Under the Mountain - RPLOG
Participants
Date
30/4/478
Log
The firebough camp was abuzz with activity, the reserve unit having been suplimented by a small force from the city, before they began to set up barricades and basic walls. The Airship is pleasently unhindered for those arriving by it's glorious entrance, and near the entrance to the mines stood the Equine Commander from the last night, busy hollaring more orders to his underlings as he motions to groups of musketeers. "I want two lines facing this entrance! Get the builders here and have some blockades put up so these things just can't run out! And I repeat, if another GENIUS follows private Schmuckatellie's example and goes down there alone, you will be left to whatever fate you brought on yourself, and court marshaled if you survive! Wait for the help to arrive first!"
"They really need to go away from this mountain," Cassidy murmurs, once more finding herself in the magician ranks of the camp, having come from her home. "It makes me rather uncomfortable with how close they are to Cinderglow." She folds her gloved hands behind her back and takes a deep breath, ears twitchin.
Cara steps off of the airship to the sound of the equine commander from last time. The feline came equipped in her usual garb and silently walks directly over to the commander, with her tail swaying slowly, and pleasantly waits for him to finish his conversation. Her ears twitch for a second as she hears the voice of the familiar fennac. She nods to her and shifts her attention back to the commander.
"Yes," Natska agrees, quietly; unlike last time, the jaguar is in her full armor, sword at her side. "Commander. As we told the citizens of the camp, if you need to use our estate as a fall back, that is part of why it is out here on Firebough; it would be much more defensible." She pauses, looking over the large contingent of soldiers. "Although hopefully it will not come to that. How can we help today?"
Jera is in the same heavy armor she was in yesterday. The kit fox holding her banner tall behind the group.
Elijah stumps his way along the trail, muttering to himself as he looks around at the defenders, though he falls quiet traversing the camp proper, his golem doppelganger close on his heels. The big grizzly straightens and salutes the Commander. "Elijah Hammerbarr, Sir!" he says, smartly, "Sixth Unit of His Majesty's Engineer Corps under Captain Casius Solacious, Sir!"ooc
"Jolly good Hammerbarr! I am Colonel Jerry Targustus of His Majesty's Seventy-seventh reserve battalion! At ease soldier." The large heavy clan Equine nodding gently to himself before he looks to Cassidy and Natska. "I shall entertain that as a last resort than, with no offense intended, to leave the relics and other such items the Pheonix keepers watch over here behind, would be beyond shameful... And until they have them ready to leave, Well, I am afraid I cannot abandon them."
Targustus nods to himself as he motions for the rest of the volunteers to gather around. "Many of you must be aware of the minning shafts below us... While we may be able to secure the elevator to prevent a sneak attack from the dastardly fiends here, I require eyes below to tell me if these abominations are attempting something below our hooves. Open rules of engagement of course, with full authorization to do whatever needs to be done, to ensure the safety of this area... As well, if you do happen across a private Schmuckatelli, directing him back for a court marshal would be appreciated, or if not permiting, merely gathering his tags."
Cassidy glances over at Natska, then to Targustus. "So today is... Recon and forward scout, then? Not an open field battle like last night? That'd be a relief, and I'm certainly happy to do what we can to prevent them from advancing from below." Stepping up next to Natska, she perks her ears. "You're not planning on going and taking the lead with all that armour now, are you?"
Cara nods and answers, "Sure, we can handle that. After all, this isn't the first time we've been down there, so we should be able to spot anything out of the ordinary." She turns to the group that is currently assembled, all of them being the same people that went with into the mines from last time and smiles, "It's good to have you on board for this, Elijah." The feline quickly turns to Natska and Jera for a second, "Well, the fennac has a point. It will get very hot down there and you might risk overheating."
The jaguar tilts her head, turning to look at Cara. Natska spends a moment considering her, then looks down at herself - thick, padded, reinforced gambison, pieces of heavy plate - then looks back up and smiles. "I'll be fine." She curls her fingers, getting reaccustomed to her gauntlets' flexibility. "And I plan on doing whatever I must do, Cassidy, to make sure we both come back out of the mines."
