Mine Mishap
It's cold. Miserably so. There's a fair bit of snow on the ground, but that's not surprising given that you're in the mountains and it's winter. Still, the weather didn't have to go this hard core. There's snow falling at the moment actually and there's movement at the mouth of what used to be a mine. You can see it from where you are at what used to be the foreman's hut. Used to be because there's a pile of minerals several feet tall and several feet wide where the hut used to be. As in at least twenty feet in both direction. Gold and silver twisted up and laying in a pile.
The current foreman - not the one responsible for the mine when it'd collapsed - but one on duty now sighs and rubs his forearms briskly for warmth. He's not really dressed for the weather. "The first part of the mine is safe enough to travel through, but once you get a few back in there... We don't know what caused it, but the whole thing is unsafe. Unsteady. Ready to collapse. You'll need to be careful. Could be anything in there. Pitfalls. Unsteady beams. Monsters."
GAME: Dolan rolls diplomacy: (15)+13: 28 GAME: Telamon rolls talky: aliased to diplomacy+8: (4)+23+8: 35 GAME: Andelena rolls Diplomacy: (7)+3: 10 GAME: Dirk rolls Diplomacy: (15)+1: 16
Dolan has pulled his winter cloak around his shoulders against the cold, and the hood up obscures the scarred side of his face in shadow. "How far down do you think the trapped miners are, and do you think there's maybe more than one spot, or just the one?" He turns his face towards the redhead next to him, giving her a significant, worried look, then turns back towards the mining foreman. "Are we more likely to be pulling people, or corposes?"
Zyla just stands back and lets the others do the talking, she could scare the guy but it looks like they have it under control.
You wouldn't think someone like Telamon Lupecyll-Atlon would come out here. Surely he has more important things to do, right? Wrong. This IS important. Wrapped in his heavy oruch frostrider coat, his broad brimmed hat perched on his head, the sorcerer nods soberly to the foreman, his expression empathetic and concerned. "We can probably cut a path to them, if we can locate them." At Dolan's remark, his brow furrows. "All the more reason to hurry -- but we've no idea how stable it is."
Dirk fidgets from foot to foot, glancing from his friends to the mine shaft, then back again. The old snowbeard is quite agitated. Even Lulu seems a bit worked up, the way she constantly hop-hop-hops along his shoulder, feathers all puffed up. "We cannae take long," he says in a tense tone. "Those poor lads. They must be terrified. -I- surely would be. Gods, what a dreadful way tae go." He looks back up to the foreman. "D'ye know -where- the collapse started?" he asks. "An' d'ye have a map o' the mines? Anything that might help us navigate down there?" Usually, having a dwarf in the party for such an undertaking would be ideal--just not -this- particular dwarf.
That redhead next to Dolan returns the look and nods, her steel-grey gaze settling on the foreman. Sporting a new set of full-plate armor, Andelena looks a little more... intense?--that's probably the right word for it--as she inspects the man for a moment.
"Yeah," she echoes Dolan and Telamon's remarks. "Quicker the better. I like Dirk's map idea, too. Gods know that I'm fucked ten ways from Eliday without a map sometimes if it's not my usual beat--and this sure as shit ain't my usual beat."
"All the maps were in the foreman's hut." He motions slightly to the side where the pile of precious minerals lays. He scrubs his face, particularly his ears and then looks toward the mine. "We know some of the men down there are still alive. We've heard them. But we can't find them because the place is unstable and the mines themselves are a mess. Once you reach a location that you think there are people, we can send the troops in along the route you took."
He shakes his head helplessly. "No knowing how deep the men are. Or if you'll find them alive. We had three teams out, five men each. So at least you know how many you're looking for... Unless someone wandered off or the foreman sent out more people than regulations state he should have."
Kira is wrapped in her cloak against the chill, but the twist of concern on her features isn't about the cold; not related to herself, at least. "We should hurry," she agrees, "for their sakes." She is about to echo questions about the layout or people within when those are answered by the foreman. She offers him a stronger smile in attempt to assure, "We will find them." The minerals are barely glanced at; there are much more important things at stake at the moment.
Dolan turns his full head in the direction of the foreman's hut, his gaze resting full on it. "What happened to the hut?" The cold ripples through him, and he shivers a little, the snowflakes collecting on the hood and shoulders of his cloak. "Doesn't seem like a dragon just dropped its hoard, here."
