Mountains of Madness, Part 2

[AdamZero]

"...bit of of a quandary." I interrupted. It'd taken all of my will power to not laugh at Jasmine's insinuation I wanted Jamie to be 'honest'. She was perfectly fine the way she was, and more useful than if she was keeping all her inner fire pent up... I didn't vocalize that of course. "But you should both realize with the wind moving this way, sound carries a bit better... especially in echoing stone passage ways..."

I cast a look over my own shoulder, the feeling of dread ebbing considerably, and I visibly relaxed. "I guess I'll have to thank Talonfield for that month he made me spend as a women..." I muttered, though from the looks on Jamie and Jasmine's face not low enough. "Talonfield is my boss. The month was sort of a 'walk a mile in another's shoes' deal, very effective at dissuading any possible sexual harassment incidents... except for Dolly.... I'm pretty sure she's still paying child support...." I had to laugh. "Serves her right for not even using a damn contraceptive spell..." I yawned.

"I think we're in the clear." I nodded at a circle of red light, far off in the distance the sun must still be setting, we'd exit into the outside during the night. Good, not only would our eyes be able to get used to light slowly, I imagined the night around us would be almost as bright as day but we'd be in cover... good.... very good.

[Graybeard]

Say what you will about the Malletarians, they raised good stuff. At least that was what Brother Ohmad was thinking as he sauntered nonchalantly toward the garden room. The priest-in-training had sunk into the lotus position back in the cloud of smoke, and was chanting in an unknown language (or maybe no known language) with a sleepy smile on his face. Ohmad, for his part, was really wanting to find something to eat. There was a grapevine in the room (he should know; he'd fertilized it often enough). That should do just fine.

He slouched into the room and noticed that the forbidden door was off its hinges. Well, that was odd, but these things happened. It might even save him some trouble, in fact. The hieri had said never to go through that door, because there was something Really Bad down there, although they'd never said exactly what it was. If the demons had gone through, maybe the Really Bad Thing would kill them, and he could go get their blood. Relaxed as he was, he still wanted blood ... almost as much as he wanted grapes. But no big deal.

He pulled a few grapes off the vine and started to nosh, pausing every now and then to inhale a bit more smoke, as footfalls in the corridor he'd come from announced that more people were coming to the party.

[EDIT: OOC: I'm starting to have some trouble with time line here, Adam. Did you mean to say that the party has been in the deepdown for an entire day? If so, they're getting out of synch with things happening on the surface. Or is this the night before, in which case the opposite problem exists? A false sun, maybe? I'd prefer the latter; it solves a lot of continuity problems, not least that I didn't see the forbidden door as heading for the surface. We may have some retconning to do.]

[AdamZero]

[ooc: ooh, this is more of the dwarven lighting which isn't entirely accurate any more, that's all]

[Viking-Sensei]

"These are the crappiest dwarven ruins ever." Lucas said, stumbling along after the group. "I mean, seriously... this is what the legendary lost veracian mining operation stumbled across? A bunch of hallways and stone antechambers? Where's all the gizmos? The giant rusted cogs that operated ancient clockwork machines, now forever frozen in place as their creators left them? Aside from a bushell of primo weed, which we didn't even get to enjoy, there hasn't been a single..."

The party stepped through a doorway into the red glow of the evening sun... save the bit where the reddish glow they had been making their way towards wasn't actually the sun at all. They entered a room, a clean whiteish stone room, where one of the walls appeared to be made entirely of glass... and while the room was not hot, on the other side of the glass was what appeared to be a river of molten rock, a vein from the nearly dormant volcano they were wandering around underneath. Once through, there was a shudder, and the doorway behind them sealed shut, a massive slab of white stone sliding into place to seal the entranceway.

"...impressive thing." Lucas finished. "Ok, I retract my former statement. Anybody notice a door knob on the way in? Step on a loose floor tile by any chance? No? Well... crap. Where the hell are we now and how do we get out?"

