SAGE PARTY GO

[reapsthewind]

Who: frankly anybody, even if you're new
What: Going to explore a mine! Finding a Sage who claims to know what's going on! Except...
Where: abandoned coal mine
When: Wednesday during the day. SKIP CLASS, I GUESS.

I figure we'll just start with Chris' team doing exploration, until the modly folk decide to show up with the Sage himself, and then... go from there.

Comments

[reapsthewind]

Chris was again actually on time for once. She did tend to be on time when it was something she wanted to do. She'd taken a Zipcar out to the mine and brought with her a headlamp, a handheld flashlight, a large spool of rope with pitons, and, finally, a small, handheld industrial gas detector she'd gotten a few years back at an MIT swap meet since she was tired of the chemistry students down the hall almost killing everyone in the building.

When people arrive, she says, "Hey, okay, I dunno how many of you have done mine or cave exploration before, but... I mean, I haven't done much, just once. But you should still know that mines can be super dangerous. Methane is really flammable, so if you brought torches or flashlights that don't use LEDs that's right out, or anything that can spark. It usually sits near ceilings. Blackdamp -- that's oxygen depleted air -- and carbon monoxide are also issues. I've brought along a gas detector, but you never know, and I'd say that if any of you feel short of breath, we get the hell out of dodge."

"Don't touch ANY wood pillars or structures, stuff might be rotting and you can collapse it on us. And don't go leaning on the walls, those might be unstable too. Move VERY slowly and if something looks or feels unstable, it probably is; move back. And stick together, don't go running ahead."

Under her jacket, she had also hidden the Walther P-38 she'd stolen from Casval Mass, and the tranq darts that Aaron Strider had given her. She didn't want to fight anything, but if those dogmen showed up in the mine and she had to defend herself... well.

[happybirthdaytoyou]

Eugene comes dressed for spelunking... sort of. Okay, he's basically come dressed in his idea of explorer's clothing, complete with pith helmet. He carries with him a marble rolling pin, his weapon should he need it. "UNDERSTOOD!" he cries out.

DISCOVERY OF THE SAGE

[divinorum]

In a corner of the mine, not too deep but not too obvious, there sits a figure. It is hooded and cloaked in ragged brown robes, seated cross-legged in front of a pile of rubble big enough to block the tunnel.

As you approach, he speaks in a raspy, gravelly voice. His face remains shrouded; he does not look up.

"So, chosen, you have come."

Re: DISCOVERY OF THE SAGE

[testsonseashells]

Mordin raises an eyebrow. "Chosen? By whom?"

Re: DISCOVERY OF THE SAGE

[not_good_not_wicked]

Any nervousness had long since worn out, so when Marisa made it to the room with the Sage, she marched right up to him, pointing her bat at him like it was a sword. "Alright, weird guy! All kinds of weird things have been happening since I showed up in this town, and I bet you're the one who's behind it all! Admit it!"

THE SAGE SPEAKS

[divinorum]

"SILENCE!"

The Sage's gravelly voice echoes through the cavern.

He pauses for a moment, possibly for dramatic effect.

"Many have come," the Sage says. "Many. Enough, perhaps, that my truth may be understood. But not enough to face the growing dark.

"I am the Sage of Earth. I speak for the Earth that has chosen you to defend it. Our enemies are utterly alien. Inhuman. Incomprehensible. In the distant past they ruled this sector of space; now, they want it back. To what end? Who among us can know? Their dark purposes are as alien to us as the thoughts of the Earth itself.

"More are coming. Your time is short, chosen ones. Deep within this mine is one of seven Gems of Earth. Collect them. Forge the seal. You cannot hope to defeat the old ones, but you just might manage to keep them out."

The Sage pulls a deep breath, then throws his head back. His face is visible for the first time: a worn, unshaven, dirty face. His eyes roll into the back of his head. His hands grasp at the rock. The ground trembles below.

All will hear a distant, prolonged crash. The Sage crumples to the ground, eyes glassy and wide. Below his robe are the filthy layered rags of a homeless man. He breathes out and does not breathe in again.



Chirp. Chirp. Chirpchirpchirp.

From the ceiling, a cloud of bats swarms the party. No ordinary bats, of course: their fangs are longer and sharper, they have a two-foot wingspan, and their eyes glow red. (Of course their eyes glow red.) In the mouth of all tunnels leading out of the chamber are Vermidi: four-foot creatures completely covered in matted hair, with long needle-like fingers.

Finally, the main entrance to the mine has collapsed.

[ooc: Feel free to NPC the Vermedi yourselves: each has the combat ability of a trained military operative, a five-year-old's intelligence, and a sadistic streak. The bats are not Vermini but ordinary bats infected by the Vermedi. Also, though the cave-in was limited to the main entrance of the mine, the tunnels have been weakened in other places.