Telamon glances over at where the hut was, then does a double take. "What... exactly what knocked that hut down?" His eyes flick back to the foreman. "Did someone... or something... throw those at the building?" He reaches up to rub his chin. "Fifteen men... minus whoever might have succumbed." A deep breath, as he glances at Dolan, nodding slightly.
Zyla just listens and keeps her eyes open as she isn't sure what she can contribute at the moment.
Dirk squints at the remnants of the foreman's hut. Peers a bit more closely. He leans over to peer up to the mine's entrance, holding up his thumb and squinting through one eye as he slowly tracks the distance from the mine to the hut. "Well, they surely dinnae -fly- there," he says with a dour grunt. "But aye, there's summat hinky goin' on here, an' I -don't- like it." Lulu headtilts left, headtilts right, then looks up at the new foreman. Blink blink. "Hoo."
Andelena squints at the minerals, and then she looks back at Dolan, communicating something silently that suggests she thinks there might be something off, too. The snowflakes collect in her waves of red hair as she just continues to stare down the man. "Is it all just gold and silver in the mines, or what?" she asks. "Figured I'd ask in the event we come into contact with something that, you know, likes to explode or something."
The foreman looks at the hut uncomfortably. "Frankly we don't know. The foreman's missing - the original one - and he should have been in there." He shudders at the thought of all that metal dropping on some man's unsuspecting head. "And there's another five men that should have been around to tell us what happened but we haven't found a single one of them. Either they went into the mine for some reason, or they were all in the hut when that metal landed on it."
He blinks at Andelena and looks at the pile of twenty-foot by twenty-foot metal. "Well. That's a thought. Could be the metal that was supposed to be in the mines, but how'd it all get balled up and dropped on the foreman's hut?" He sounds genuinely confused.
Kira's assuring smile loses some luster at the mention. "I hope there are not many things in the mine that might explode..." her thought trails off as the foreman mentions a very concerning possibility about the metal-where-hut-used to stand. -Now- it becomes a more important consideration. "If anyone is under there-" She promptly starts heading for the pile in lieu of finishing the sentence.
"Maybe the foreman pissed off something living in the mines right handsome," Dolan suggests with one of his cheeky, irreverent grins that tugs at the melted right side of his face. The suggestion is perhaps halfway a joke, and he returns Andelena's dark look with a nod.
GAME: Kira rolls perception: (5)+24: 29
Andelena looks mildly bewildered now, scratching her head as she stares at the pile of metal. "Look, I wasn't like, the best kid at arithmetic lessons--I was usually too busy figuring out how to make 1 plus 1 equal get the fuck out of the house and go roll in some mud--but this is either not adding up or is adding up to... what Bry said. Something in the mines that sure as shit is angry."
She watches the Althean knight stride to the pile with a bit of a surprised look before she says, "You know what, I'll follow her lead. Why not." So the Sunguard goes.
Telamon watches the two women inspecting the pile, before looking to Dirk. "Dirk, I don't suppose you've got a lot of experience with stonework. I know you spend more time outdoors than underground, but..." He spreads his hands. "I really don't have much stone-cunning myself. I'll take anything you've got in mind." His eyes flick to the foreman again. "How many miners are left alive and hale here?"
The foreman looks a little irritated that folks are headed toward the foreman's hut, but he doesn't stop anyone. Just states cooly, "Anyone that was in there is obviously dead." He grumps a bit and eyes Dolan. "I don't think you understand. Metal doesn't clump up like this in a mine. You'd never find all this raw material in one place. You'd have to dig it out of tons of rock. It flows like streams through the stone."
He looks like he's having some difficulty explaining it to you, but he nods to Telamon. "We brought in ten men to assist with the rescue efforts. Aside from them... everyone else is trapped or missing. We don't know which."
GAME: Dirk rolls Knowledge/Geography: (9)+10: 19 GAME: Dolan rolls knowledge/dungeoneering+3: (9)+9+3: 21
Kira gasps as she spies a familiar indicator of injury in the form of red stain having seeped out from the pile. "Someone IS under here!" she calls back to none in particular before she starts trying to move the nearest chunk of crystal/metal from the pile and off to the side. There will probably be more digging in the mine, too, but first things first: there is someone in need of aid right here.
The foreman could be right, but there is always a chance. There was also talk of maps in here that could help them navigate the mine and more easily find the others. Yes, it's very weird that all this ended up out here like it did, but ... one mystery at a time?