"You'd go to war in a bikini?" Jera quirked a brow at Cara. "Armor is part of me. They'll bring it back if I fall." She turns to Natska. "If things go south I'll cover the escape."
Elijah salutes again. "Yes, Sir!" he says, then turns with a grunt of greeting to join the group headed down into the caverns, his golem behind him. As soon as he is dismissed he produces a cigar and lights it, giving a puff or two to get it going. "It's not so bad," he says, smoke curling from his nostrils, "Kinda cozy if you ask me."
"Your duties are simple. Deny the enemy usage of the shafts below us, by any means necessary. This is a security risk I will -not- tolerate, nor excuse with the thoughts that they'd not utilize it. These things have no honor, no concious, and no hearts. So I ask of you small few, to be our spear in this endeavor. We shall keep the perimiter, and continue pushing back Craige probbing attacks with all the force we have. Long live the King!" The Large Equine offering a salute as he turns to one of his attendants and nods, the elevator being presented for the group to bring them down into the dark...
Cassidy shakes her head and folds her arms. "It's not the heat I was worried about! More what the implications of armour are. But I'll watch your back, Natska," she says, nodding along and moving to fall into position behind the jaguar. "I am ready to go."
Cara walks into the elevator along with the fennac and politely asks in a strangely high pitched voice, "I didn't get your names earlier when we first met and I heard about your home in Fireglow." She glances to the jaguar and asks, "Can I have your name as well?" Then glances to the kit fox, "You were with me when we went down to the mines earlier, so could you tell me your name too?"
"Natska Solacious," the jaguar replies, inclining her head to Cara. She gives Cassidy a bright smile, then moves into the elevator. "I know, hun. I'm not planning on being silly, but if someone has to protect you, it will be me."
"Jera. Jera Wirefur." Jera brings up her banner and she waves it once before strapping it behind her in place of her short bow. "Into the depths, then?"
"Long Live the King!" Elijah cheers in approval, then joins the others, shuffling into the shaft. Too bad that Stallion was a commanding officer. He was pretty easy on the eyes. The grizzly shakes those thoughts from his head as Dire Grizzly, or just Grizz for short clanks into the lift after him. The big being and golem make for a rather tight fit.
Frio says, "We shall raise the elevator in exactly two hours time, sounded by bell for you if you may hear it. May you go with grace, and majesty in this endeavor! Fear not, for the prodigy of the Targustus lineage shall be with you in spirit while defending this camp!" Dear lord what a long winded fellow this guy was, soon enough though, the elevator churns the group down into the depths... The dark of the mining shaft is only occassionally broken by the few still lit lamps down beflow, left after the hasty evacuation earlier. %r %rAt the bottom though, it seems there is just one path to take, the others boarded up with painted on words denouncing purposful collapses in some of the tunnels... As well, a single musket is leaned up against the entrance to the new tunnel, and a small barrel of blackpowder sits next to it."
"We shall raise the elevator in exactly two hours time, sounded by bell for you if you may hear it. May you go with grace, and majesty in this endeavor! Fear not, for the prodigy of the Targustus lineage shall be with you in spirit while defending this camp!" Dear lord what a long winded fellow this guy was, soon enough though, the elevator churns the group down into the depths... The dark of the mining shaft is only occassionally broken by the few still lit lamps down beflow, left after the hasty evacuation earlier.
At the bottom though, it seems there is just one path to take, the others boarded up with painted on words denouncing purposful collapses in some of the tunnels... As well, a single musket is leaned up against the entrance to the new tunnel, and a small barrel of blackpowder sits next to it.
"Cassidy Solacious," the fennec adds to Natska's greeting, settling in on the elevator and keeping close to Natska. She was going to protect the jaguar in turn. "Two hours... Should be plenty of time, hopefully. I'm a little surprised we're not just going to collapse this and be done with it, but... Whatever offers a more permanent solution."
Cara answers, "Thank you." She stops off of the elevator and begins to walk to the musket. "This probably belonged to the guy that we are looking for." The feline turns back to face everyone else and speaks, "There isn't any blood here. Do you think he might still be alive?"