Ayiee walked over to a bit on one of the walls where it was irregular, where there was something akin to a window, and started pressing tiles on the wall with her fingers. "Unit: Lucas, this area is designated Power Station 3 of... translation matrix active... of Anda Maunten. Imminent disaster warning: The system is alerting me to a critical build-up of pressure that will result in the volcano erupting. Furthermore, this build-up is draining the system of power, responsible for the door mechanism failure. Solution: We must correct pressure imbalance to prevent mountain explosion and to open door to surface."

(OOC - I hope nobody needed/wanted to go back to the surface for a while now... I've got a hell of an idea planned ahead, just bear with. Also, Ayiee: For All your Exposition Now needs since 2008.)

[Sareth]

"Excellent!" I exclaimed. "That should be no problem then! We'll just squonk the wigerdoo and reahimilate the pleminizer, and we're all good!"

"Sarcasm doesn't become you, Jamie," mother said. Nera proceeded to make a sound indicating agreement. Or that she was in need of another change. I figured that, since mother was holding her, mother could find out. Better her than me.

"Alright, so, Ayiee... Tell me this, since you seem to understand Dwarven, what do... You understand Dwarven?"

"Yes."

"Woah..." I shook that off. There was plenty of time for that later. Well, presuming we kept the volcano from blowing us all to kingdom come.

"So, what do we do?"

"We must correct pressure imbalance to preve..."

"Yeah, I got that much, Ayiee..."

[Graybeard]

"Well, damn," Brother Ohmad said (in a surprisingly relaxed tone of voice -- his lungs and bloodstream were still full of tetra-hydro-cannabinol, after all), as several undesirable things happened almost at once. First, the last of the hemp was consumed, and the delicious smoke stopped billowing. Second, the forbidden door in front of him slammed shut, or more accurately, was blocked by a large white stone that apparently dropped from the ceiling. That wasn't totally undesirable -- the demons beyond were at least walled off now -- but it did mean that he wouldn't get to take their blood, and that was unfortunate, not to mention that the child Nera was still with them. Third, the wind stopped blowing (had it been coming from beyond the forbidden door?), so that what intoxicating fumes remained were no longer being blown down the corridor, but simply rose to the vaulted ceiling of the room. There were going to be some very mellow bats up there ...

... And fourth, no longer under the smoke's influence, the pace of the approaching footfalls accelerated. It was only a minute or two later that a large group of Malletarians, a hierus at their head, emerged into the garden, weapons drawn and with the spellcasters in the group loaded for bear. Worst of all, the hierus was the same man who'd sent Ohmad on his apparently unsuccessful quest ...

... And he was pissed.

"Well, damn," Ohmad repeated, with a little more passion this time, as the high started to wear off.

---------

The trolls had landed the balloon, and now they were hot on the trail of a cave bear. "Haven't done this in a long time," Grope told his nephew as they coursed through the trees. "I'd forgotten how good it feels." And minutes later, they had their prey cornered in a box canyon.

The bear wasn't the biggest he'd ever seen; there'd probably never be another one like the one he and Zhbrigeeul had taken on what the Small Ones would have called their "honeymoon," a term Grope found somehow hilarious. Still, it was big enough, and taking it would be a fair fight -- almost. The beast rose to its full 13-foot height and let out a menacing growl to match the trolls' own war cry ...

... And suddenly, there was an answering growl from far to the south, but it didn't sound like either a cave bear or a troll.

---------

Wilbur Hamael heard it too, and turned to look.

The volcano rising to the west of the troll village wasn't steaming quietly any more. The white clouds of vapor had given way first to a bluish-gray gas cloud, then as he watched, to brown puffs of smoke. It groaned again, as a giant in labor, and the puffs intensified -- still not a mountain-shattering eruption, but something very bad might be coming.

Hamael's half-formed (and entirely crazy) plan to hijack the troll balloon on its return was placed firmly and permanently on the shelf, as he simply took off running down the ridge in the opposite direction from the awakening volcano.

[AdamZero]

"Woe be the wall and the door, your masters never to stir.
Woe be the road and the stair, shouts of fear precede the silence.
Woe be the sky and the wood, be scarred and die rebirth long away.
Woe be the flesh and the soul, sealed in ash and fire and die."