GAME: Andelena rolls Strength: (6)+4: 10 GAME: Telamon rolls detectbs: aliased to sense motive+3: (3)+20+3: 26 GAME: Zyla rolls strength: (14)+5: 19 GAME: Kira rolls strength: (6)+2: 8
Zyla makes her way over and cocks her head to the side. She does offer help. She purses her lips. This is something that she can do. She nods, "Want me to keep trying?" she asks. She eyes the pile.
Meanwhile, Dolan watches the others try to move the metal pile, a darker and darker thunder overtaking his features. "Magic's the only thing I can think of that would do something like that," he agrees. "Something with magic did this." Finally, he relents. "Let's start by getting out who we can. Come on." He finally jogs over to join the others, with a last odd glance at the foreman.
Dirk studies the pile of minerals stacked atop what was once the foreman's hut. He stoops to pick up a rock of ore, turning it over in his hand as he tugs at his beard. "Aye, he's right," he says at length. "My family may not be much fer minin'. But we -are- dwarves. We've got some passin' familiarity wi' ore seams. This..." He tosses the rock back onto the pile. "This isn't right. Ye'd never find so much concentrated in one place. It winds through the bedrock like threads." He looks back to the others. "I can tell ye this much--these stones are certainly native to this area. It's just... how'd they all wind up -here-?" He grunts, looking back to the mine. "Well... it's a mystery we'll have tae save fer later. Those men need our help, an' time's runnin' short!" Speaking of, he gapes as Kira notices someone under the pile. "Beards o' me fathers!" he gasps. He hunkers in to start helping clear away the rubble. "Hang on, lad, we're comin'!" he calls.
Kira tries. She really does. Unfortunately, she is not used to working with metal, and certainly not hugging or wrestling with it. It's a lot more dense than most things.
Telamon exhales. "Alright. Let's get started then." He points to the mine entrance. "Foreman, we'll need experienced miners. We can use magic as well as brute force to clear a path, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to try it if I'm risking another cave-in. I'm willing to take instruction on the matter." His eyes twinkle suddenly. "And I've got a few tricks up my sleeve as well for getting them out, if we can get to them."
Andelena helps as well, grunting as she tries to help lift the metal. "/Damn/," she mutters. "We gotta keep trying, though. If there's people that are stuck..."
She shakes her head. "We gotta keep going," she says, but then she looks over back in Dolan and Telamon's direction. "Hey! Married man!" she yells over to Telamon. "Get your ass over here if you can help us out."
GAME: Andelena rolls Strength: (16)+4: 20 GAME: Dirk rolls Athletics: (17)+9: 26 GAME: Dolan rolls strength: (16)+3: 19 GAME: Zyla rolls strength: (14)+5: 19
Zyla throws her back into it, working to clear things, to make sure that there isn't someone in need. She cocks her head to the side and nods at the results, "Well we should move into the mine then see if we can help anyone."
"Three-two-one-NOW!" Dolan takes to directing the lift, even as he himself strains with every ounce of strength he's got. When it moves, he releases the metal and shakes his gloved hands, wrapping them again in the edges of his cloak. "Damn. Nobody else here. Guess they really are missing. Let's go. Someone sabotaged this shit, probably with magic. I wanna know who." His eyes go automatically to Andelena, and then to the mouth of the mine.
It's clear Dirk and Dolan have enough muscle to move the heap, and Telamon is... not exactly overburdened with that sort of thing. But when the crushed remains of the foreman come to light, he flinches, and averts his eyes. "Gods and stars," he murmurs sadly. Reaching into his haversack, he pulls out a spare cloak to put over the poor fellow. "It does seem more than a simple accident," he replies to Dolan.
GAME: Dolan rolls perception: (17)+13: 30 GAME: Telamon rolls perception: (14)+13: 27
Andelena pants hard in the aftermath of lifting the metal. Her eyes fall onto the corpse of the man as Telamon puts a shroud over him, and she manages to catch her breath long enough to utter a small prayer for the man.
Her steel-grey eyes meet Dolan's, and she nods. "Yeah, let's go," she echoes. The Sunguard wants to see this to its conclusion.
GAME: Andelena rolls Perception: (11)+10: 21
Kira exhales amidst her breaths from the effort as the miner is uncovered. It is not the result she'd hoped for, but it is still a positive result: they now know how many where buried and the former foreman's fate is found. She looks to the others to offer, "Thank you."
After a moment pause in respect to the fallen and for recovery, she nods and moves with the others towards the mine. There are others to find.