Natska nods her head, heading down the tunnel. "Well, I believe part of the job is recon, love," she replies to Cassidy. "Although I hope they don't bring down a whole side of the mountain with their demolition." Her ear flicks, and then she looks over at Jera and nods her head. "Thank you for being out here, too, Jera. Thank you, too, Cara and Elijah. I appreciate it."
"We do not kill a weed by trimming its leaves. They just regrow, in full force, until our blades dull. I think they want to search for a permanent solution..." Jera smiles and nods her head at Natska. "I wouldn't risk any of you here for a Private."
Elijah snorts as he steps off the lift. "'Course, Lady," he says, "I'm always here for my country. An' Firebough is my mountain too. Don't like those things diggin' around in my mountain." He blows a bluish smoke ring and tramps forward. "Come on, Grizz," he rumbles.
The Tunnel is empty, and as Cara pointed out, free of signs of struggle or blood. Unlike everywhere else though, brightly lit lamps line the way for the group, as they are led through the winding path, a few dozen more yards in, another barrel of powder is clearly laying ready, an improvised fuse stuck inside of it. Seems whomever placed these, was aiming to set them next to support areas...
Even further ahead, the light begins to change, as the air begins to fill from steam as the group approaches the Geothermal Vents... The temperature was definantly rising greatly as well...
"Yeah, hopefully not, Natska," Cassidy says with a soft frown. "We're certainly finding the traces of a prepared demolition. That'll be useful to set on our way out, I guess, should we find it necessary. Though we might need to move them around."
Cara begins to feel the extreme heat. "Okay, it's really starting to get hot in here. This won't work at all." She steps back into a hidden crevice and quickly switches one of her soul gems to Hearth Magician. "This should help out a bit." Afterwards, she runs back to everyone else and speaks, "My name is Cara by the way."
Natska gives Cara a nod of aknowledgement, and continues down the hallway. The jaguar seems largely unphased by the heat, although she still moves at a slower, smooth pace to keep from over exerting herself as they move into the hotter part of the mines.
Jera seems quite affected by the heat. The elemental archer having to lean on her standard for a bit. Closing her eyes and murmuring something to herself that Elijah would most likely be able to recognize, looking slightly more reinvigored after that.
"Smart thinking, Schmuckatelli," Elijah says, looking at the prepped demolitions, "Worse comes to worst, we can blow the lce behind us on the way out." He blows another puff of bluish smoke and continues on the path. "Suck it up kids," he growls, "S'only gonna get hotter. Especially if we find what we're looking for. With our luck, the beasties'll swim in lava and fart flames." Despite his words, the burly bear does not seem to even notice the heat as he stumps along. He gives a sidelong glance at Jera, as if he expects something to happen, even though nothing does.
The farther inside they go, the more that large pools of steam spitting, boiling water begins to appear along the sides, before they make it into a large room filled with glowing blue crystals, and a large room is opened up for all to see! The floor is periously slippery from countless years of condensation and water smoothing it into such a perfect shine! The larger pools of cloudly boiling water tend to surround the outside of the room, and there in the middle is a single Clever folk Ram, missing half of his uniform... Private Shmuckatelli it seems, as he's kneeling infront of a large barrel of powder as he pants and seems to shake, the heat taking it's toll on him...
To those not affected by the heat, they'd certainly be feeling some sort of predatory eyes watching them, analyzing their every movement in the area...
Cassidy glances around the cavern, fingers flexing and brow furrowing. "I don't mind water, and I don't mind heat. But I hate hot water. It makes everything so... Stuffy," she says, wrinkling her nose, whiskers twitching. "Be on your guard, though. Something is... Watching. Preparing." So she makes a preparation of her own, swathing both herself and Natska in a bit of air magic.
Cara begins to sweat heavily and kneels down for a moment to concentrate on her math. She mutters under her breath, "Time for a water blessing." As she finishes the calculations, the small water magic begins to form, whether it spreads out to everyone else and aids them along with herself is up to chance due to the extreme heat.