ICly, mine explorations took place from Wednesday the 12th on. The Sage was found and the trap was sprung on Saturday the 15th.]

[professorwolf]

Lyall's first instinct is to bound-- or, well, jog; Lyall isn't really in much shape to be bounding-- to the fallen man's side. He checks first for a pulse, though his nose wrinkles at the smell. "This man hasn't had a bath in... a very long time. And... and I think he's dead!"

For the moment, the note of panic in his voice and the smell of the homeless "Sage" is overpowering the rest, though the bats swooping down will fix that in a minute.

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa had eventually been convinced to stop shouting wild accusations at the sage and listen, but now she was actually starting to think he might actually not be their enemy. Then he had gone ahead and died after spouting off a bunch of stuff about gems.

Before she could even process that, she was hit by a whirlwind of memories. Full of light and sound and chaos. It took a second for her to even realize that they were under attack, by which point she was already in the middle of a cloud of bats.

About two seconds of panic actually helped bring her back to the real world, after which point she got a grip. There were flickering shapes in the air everywhere, moving every direction. It was... Actually, surprisingly simple. The Vermidi were closing in too, but in her mind she could easily plot the courses of every bat and every monster in the room. Marisa jumped and dodged her way through the chaos, for the moment staying half a step ahead of the stabbing claws that were trying to close in on her.

[thepiisatruth]

Shawn froze tight. He braced himself, turned on his heel, and made to sprint. He ran directly into a cloud of beating, rustling, chittering bats and he lashed out swinging madly with the thing that had appeared in his hand, hearing wings and bodies smack into hard, flat plastic.

His hand slipped and thumb pressed a protrusion flat - and a voice that sounded precisely like his barked, with the filter of a recording, "SINE!"

He waved the thing hard to a stop in front of him, glaring through his shades and through the bats while jerking and snarling as teeth pierced his back - a megaphone?

"COSINE! TANGENT!" the recorded voice that sounded like his shouted.

He jerked the megaphone closer in, and shouted, full-voice, all the contents of filled lungs, "SCREW OFF!"

A few of them reeled in the air. Nearly all of them drew away. He wheeled, sucked another breath in hard, and let out another incoherent roar. A gap appeared as the bats drew back, opened space, and he ducked into it, keeping close to the wall - where something else seized and raked the megaphone arm as if he'd caught it in a trap of six-inch nails. He hissed.

A hollow feeling opened up in his chest. His head felt cold. Everything felt cold, his heart stopped and his limbs hissed and buzzed helplessly and motionlessly like doused fires and his consciousness rose out from internal to external dark, where his yellow eyes were widened with outrage and he snarled, tearing his arm excruciatingly out of the little white-eyed gremlin's claws and bashing it with the megaphone full-strength. Don't be stupid, Shawn Minamoto. Don't be fucking stupid, I am not gonna die from garbage like this!

[reckless_fire]

Fuck, you've gotta be kidding me...

Chosen. Sage of the Earth. Gems of the Earth. Forge the Seal. What the hell? Despite everything that had happened over the past two months, Kenji's initial response to the Sage's words was utter disbelief. This was like something out of a really bad video game, and he just couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. Or believe it.

The bats, however, seemed real enough.

As one swooped toward him, out of reflex he swung his flashlight, connecting and knocking it to the cavern floor where it shuddered a moment before stilling. Hopefully dead, but possibly just stunned.

[visionarykitten]

Gomez had been so distracted for his first two Echoes, that he didn't recognize the feeling. He still doesn't, really, when one occurs. When his heart beats quickly and hard at the Sage's sudden crumble and the rumble in the tunnels, he thinks it's fear, and he dives instinctively off his person's, Alex's, shoulder, bolting back the way they'd come.

Unfortunately, there's vermedi there. He gives a yowl of fright as one takes a swipe at him, and scampers back towards Alex again, fur all a-fluff and tail like a bottlebrush.

Re: THE SAGE SPEAKS

[happybirthdaytoyou]

This-- this is not how this was supposed to go. At all. Once the weird feeling passes through him, Eugene uses a paper napkin to wipe off his cake knife and hand it to Mort. He then takes the marble rolling pin from the totebag and holds it at ready.

[peacefulwinter]

As the Sage collapses, Winter is distantly aware that something is very, very wrong with this whole situation. She's also acutely aware that, as the chamber fills with bats and Vermedi guard the exits, she has zero capacity to fight.

Just to make it even more sure, she hears the sound of her own heart beating in her ears - wait, no, different heartbeat; she also hears her own heart hammering - and feels the sensation of being empty, for just a moment. When it clears, there's a slightly warm softness in her arms: a plushie she's never seen before and wasn't carrying when she came in.

Basically, she's doomed, but at least she has something cute and huggable to make it all better...? "S-someone... I d-don't... I don't want to...!"