GAME: Kira rolls perception: (8)+24: 32 GAME: Zyla rolls perception: (4)+18: 22
As you head into the mines you notice that there are some odd... piles of snow, drifts where they should not be in the whiteness. The snow itself ends at the mouth of the cave of course, but some faint flakes have floated inside.
Zyla trudges along with the other and cocks her head to the side as she looks at those piles of snow and seems to be considering something.
The snowfall gets a steel-grey glance. Andelena narrows her eyes as she pauses to inspect them. "Piles of snow?" she asks quietly. "The fuck are they doing here?"
She looks at Dolan. "I do /not/ like this," she whispers. "Not one damn bit. Guessing we should prepare for something really fucking weird."
Telamon pauses as well, catching sight of the snow piles. He murmurs, "Akar irhandi," calling a wrap of starlight around himself, before approaching one and cautiously prodding at it with a very worried expression.
GAME: Telamon casts Mage Armor. Caster Level: 12 DC: 17
The pile of snow turns red where Telamon prods it, and a low groan emits from within the soft white fluffy water.
GAME: Dirk rolls Perception: (8)+13: 21
Piles of things seem to be the trend, and they are 1 for 1 at finding someone under them. Kira steps to one of the snowdrifts to brush at it with her hands.
She quickly locates a dead and mostly frozen body under her pile of snow.
Dirk mutters a quiet plea to Dana and Gilead to guide the foreman to a better life beyond this one, before he turns to trundle into the mine with his friends. He grips his thunderbelcher, peering into the gloom. "Any o' you tallfolk what cannae see in the dark? We should see to that afore we get too far in," he grunts. But those snowpiles... those are curious. The burly old ranger follows suit--only he doesn't use his hands. He prods at one of the piles with the barrel of his thunderbelcher. "The hell is up wi' -these-, then?" he grumbles. Lulu tilts forward on his shoulder, staring unblinkingly at the pile. "Hoo."
It's the red that gets Dolan's attention. "Not weird. Something's damned rotten here." Scowling angrily only twists the already furrowed and melted features into a mask of anger, and the hood falls away from his face to let the snow fall into his dark hair. "Call on the Knight for His light," he answers Dirk, striding over to another of the piles and starting to move snow with gloved hands. "How in all the green garden hells did they miss this - or did they?"
Under the snow that Telamon nudged and that Dolan quickly excavates is a man. Badly wounded and more than half-frozen. He looks much the worse for wear, likely on the verge of death. He moans as the snow is moved away from him, his body lightly jostled by the movement. The revelation that you've already found bodies draws quick attention and the other miners waiting nearby quickly start digging at the snow in the hopes of finding other live souls.
Andelena follows suit once it's revealed there are bodies in the snow, swearing under her breath. "That foreman back there--the alive one--I swear to shit he knows more than he knows. He can't have missed this. He's either in on it or he's about as perceptive as a drunk donkey in the dead of night."
Either way, she continues digging. Not an easy thing to do in full armor, but it needs to be done. "Gotta get these people out, dead or alive," she murmurs. "People deserve to go home to their families."
GAME: Telamon casts Blink. Caster Level: 12 DC: 19 GAME: Telamon rolls 2d8+10: (11)+10: 21
Telamon's eyes go wide as the snowdrift yields up a bloodied, half-frozen man. He reflexively puts a hand on the fellow's chest, then his eyes move to the heavy metal ring he wears. "I've never done this before, but..." He looks to the others, and then focuses, stars flaring in his eyes. There's a crackle around him, frost and snowflakes whirling -- no, it's -stardust-, trickling down out of his fingers and flowing across the man. Filling in the wounds, pushing color back into the worker's skin, leaving only silvery scars behind.
"He may never have come to check on them after the collapse?" Kira offers a possibility as she brushes the snow from the frozen miner she found. That possibility doesn't exactly make anything better. She straightens up after and goes to assist on the remaining 'drifts' in case any are able to be aided. Finding at least one survivor is heartening.
Dirk leans in closer to his pile, digging away some snow. He uncovers a face, frozen in an expression of agony. "GYAH!" He startles back, landing on his rump with a flailing of limbs. Lulu wings off his shoulder and flutters overhead, talons bared. "Hoo!" Panting for breath, his face white as his beard, Dirk carefully gets to his feet. "Great Gilead's Ghost, these poor lads," he says raggedly. But hearing one of the miners survived, he hurriedly trundles over to Telamon and the others. His thunderbelcher gets tossed to the ground as he whips his heavy cloak off his shoulders and leans in to wrap it around the unfortunate. "Here, lad, just rest a moment. We've got ye," he says.