Natska gives Cass a nod, and draws her sword from its scabbard. "Yes. I agree." Her ears perk as they spot the ram, and she clears her throat. "Private Shmuckatelli?" she asks, watching him at work. "Situation report?"
Jera took a long while to recover from her breathlessness caused by the heat. The kit fox noticed everyone around her getting defensive and the followed suit. Her Iron Fortress standard starting to flap from her air magic.
Elijah stumps up to the soldier. "Lemme help you with that soldier," he says, "You take a breather!" The heat seems like a forgotten footnote to the burly bear.
"J-just...a bit more to g-get it ready..." Infact, as Elijah approaches, it seems he's currently trying to thread the fuse for the barrell, but with the heat and his uniform, it seems he's rather dehydrated and exhausted, and doesn't fight Elijah as he slumps to the side and tries to wipe his face with an already soggy sleeve. "Almost... Got it... Ready..."
As if qeued in as the Ram moves to the side, one of the pools of boiling water erupts, the air filling with the stinging particals of water as a giant, eyeless gecko like creature with crystal scales lets out an ear splitting scream... To Natska and Cassidy, it'd be a clear reminder of the creature they had encountered back when the Craige were released. It's claws each tipped with razor sharp claws, and it's mouth more than large enough to swallow an average size being, it was a wonder that it held itself this long... As if waiting for prey.
Cassidy brings a hand up to her masked face. "Shhh," she encourages. "It has no eyes. Be quiet, maybe it won't notice," she says, voice barely above a whisper. Maybe it would just go along on its own and not cause any problems. Unlikely, but worth a chance.
Cara gets back up immediately after the refreshing water blessing. As she hears Cassidy's warning she stops silent and stares at the giant creature that just emerged from the water. Then she finally notices the blue crystals. A plan comes to her, but it's best to just wait for a moment for it to go away. It can't see, but who knows how long it will stay there. After all, they are on a time limit of two hours.
Natska narrows her eyes at the thing, quietly shifting her stance as she gets ready for battle; the jaguar does not immediately attack, though, keeping her spot near her fennec.
Jera holds her position quietly. Air magic readied at her hands...
"Hang in there, buddy," Elijah says to the ram, just as the THING bursts forth from one of the boiling pools. The grizzly's eyes widen at the sight of the beast. His attention flicks to Cassidy and he nods at her advice, then quietly starts to. . . strip? What in the names of all the Creator Saints is he thinking? Oddly enough, he still has that cigar between his teeth. Grizz, the golem, stands unmoving at the entrance to the cavern.
The Ram is too tired at this point to make much of a protest as the beast emerges, was probably just a figment of his imagination... All the same, for the moment, it seems the group is safe from the creature as it lets out yet another ear splitting shriek, and begins to pull itself fully unto the dry land, it's tail flicking out of the water as it seems to indeed, be listening for movement of what not from the group... Either way, it doesn't seem to be moving much right now, just waiting for someone to slip up...
Cassidy remains still, standing straight and keeping her hands folded behind her back for a moment longer. She nods at the group, then points at the way they came with one hand, while the other presses a finger to the 'mouth' of her mask again. A silent exit.
Cara stays silent as well and then slowly walks back the way that the group came. She turns to the direction of the exit and continues walking as quietly as possible, making sure not to make a sound, tip-toeing all the way there.
Natska inclines her head towards Cassidy, but remains nearly still - her tail slowly swishing back and forth is her only motion as she waits and watches the lizard creature, ready to pounce on her prey if needed.
Jera unplants her standard and starts to make her way back, carefully tracing her steps.
Elijah leaves his gear stacked carefully on Private Schmuckatelli and hefts the fainting soldier into his burly arms as carefully and quietly as he can. Shmuckatelli. Creators, hiw do you wind up with an awful name like that?
Frio it seems the majority of their slight noise has not caught the attention of the creature, the bubbling hiss of the boiling waters helping to mask them some as it stretches it's massive jaws and tastes at the air for a moment before it lets out a slightly croaking noise, and flops forward into adjacant pool of boiling water, sending a collum of the burning liquid up for a moment as it would submerge...