My voice was almost a song as I moved over to the clear wall.
Almost immediately clear panels of magickal 'hard' light started to form, but something irked me.

All the access panels were at waist level, and no chairs in sight. The fact that my Dwarven was CRAP didn't help. "A necromancer? Study a dead language? That's ridiculous...." I didn't both with subtly. I picked at the screens and pulled up till they were level with me at a comfortable height. There was a lot of this really ugly green color, that didn't at all make me feel good. There were arrows moving through parallel lines toward a shape that looked depressingly like a volcano. All around were jagged blocky runes I couldn't make heads or tails of.

"ooookay.. Aiyee!" I spun around pointing at the construct. "Come over and translate." Ayiee looked to Lucas, who nodded, before approaching and obliging. I opened my mouth but noticed her eyes seemed to flit around the screen.

"Alright um.... do you know how to fix this?" Ayiee's eyes hung on the screen before flicking to me.

"This unit's previous interlink gave access to copy the technoalchemical architecture of the facility, however this room terminal has been damaged, and no longer shares universal access?"

"Wha?"

"Dwarven protcol states all terminals must be capable of access to the core operating functions at the very least. This prevents the need to travel large distances into the heart of the problem."

"Couldn't-"

"Time to eruption and breach of facility safety measures is finite and waning, Marcus." There was a flash of annoyance in her voice.

"Right... can you give us SAFE access to a viable terminal room?"

"No."

"SHIT." I noticed a glare from Jasmine.

"However I can give a route that will be non fatal for myself, Construct Boris, You, and Lucas, if the latter two use magick."

Her eyes flashed to a smaller square of light. "Also, individuals are gathering outside the blastdoor."

Crap.... "Can you make a safe route out of the facility, or to a safe safe room?"

Ayiee moved me to the side with a gentle push and her digits starting racing, I say digits because she balanced on her left foot and began to operate a several small panels with her toes. Wow....

"That's kinky." Boris said suddenly. I was tempted to punch him, but damn... twinkle toes wasn't nearly close, they were damn near shining.

Two doors opened on opposite sides of the glass, one from the lava's source and one towards its goal.

Aiyee began to move towards the first door, and I looked to Jamie with a simper. "Till we meet again." Boris followed close after Aiyee and I nodded to Lucas, whatever the problem was we'd get to a panel and fix it.

[Sareth]

"Have fun storming the castle," I replied, watching as they dissappeared down the tunnel. This left mom, Nera, and me. Clearly, the other tunnel was meant for us. "Come on, mom. Let's see what we can find down thisaway."

"Jamie, I do believe I am the mother here. I don't think you should be telling me wh"*CRACK*

The large block that had sealed us in had just shuddered under some sort of magical blow, and a large split had formed. The door was still very much there in the way, but it seemed it could eventually be breached.

"That tunnel, you say?" mother asked, pointing.

"Yeah, that tunne WAIT FOR ME, MOM!"

Walking through the tunnel, which evidently went THROUGH the lava, was an eerie experience. We were surrounded by red and yellow glowing strands. The glow was frighteningly angry and sullen. We could even hear a low rumbling sound.

"I don't know about you, but this is really nervewracking," mother commented.

"You know, you're supposed to be the encouraging one, mom," I replied. "But this structure seems quite stable."

"True," Mother replied. "And it looks like we're coming to the other side. It looks like we're going to be fine."

"Yeah," I replied.

Just then there was a very loud rumble. Above ground, unbeknownst to me, onlookers could see a brown plume entering the sky as the mountains gave an early warning that things were not good.

Beside us, the glass-like structure forming the walls of the tunnel cracked.

Mother looked at me.

I looked at mother.

"RUN!"

[Viking-Sensei]

"Did anybody else just feel that?" Lucas said, looking down at the pulsating brownish red floor that was really a thin layer of this glass-looking stuff. "This thing shuddered."

"External forces are attempting to breech the basalt blast door, causing instability in the control room's superstructure. This is why we advised not to attempt to exit by damaging the door mechanism. New estimate places that the magic batteries powering the door's structural integrity and maintaining the hyper-dense translucent corridor shield that we are now traveling through have been exponentially weakened by their efforts. Solution: run for your lives."