GAME: Andelena rolls Heal: (5)+9: 14 GAME: Dolan rolls heal: (13)+7: 20
One by one, the bodies are excavated, and something makes Dolan look more closely, even as he shudders. "At least we saved one. Get him out of the fucking snow and by a fire. We'll talk to him in a minute." Another chill ripples through him, and he kneels down next to one of the dead, studying the body closely. "Pincers or claws. Something unnatural. There's a monster around."
Andelena takes a breather and pants, staring at Dolan with a look that is simultaneously upset and... expectant, like she'd figured that this would happen. "Dead," she says. "Five dead. Gods have mercy. Least one lived."
She wipes her brow with her gauntlet, sighing deeply. "Pincers. Claws. Yeah, whatever it is--it's fucked up and it's gonna die. None of these poor people deserved what they got."
The miners take the live man as soon as they're allowed, he clings to Telamon for a moment. Terrified and thanking him and Dolan for rescuing him. "Four arms! It had four arms! Came out of the foreman's hut and then! Out of the sky!" He's making little sense, and he's carted off by the other miners.
GAME: Dirk rolls Knowledge/The Planes: (16)+3: 19 GAME: Dolan rolls knowledge/the planes+3: (11)+10+3: 24 GAME: Telamon rolls knowledge/the planes: (20)+4: 24
Once the dead are found and confirmed, Kira turns her attention to the living. She is one of many wishing to tend the survivor, and that, itself, is is warming against the reality of those lost. When he volunteers the information, Kira blinks. She has no idea whether the description of the creature or events could be fact or shock and she looks to the others. "Four arms? And it came from the hut... and then the sky??" She glances back towards the metal pile, and then upwards.
Dirk listens to the miner as he describes the horror that fell upon him and his comrades. His shaggy white brows knit together like angry caterpillars preparing to throw down. "Blessed Dana defend us," he growls. "A -demon-." He hawks and spits, before stooping to pick up his thunderbelcher. He taps a loop on his bandolier, causing the pattern of softly glowing jewels to shift to a new configuration. "Load up on cold iron, friends. Or else have yer weapons blessed by our holy folk. We've got us a demon tae hunt."
Telamon freezes, his expression taking on a stiff expression. "Four arms? He said... oh hells." He stands slowly, as the man is carted off, and he looks at the others. "Yeah. Definitely a demon. And I'll bet you ten gold it's one like the one Sir Seldan and Sentinel Kira here pasted a short time back." His eyes move to Kira, and he nods slowly. "This won't be easy, but they can be beaten."
Zyla cocks her head to the side, "Will just have to pound it hard." she says smacking her fists together a little bit and then looks at the others and nods. She looks at Dirk, "glad my fists count as cold iron and silver," she shakes her head a bit and then looks at the others.
"Got to be." Dolan nods at once to Dirk, every line of him suddenly focused, present, the cold fading back into the background as the hunt suddenly surfaces. He unslings his blade from its harness across his back, stashing the snow-covered harness inside the knapsack on his back. "Tell me about the one you faced. What should we know?" His free gloved hand pulls his holy symbol of the stylized dragon free of the breastplate he wears.
Demon. That gets Andelena to stand up just a little taller. Her hand moves to draw the longsword from her back. "Yeah," she says. "Luckily, we're pretty fucking good at killing demons."
Then she smirks a little in Dolan's direction. "Well, he is," she says. "I just help. Let's go."
Kira exhales a soft sigh at this revelation, her brows knitting and jaw tightening. "Demons are everywhere these days. Again." She looks to the others. "Please, be careful. We should not stray too far from each other, but we must find the others." She steps up and moves forward. Onward and, well, probably not upward.
GAME: Dolan rolls reflex: (20)+5: 25 (CRITICAL SUCCESS) GAME: Andelena rolls Reflex: (16)+3: 19 GAME: Telamon rolls Reflex: (3)+7: 10 GAME: Dirk rolls Reflex: (14)+10: 24 GAME: Kira rolls reflex: (13)+21: 34 GAME: Telamon rolls Reflex: (5)+7: 12
The mines are dark, but you've got lanterns from the miners to keep you from bumbling around in the dark. There's a long line of tunnels. Some blocked off by stone, but showing no signs of life or recent use. Eventually you make your way deeper and deeper into the mine. Then, without warning you find yourselves being shaken by unsteady earth. The ground opens up without warning and sucks Telamon down into the peerless darkness…
GAME: Zyla rolls reflex: (5)+8: 13
Zyla falls into the hole as well, dropping into the darkness. She tries to get closer to the walls of the hole if there are any, to see if she can find a way to slow herself down.