Shmuckatelli is easy to lift, the boy rather weak to begin with, as it seems now the freeswords are tasked with trying to get out without causing enough noise to bring the beast back before they can do their job...
Cassidy nods at the group again, making her own way towards the entrance to that particular cavern, not worried about her own noise. After all, she made none, when it came to her footfalls, nor did she have heavy armour to clink about as she moved. They might make it out of this without a confrontation after all!
Cara just keeps walking away without making a single sound at all. The feline motions for everyone else to keep going and walks ahead, thankful that she only wore her regular light clothing instead of heavy plated armor. It's really too bad that there isn't a way to just silence footsteps though.
Natska watches as her allies make their way out of the room, then carefully backs out after them, doing her best to keep her movements quiet. She does take a moment to wave a pair of fingers at Cassidy, then points at the powder keg, raising her eyebrows.
Jera decides this tension is too much. She fires a dart of air towards as far down the cavern as she could aim, hoping the slight noise there distracts the large beast.
Elijah does his best to be silent, hauling the ram soldier to the cavern entrance with the others, stogie clenched between his teeth and blue smoke leaking from his nostrils. And nude. Inexplicably so. He gently sets the private down, then waves to the others to get moving,pointing to his golem, then to the powder and miming an explosion!
The water erupts once more as the beast clambers out the far end, another ear splitting shriek heralding it's return as it snaps at the air for a moment, trying to find its prey! Shmuckatelli remains silent and passed out in the now for some reason nude, arms of the bear as everyone begins to make their way back out, carefully traversing the slippery floors as they manages to round the corner away from the room, and into the safety of the smaller tunnels that the beast cannot reach!
Once the group is safely out of reach, Cassidy cracks a grin. "Excellent work," she says, still keeping her voice low before pointing towards the powder keg. "Are we ready to blow that one and start getting out of here?"
Cara nods and quietly asks, "What are the odds that this will actually kill it?" Normally, this seems like a strange thing to ask, but the last craige that the feline met was a giant rhinocerous type creature. She raises an eyebrow and whispers, "Seriously, how strong is that thing?"
Natska considers Cara's question for a moment, then shrugs her shoulders. "Not terribly, but strong enough to be noteworthy," she decides as her analysis. "However, I am slightly concerned about it being there. The last one of those we found was... some sort of guardian, I think." She frowns. "I wish I had more information right now..." she trails off, then shakes her head. "Let's leave that chamber alone, and blow the ones further up the tunnel.
Elijah rolls his shoulders and stretches. And stretches. And stretches. It is a strange thing to see a bear become a shimmering, golden dragon over the course of a few moments. The now greatly enlarged Elijah scoops up his gear and the fainted soldier. "Let's go!" he says and directs his golem to defend the party as he rushes away with the ailing soldier.
The creature lets out one more ear splitting howl as it seems to hear the group finally, the sound of it charging at the smaller tunnel only broken by the shaking of the tunnel as it crashes into it, jaws snapping with the group just beyond reach, before it's claws before to work at trying to scrap and widen the tunnel...
Whatever the group was going to do, it was clear they had to do it quick before this thing managed more damage, or even reaching them...
Cassidy starts to prepare a spell, but halts at Natska's words. "Mmmh. If you say so. Let's get out of here and set the other charges off as we go. And hurry," she says, taking off at a brisk jog back towards the entrance and to set off the other barrels as the group goes.
Cara looks at the giant monster attempting to widen the tunnel, cringes from the loud sound, then sends a quick bit of earth magic of her own to the earth surrounding the beast before taking off as fast as possible. The intentions of it are to seal up the hole that the craige is in. Sure it won't hold it for long, but it will hold it back for a bit hopefully.
Natska quickly shifts back a few steps, keeping herself between the beast and the group, then turns and picks up the pace as she follows. "Right! Move it. I've got your back."
"I'll light the tunnel a little bit." Jera mumbled as the Kendrac's glowlines and her own fractals intensified in light. Just in case the caverns went dark.
