bonus)
Drain 6 (6 cha)

Orders will be to manifest (providing its not some crazy screwed up spirit again)