Somehow, Dolan's instincts, sharpened by keen focus, give him that extra split second of warning, and he instinctively turns and tackles Andelena to the ground with a, "Look out!" followed by a cheeky grin that holds something just a little wicked.
Telamon vanishes into the hole as well with a particularly vile swear in khazadi (Dirk might note that his accent is excellent). Plummeting downward, he tries to focus, and make a mental note: next time, cast the flight spell even if you're going underground!
Kira's reflexes are in conflict: part of her instantly begins to dart back from the rumbling. However, the moment she sees another begin to fall, her instincts have her attempting to reverse course to reach out towards Zyla. In the end, she succeeds at neither and ends up on the ground off her feet. "No!"
"Wh--" Andelena can't get the whole word out before Dolan tackles her. She grunts, and once she realizes what's just happened--and what fate she narrowly avoided--she laughs, just a little.
"Really, Bry? A /mine/? I mean, shit, I guess it's an upgrade from the stables," Andelena jests, although it's accompanied by a little groan. "Now get off me, big guy."
Then her steel-grey eyes narrow. "Shit. What happened to married man and the other girl? Was kind of preoccupied with almost getting my spine rearranged to see where they went."
Zyla fell and got hurt. She blinks as she glances around at what she sees. She glances back up to see if she can see where they fell from. She seems to be thinking of something.
Ow. That hurt. Telamon shakes his head to clear the wooziness out, peering around. Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, he murmurs, "Gesnu." A softly-glowing ball of light pops into existence on his wedding ring, as he looks around, and then recoils at the sprawled miners. "Wha-- oh." Seeing Zyla, the half-elf grins. "You too? You all right?" His eyes follow her gaze, as she looks upwards. "Dolan? Andelena? Dirk?" he calls.
The walls shake in response to Telamon's voice.
Dirk feels the tremor coming in his bones. Dwarven instinct kicks in. He plants his feet wide and presses his back to the wall, firming up his stance. When the floor opens up, his eyes get wide. "Telamon! Zyla!" He waits for the shaking to stop before he trots over to the hole as fast as his tubby stride can carry him. He skids to a halt, dropping to hands and knees. He peers down, searching for his friends. "Telamon! Zyla! Are you two a'right?" he hollers. Even as he calls, he's unslinging his pack and fumbling his Adventurer's Guild Standard Issue 50-Foot Rope off. "Just sit still an' don't move! We're comin' fer ye!"
Dolan snorts laughter. "Not what you said last night, baby," he teases, but rolls off of her obediently and stands, brushing himself off. There's a dent in his breastplate. He'll have to pound that out later. He walks over to the edge, pulls a copper coin from his belt pouch, and peers down into the hole. He shakes his head, and reaches for Dirk's rope, murmuring a prayer and touching the rope.
GAME: Dolan casts Light. Caster Level: 6 DC: 13 GAME: Telamon rolls heal: (15)+1: 16
Andelena grunts as she gets up, too. "Yeah, but you weren't trying to rearrange my spine, you were trying to rearrange--"
The sword that she'd been holding buzzes, and Andelena sighs. Then she notices the rumbling that comes from talking, and her eyes narrow. "Don't think we've got much time, judging by that noise," she says.
Telamon tenses as the walls rumble, and he looks at Zyla, gesturing for her to be silent. As the light improves, he moves around to check the miners, wincing a bit at the new array of bruises and contusions he knows he has, but at least the miners are all right. Looking up, he sees Dolan and the others peering down, and he makes a little cupping motion over his mouth. Suddenly, Dolan and those near him can hear his soft voice whispering, "Don't shout. The stone down here isn't stable."
Zyla cocks her head to the and nods she looks up above and considers. She knows that she can easily get up there, but if it there is enough room is the true question. She watches Telamon and waits though.
Dirk winces as he feels the stones rumbling underneath. Dolan's light-up trick on the rope helps them all see what they're doing. And he can see that his rope isn't quite long enough. It's the story of his life, living in a world made for tallfolk. He looks up and over at the others and lifts his hands. In rapid Handspeech, he signs, "Give us another rope, and knot them together. Be as careful as you can."
