| From: | ANGLISS@***.PSU.EDU |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Let's see if I can finish this(Cave, Part 2) |
| Date: | Mon, 14 Mar 1994 22:43:18 -0500 |
Thanks
Max. So, I'll see if I can finish this before Max again decides I'm too tired
to continue.
Max, using his ability to manifest in any shape he wants, and masking his aura,
tried to sneak into the camp as a harmless animal, a small rabbit. Until he
ran into a Swiss guard who was hungry for normal food instead of rations. The
guard up and tried to shoot Max, and he escaped only to set the camp on edge
when the guard complained about a disappearing rabbit. Nice one, Max. }I said
I was sorry{ Yeah, you did, but it still didn't help later }so near and yet so
far...{ So we slept until the next morning. Max finally woke me at about
0900 and I found the small glade we were in to be surrounded by animals, many
more than ususal. And Val was talking to the European version of a Piasma.
The funny thing is that it seemed to understand, and didn't mind when Val
reached out and scratched the back of its neck. I've never heard the sound of
a content bear, but this one sure sounded that way.
And the other animals were acting kinda strange too. There were deer, elk,
birds, squirells, and a couple of wolves too. And all of them were behaving
as if they were totally unafraid of us and each other. The predators weren't
even attacking and eating their normal prey. And one by one they went up to
talk with Val and then took off. All in the direction of the Swiss camp and
the cave's entrance.
It was about noon, as the animals began to return, that I noticed a tall human
figure walking in such a way that he was sure to be noticed. If I hadn't
recognized him as Nightfox I would have blasted him immediately. He seemed to
totally enjoy all the animals about, smiling and seemingly forgetting the whole
reason for being here as he laughed at the birds wheeling about his and our
heads. He said something like this: "I'm glad I was watching the camp,
Valentine. Your sacred grove here was hiding your position and auras wonder-
fully, until some of your friends, and that elk you sent out looking for me,
led me back here."
Val laughed and explained that they were doing our recon for us. And as the
day wore on the animals returned and we got an idea, from thier minds mostly,
as well as their pitifully small memories, of the layout of the camp, the numberof guards,
and when N'Ralen added what he had been watching since last night,
we were able to plan our stealthing through the camp to the cave.
Unfortunately, about this time my pain, which had reduced to a dull ache in my
gut for most of the trip, returned gradually. Partially it was due to N'Ralen
being close by as he's magically very powerful and that seems to be one of the
things that triggered my pain. But he wasn't the main reason, and neither he
nor Val(Or Max, as far as I know) could figure out the main reason besides
that the area is more magical than usual. So Val gave me some of that pain-
killer he had made up from local plants and that took care of it for a while.
But as dusk came and we moved out to the cave, the pain got worse again, even
through the pain-killer. So Val and N'Ralen began to cast spells to counter
the pain. But sometimes the pain was still almost crippling. Max showed me
my own aura, through his astral eyes, and I began to understand why I was in
so much pain. My aura was in a state of fantastic flux, sometimes arcing like
electricty to the earth or the Astral plane, sometimes creating a channel
direct to a metaplane or just bubbling. It was awesome, and terrifying. I'm
lucky that it's settled down now, more or less }tell them why, Rox{ In good
time. The rest of the story must be told first, and the'll likely figure it
out by then if they haven't already.
Well, we got to the edge of the camp and Val and N'Ralen cast some really
powerful illusion spells that kept us hidden from the guards and scientists.