[caosgo]

Emmanuel doesn't move, at least not consciously--he sways as the bottom drops out of his stomach, and his heart pounds in his ears. The knuckles of the hand gripping his phone are white, and there's a sudden weight in the other, cold and smooth. It's a metal blade about the length of his forearm, and the highly polished surface glints with whatever light is left in the cavern.

He hasn't quite processed the danger yet, however, or his new acquisition, and all he does is grip it automatically so it doesn't fall, twisting to follow the sound of the entrance collapsing.

[wannabered]

Protecting the Earth. Otherworldly threats. Resealing evil. It was all so cliched, but very familiar. Thomas barely noticed the Sage fall over. The cry of shock he was about to let out died as the bats began swooping down and hairy ... THINGS started to swarm the entrances.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Tom swung his spotlight at the bats diving at him as he tried backing away, but not any closer to the Adams Family rejects. This is why he thought the scarf was a lame thing to get. Sadly, he wasn't too terribly coordinated and fell onto his ass as the bats dived at him again.

[formermagicalgirl]

Tamara arrived pretty much right before the Sage started to speak. She'll be hanging out around the edge of the room and just listen intently to the whole thing. It makes some sense after all, the forum pretty much had them all suspecting the invaders weren't from Earth, after all. So the lead about the gem is at least useful and worth investigating in her opinion, even if it sounds like something out of a fantasy novel. At the very least it makes sense to see if said gem exists.

While she did gain an echo, it isn't actually here with her and that confuses her a bit at first. No weird memory and she feels all right, so it can't be some weird ability. She's about to rummage around when the bats appear. Well, seems she have to check later. It's probably something stupid and in her purse.

One of the bats does come right at her, but she flails at it to try and keep it away, and not all that successfully. She does touch it and accomplishes draining it and now it is flying away from her slowly and more erratically than before. Someone looking at it likely would think she hit it harder than it appeared she did since that ability of hers isn't readily apparent. About the only thing she has on her right now is a flashlight since she hasn't thought to take out any of the few items in her purse that could be considered weapons, like her swiss army knife keychain, or her very sharp and pointy scissors that she never did remove from her purse when no longer needed.

[earnedmystripes]

...And here he'd gone and thought the "answers" from the Sage would actually explain what was going on beyond the vague "invasion by something inhuman" stuff they'd already known from the video of Paul's death and the webforum. Everything else the Sage says barely makes sense and before anyone can even ask any questions, the guy keels over dead.

Kotetsu only stares in shock at first, trying to comprehend what just happened. He's rattled now, shoulders trembling just slightly as his mind helpfully provides him with nearly every cheesy sci-fi/fantasy film he's ever seen, where the death of the messenger is only the beginning.

Sure enough, the room is suddenly flooded with giant bats and--creatures--and Kotetsu is suddenly very glad he decided to bring his gun. That strange sensation hits, heart pounding too hard in his ears as his chest squeezes, and the world fades to tunnel vision for a moment as he's grown nearly used to by now. There's no accompanying vision this time, though, which he's grateful for as the bats bear down upon him. His hand shakes as he aims the gun at the creature, and his first shot misses outright, but the next goes right through the center of its massive wing and it falls in a dizzying spiral to the ground.

Terrified as he is, he just. Keeps. Firing, taking down any few he can manage. Someone better cover his back before he runs out of bullets.

Serious Injury/Trapped

[depolarized]

Somehow in the ensuing chaos, Riku'd gotten separated from nearly everyone else, trapped neatly between a rock and a couple of very sharp vermedi. "Shit, back off!" Riku raised his backpack as one of them took a swipe, all knife-sharp nails.

OUTSIDE THE MINE MEETUP/ATTEMPTED RESCUE

[15minuteslate]

If Mamoru had had any doubts that Shiro was in the mine, the little electric blue deathtrap parked in the brush outside dispelled them. Mamoru pulled his helmet off as he skidded to a halt next to it on his own bike, glancing around to see if anyone else had arrived.

Wait --

-- wasn't that supposed to be the main entrance? Right there, where that pile of rocks was?

"Oh, god. They're trapped."

AFTERWARDS...

[hollowleg]

They had made it out. Made it out in a way yet to be determined, but they'd made it. And something so weird had happened. So weird that Shiro didn't even want to think about it. He barely even remembered it, but the fact that his jacket and shirt were in tatters was enough to tell anyone who looked at him what had happened.

Except that he was spotless, sort of. Save for some dirt and a good bit of dried blood, there wasn't a scratch on him. No wounds where the bats claws and fangs should have torn him to shreds.

On his way back to his bike, parked next to a tree, he collapses to the ground, the bike helmet that had done so much to protect his head coming off and rolling across the grass.

"Urrghh... so... hhhnnn."

[15minuteslate]

"Shiro! Shiro!"