Dolan blinks owlishly at Dirk's hand signals - a clear lack of understanding - but he, too, sees the problem, and sets down his knapsack. From it, he fishes a second rope, sets it down next to him, then begins to pull up the end of the lit rope. He stops after about fifteen feet, ties the end of the new rope to the old one at that point.
The knot is pulled taut in gloved hands, and he continues to pull the rope more, until it is all the way up. This time, he knots the end of the old rope to the new rope, creating a double knot. He turns to the others up top, looking silently at them as he displays his handiwork for inspection.
Andelena goes over to the rope and gestures down to Telamon and Zyla. "Don't worry," she signs. "We'll get you both up. Telamon, are you hurt? Once you're back up here, I can heal you back up so your wife doesn't want to kill me later. Zyla, too." <handspeech>
With the rope lengthened you guys are able to get the miners up and out. They wake slowly and you're able to warn them about the unstable ground and they make their own way out of the mines with gratitude. Five rescued. You feel much better about the situation as you make your way a bit more carefully through the mine and find a dead end that you can hear weak banging through. Someone's on the other side, but weak.
Telamon looks a bit bruised and banged up from his fall, but there's a sparkle in his eyes that won't quit. Five lives saved. That's what matters. When the group finds the dead end and the weak banging, Tel looks to Dirk. "Can we excavate this? Or are we in danger of bringing it all down on our heads?" He rakes a hand through his hair.
GAME: Dirk rolls Knowledge/Geography: (17)+10: 27 GAME: Dolan rolls knowledge/dungeoneering: (17)+9: 26
Dirk's eyes get wide as he hears the miners on the other side of the deadfall tapping. He leans in close, running his hands over the piled rubble. His brows furrow as he feels the way they rest. "It's nae good," he grunts. "If we move any o' this, we'll all end up buried." He looks up and around, his gaze alighting upon the wall a few feet away. "Here. This would be better tae dig through," he says. "So long as we're mindful, we should be able tae get through."
GAME: Dolan casts Light. Caster Level: 6 DC: 13
Trust the khazad in matters of stone, but Dolan immediately sees what Dirk is talking about. "Yeah. Leave a man's height between you and that wall and it should be all right." The tiny ray of sunlight wreathing the pommel of his sword takes this moment to blink out, and he mutters a colorful oath. A quick prayer restores it, and he resumes. "We have the right tools?"
Zyla would let the others dig, she doubts she could be careful enough.
Andelena lets the men analyze rocks. A former noble she might be, but rocks--even if they could be shiny--aren't a matter she's terribly interested in. "Just tell me what to do. Although, yeah," she adds, "I didn't exactly come here equipped for spelunking."
She scratches her head for a moment. "Only kind of excavating I know how to do is a demon from existence," she adds. Then she winces. "You know what, that sounded better in my head."
Telamon holds a hand up -- the one with the light -- so he can see where Dolan and Dirk are pointing. "I... hm." He looks thoughtful, walking over to where they're pointing. "Hm. Figure ten feet or so should do it?" He begins flexing his fingers. "I think I can manage that much."
GAME: Telamon casts Disintegrate. Caster Level: 12 DC: 22 GAME: Telamon rolls 24d6: (74): 74 GAME: Telamon rolls perception: (10)+13: 23 GAME: Andelena rolls Perception: (15)+10: 25 GAME: Dolan rolls perception: (15)+13: 28 GAME: Dirk rolls Perception: (14)+13: 27
There's a sound as the wall is disintegrated. As the ray evaporates the wall and slams into the wall beyond that one. It sounds like a scream. Something horrifying. It makes your ears ring and the walls shudder. Inside by the light of your illumination you can see five miners and one lantern which flickers out of existence thanks to the dust falling from the ceiling in the wake of the disintegration. The powerful spell fades out of existence and the rumbling stops with no one injured save the already unconscious miners. One of them is still awake. He blinks at you, and mumbles something. "Shadows... have... teeth..." And then his eyes roll back into his head.
Telamon actually flinches back a bit as the scream rolls out, but it appears he didn't actually strike any of the miners. "Well," he says after a moment. "let's get these men out of here. I think they could use some fresh air and sunshine, even if it's cold and snowy outside the mine." He scuffs at some of the dust left by his disintegration spell. "Hope I don't have to do that too often though."