There was one point where Max had to use his manifesting ability to distract a
magical guard scanning astrally before he could spot our otherwise hidden
bodies. And there was one point where something really nasty happened to my
aura }her entire aura went solid black, a black that seemed to suck in the mana
in a totally unnatural manner, or at least in a way I have never seen before,
but I am still young...{ and all the spells on me and the painkiller didn't
seem enough and I cried out softly, but still loud enough to attract the
attention of two guards even through the illusions. Luckily N'Ralen clamped
his hand over my mouth as the pain got worse and then backed off to the level
it had been at for a while, and Val used his illusion skill to distract the
guards and "fly" a little bird that made the same kind of noise I had. Really
a beatiful solution to an unplanned for problem. But after this we made it
into the cave without incident. Once inside we avoided the few Swiss that were
inside as scientists. Most of them were in side tunnels anyway and I knew
exactly which tunnels we needed to follow.
We donned our caving gear, switched over to astral sight for ease of seeing,
and then began our trek. We went up and down and walked and climbed and
levitated and even swam once(I hate blind cave fish, and icy cold water)
}just because the innocent fist swam up your pant leg is no reason for you
to hate the fish on general principles{ and once we were out of the water we
literally dried ourselves with magic and sat and ate our, well... Breakfast.
We had gone about 6km and had about another 12 to go, most of it under the
German side. We got a little sleep and got up later and took off again.
This is when our near total reliance on astral vision almost cost us our lives.
Somehow, the original...builders isn't quite the right term, but close enough
for now...had placed traps here. And all of them looked like they were from
the Fourth World. Or maybe from around 0 AD in this case. Well, we came up
on a deadfall trap concealed with mundane but living rock. N'Ralen was leading
at this point and he triggered the trap and about 40m of cave roof collapsed
on us. With max's help, and some magic too, we were able to dig our way out.
We were lucky that the magic was still working normally as the background count
was going higher and higher as we went further in. That's when we all donned
the caving lamps and the leading person went with normal senses, looking for
more traps.
And traps we found in abundance. Arrow traps, dart traps, covered pits,
anchored hellblasts, swinging pendulums, collapsing walls, spears, you name it
we ran into it. Hundreds of them. It took us hours longer than it would have
otherwise just to get around the fraggin traps! Then we ran into the new ones.
Like the monowire falling grid. Had it not been for Max pointing out the
tripwire a weighted grid of monowire would have turned your's truly into long
square columns of flesh. Not the way I want to go... This was the first
indication that there were enemies before us still.
It was about this point that the cave took on a new aspect, more like a tunnel
than a cave. And that's when stairs began to appear, as well as notches in the
walls that were lit with what looked like natural gas torches. The looked like
they'd been lit recently, like within the last week. And the background count
went higher even, and the pain I had been feeling disappeared almost totally.
}yes, her aura settled down to what it was naturally. But I must describe the
beaty of the tunnel. The mana flows were...human terms are hardly sufficient'todescribe
the sensation. Beautiful and awe-inspiring don't do them justice as
they were also terrible and horrific and...well, I just can't describe it{ And
neither can I. I saw all that Max did and he's right. You just have to
experience it yourself, although that's not very likely now with all the heat
that we are responsible for(oops).
And we ran into Smith, Klien, and French. Those three.... Again. Those
fraggers...drekheads, sons-of-a-slitch.... They had decided to attack us in
the tunnel. Oh, almost forgot. The tunnel has a small stream running down one
side, ice cold as from a glacier, and the air had been getting signifigantly
colder. And the three started blasting away at us, using SMGs and grenades
and spells and an earth elemental. It would have been funny, that earth
elemental. Val summoned up a Cavern spirit that appeared like a moving
stalagmite. I had thought that they would be a form of Mountain spirit, but
apparently Val knows more about them than I do. Talk about being caught
between a rock and a hard place }aargh...{ And seeing N'Ralen bottle up a
grenade inside a physical barrier until it had exploded and disappated
harmlessly was great. After a while, with lots of little illusions and a small
hellblast that sent all three diving into the stream to quench the fires I
started on thier clothing, they retreated.
Well, we went on, but Max is telling me(again) to take off. I'll try to sneak
on later, but if not... I'll finish when I get up tomorrow.]<<<<<
-- Foxey Roxey(22:45:17/03-14-55)