The shuddering increased, and Lucas could feel the tunnel jerk under his feet. Suddenly, it started getting noticeably warmer too. Under protests about Jamie and Jasmine's safety, Ayiee grabbed Marcus by his collar and drug him forcibly to the end of the tunnel, with Lucas and Boris doing their best to keep up. As they reached the end of the tunnel, a bright plume of red and yellows appeared mid-way, leaking from above, and growing steadily larger. The transparent barrier snapped back into place just in time for the main tunnel to collapse, replacing their small access window with a blur of reds and oranges along another sheer face of molten rock.

Aside from the fact that the they were now apparently on the other side of the volcano, this room looked suspiciously like the first, save the fact that it did not have a basalt slab blocking the exit. "So, are we where we need to be to stop the volcano?"

Ayiee walked over to the wall and started doing her thing. "Previously correct, now bad data. This is Anda Maunten Tertiary Sub-Station 2, monitor point for Power Station 2, however due to security protocols that have been activated as a result of the attack on the facility, this sub-station and all like it have been locked out to any lacking the proper security clearance. I am not capable of emulating said clearance. Redundant restatement of facts for slower processing power units - we need a key. Protocol states that a backup key be kept in the master office, which should be accessible if we exit this room and proceed on foot through chamber super-structure."

"So we go... thataway?" Lucas said, sticking his head out the door. Beyond the few feet of light cast off from the glowing red wall behind them, the corridor and beyond were pitch black. "Ayiee, can you detect anything of Jamie or Jasmine? What's going on over in the last room?"

"Units Jamie and Jasmine are no longer in the Power Station 2. I cannot accurately track their movements, but I believe they took the other corridor towards the Weapons and Armorment rooms. These are re-enforced, so even if their tunnel superstructure collapses like ours did, they should be... update, while I am not detecting them, I am detecting multiple lifeforms outside this room in the chamber."


(OOC: I'll have more info on what's going on up in a bit, for right now just get up to the going through the door bit and into the dark)

[Graybeard]

"Trouble," Annabelle said as she walked unannounced into Elke's office, to find her coming out of her small, private (and, in contrast to 99% of Farrel, plumbed) toilet.

"You can say that again," Elke groaned. She'd awakened this morning queasier than the previous one, and by the time she got to the warehouse, something had to be done about it. I'd better get a pregnancy test. I really think ... "Sorry, I was thinking about my problems, not our organization's. What's up?"

"Simply put, we've lost track of Jamie and Marcus. The tracking implants aren't registering any more."

That took Elke's mind off her morning sickness, all right. "Oh, crap. They died? You can't imagine how bad that is. I --"

Annabelle interrupted. "No, they didn't die, or at least we don't think so. If that was why the signal stopped, we'd know. There's a feature of that stuff we gave Jamie that takes care of that. Rather, it just ... stopped. Like they're still alive, but have disappeared from this plane of existence or moved into a place where magic doesn't work or something."

The green was beginning to ebb out of Elke's face, to be replaced by a paleness that even her fair complexion couldn't disguise. "I'm not sure whether that's better or worse than being dead. Where were they the last time we had a location for them?"

"Underground, at that whacko religious compound in the Mountains of Madness."

Elke groaned again. "Well, that answers that: worse..."

----------

It was a hard, bloody fight, but it ended the only way it could: the cave bear lay dead at the hands (literally) of the two trolls. "Well done," Grope said, addressing not only his nephew, but the carcass of the bear. "The honor is great. Let us pause to celebrate this mighty one's Wisdom."

The two trolls bent to drink a tiny bit of the bear's shed blood, and each took a small swatch of its hide, Grope immediately incorporating his into the Robe while Scrobian pocketed his for later treatment. The great beast had not died without inflicting its own damage, and the trolls were bleeding from their own wounds, nothing that wouldn't stop before it became dangerous, but enough that they'd have scars from the experience -- in other words, just the way things should be. "A most satisfying morning, just the perfect way to come back to the tribe," Grope said --

But then he looked at the sky above the volcano to the south, and wasn't so sure any more.