Dolan is more than willing to stand back and let Telamon work his magic, although he eyes the spell and its sickly green ray, both impressed and wary as the stone simply ceases to be. "Remind me not to piss you off," he remarks conversationally.
Then, there is a task at hand, and he is ready to assist. "It'll be easier if we can bring them around. Andie, let's see if the Knight can help."
Dirk had been busy drawing his hand axe off his belt, ready to use it as an impromptu digging tool. But then Telamon goes and blasts the rock wall into smithereens. He and Lulu both stare at the sorcerer's handiwork. Both blink in unison. Blink blink. "Beards o' me sweet tapdancin' fathers," he says at length. "Remind me never tae piss -you- off, laddie." He lumbers into the cave beyond, waving his hand to clear the rock dust away. He tugs at his beard as he looks over the comatose miners. "Aye, if we can get 'em on their feet, that'd be best," he says. "I can -probably- carry two of 'em, but... nae much more'n that."
The count of discovered survivors is rising, and with it Kira's hope and eagerness. The dust from the safe(?) removal of the wall to bypass the collapse isn't even settled and she's stepping in to the miners' spot and aid. "Yes, we should get them out as quickly as possible, so long as we won't injure them further." She kneels at the first she reaches to start quick triage.
Andelena just stares as Telamon disintegrates the rock wall like it was nothing--the magic equivalent of a knife gliding through butter. She lets out a held breath when it's all said and done. "Shit, yeah," she agrees with Dolan. "Would fucking /hate/ to be on the other end of that."
She draws a breath and intones a holy prayer. "Daeus, Shining Knight, lend us your aid to heal these people who are in dire need of your Compassion," she says. The words flow out of her easily.
GAME: Andelena rolls 3d6: (10): 10
With Andelena's healing the miners are - in most cases - completely restored. They shakily thank you, but warn you that the shadows here have teeth and claws. That you should watch your lights. This warning given, they make their way out of the mines and you... make your way deeper. Until you come to a place where the wall has cracked and water is now flooding into the tunnel. The rest of the path is flooded and draining... somewhere. This is the last path forward, so if the miners are here... they're on the other side of the flooded path.
GAME: Dolan casts Light. Caster Level: 6 DC: 13 GAME: Andelena rolls Will: (18)+8: 26
Kira purses her lips at the crack in the wall leaking water but moreso at the (partially?) flooded tunnel ahead. "If this whole part is lower, it could be completely flooded... but there could be higher chambers on the other side. If the miners are beyond, that's where they would go." Because it makes sense. Kira is a Sentinel and not a spelunker, but she at least knows that water flows downhill.
Yes, they could all have drowned in the deep and dark beyond, but she won't accept that just yet. She removes her cloak and plucks at a loose thread from her robe, pulling it the twine-like portion. And continuing to.
"I can go to see if there is anything dry beyond this. If there is, you can follow this to me. If not... you can pull me back if I go farther than I can safely return."
Something has Andelena's attention--something that takes her attention off the water and the flooded tunnel ahead, judging by the distant look in her steel-grey eyes. Her hand twitches--just a little.
And then she balls it into a fist. She hisses quietly, a sound that's expelled through her teeth. "Heads up," she says quietly. "Something just tried to push into my head. Tried to make me do something I sure as /shit/ didn't wanna do."
Dirk frowns dourly as he steps into the water, sloshing it around his heavy boots as he carefully feels ahead with the butt of his thunderbelcher. "It's damned dangerous, lassie," he says to Kira. "If there's an undertow there--or gods forefend, summat -grabs- ye--we won't be able tae pull ye back." He tugs at his beard, looking up at the others. "We got any means o' breathin' water? That'd be helpful, at the verra least."
While the others are talking, Dolan has turned his back on the others and is studying with both eyes and the light the crack that has appeared in the wall. "Hey. Looks like we can just stop it up." He pulls off his nondescript wool cloak and studies the crack, then starts to stuff the cloak into the crack. He'll need to replace that -
"I don't, but I can swim, and with this-" Kira starts to hold up the rope she's 'extracting' from her robe to Dirk and stops cold. Perhaps not as cold as the water, though. She looks to Andelena at her statement. "So... something is here, and knows we're here... All the more reason to hurry."
She then hands the free end of the rope to Dirk and turns back to wade into the water.
GAME: Kira rolls athletics: (18)+11: 29 GAME: Kira rolls will: (2)+22: 24
-TBC