Mamoru drops to the ground next to his brother, grabbing him by the shoulders. If Shiro isn't facing upwards already, Mamoru will turn him around. "Talk to me, bro. How bad is it?"

Afterward | Open to anyone who wants to fuss at him.

[icy_heavens]

[Open air. Open air is good. Way better than being stuck in a mine with monsters chasing after him. He takes a few deep breaths to try to steady himself and his stomach. That teleporting crap or whatever the hell it was he'd done hasn't agreed with his insides at all.

[He abruptly notices that there's white cloth draped over him, and he blinks in confusion. Had that happened in there, too? He'd felt a pulse again . . . Oh, who even cares at this point? He shrugs off the white coat -- sleeveless too? Whatever -- and just presses it over the scratches on his forearm as he plops himself down against a wall. The scratches aren't deep, but the bleeding is kind of ugly.

[And so there he sits, dabbing at the wound, breathing shakily, and trying not to throw up.]

[professorwolf]

[There's a teacher here, too, sitting not far off, trying to get his own breathing under control. He's got a scratch or two, but nothing terrible-- nothing even all that bloody, honestly. All because he has some very brave, very lucky, and really rather useful students who had gotten his useless butt out of there.

So seeing a bloodied up middle school boy out who had quite likely saved his life, standing a couple yards away, in the light of day-- which is really starting to feel uncomfortable, but he'd long since lost his hat-- is a real good reason to lever himself to his feet and make his unsteady way over.]

All right, Toushirou? Did it get you?

[He can't tell from the blood smell. There is blood-smell everywhere. It's making him feel a little ill his own self, to be honest.]

Afterward | Open

[scramasax]

Anthony was glad that, by the time they'd reached the surface, the sun was low. Even this much light seemed bright - but no worse. The air was clear. It was quiet apart from heavy breathing and talk all around with the end of the screaming, calling, and chirping of bats and the spined things.

All the while, he ached all over, his heart thumped with a dull drumbeat hardness to compensate for its lack of speed, and the bites all over him touched by the air tingled, burned, and sparked pain. He examined the bat nips on his sword arm - welled with blood that was still too thick and dark not to ring his expectations off-pitch. The sensations that glowed under those like coal were the were the steady ones. He'd fought well this time, with the others, with friends - they'd helped Mr. Lyall, they had all left, and they had all fought. He hadn't felt like the only one standing around unarmored. He'd done well. He was part of the they that had done well.

By belief from what he half-understood now, he had less to fear than any of them. Even so many bat bites were nothing - and were least of all for doing well.

He leaned against a tree - he didn't imagine he'd have much of an easy time willing himself to stand for a while if he sat down. He reviewed the vision that he'd had at the first bites of carrying a scroll with dignity to a somebody crucial, and the words of a language that he had never heard - not close to Latin - but loaded and complete with their meanings.

[shiromadoushi]

"Holy shit, they did a number on you!" Bakura exclaimed as he approached. The white haired boy had fared decently enough. His hoodie had taken most of the scratches and tears, leaving the worst of him being his knuckles from all the punches thrown. But he was used to that and paid them no mind.

"Are you okay? You need help?"

FIELD FIRST AID, post escape

[elfstoned]

Aaron - and Mordin, if the good doctor is willing - is giving field first-aid to the injured. The bag of medical supplies lies open on a bit of flat, open ground. Some may be sent on to hospitals, but if your injuries are treatable here (or you can't go to a hospital) the doctors will see to your injuries.

Re: FIELD FIRST AID, post escape

[odd_jobs]

Whether it be rescued or fought out, as it happens to end, Tadashi has Kenji's arm held over his shoulder and seems to be supporting most of the younger teen's weight. The two of them are bitching back and forth and as Tadashi sees the first aid supplies laid out, he immediately starts angling their path towards Aaron.

As they get closer, Tadashi appears to be smeared in blood from where he's supporting Kenji, but save for some impressively purpling bruises and a small collection of shallow scratches, he seems fine on the walk up.

"Look, it wont be that bad."

LATE TO THE PARTY BUT HEY IF YOU WANT A RIDE HOME...

[italktofish]

A battered yellow school bus rolled into the clearing, its engine sounding like it just might have broken down and been hastily beaten into submission repaired on the side of the road. Arthur barreled out of the bus just as soon as it stopped and the door slid open. "IS EVERYONE OKAY? DOES ANYONE NEED A RIDE BACK?" He continued talking as he gestured back at the bus. "I would have been here sooner, but the engine broke down on me!"

He stuck his head back through the door. He hadn't come alone. "Cinderella, do you need any help getting out?"

Yes, there was also a horse aboard that school bus.

[destinedforrock]

"Gentlemanly of you to ask, Mister Arthur! I am just fine!"

She was not. Her legs were wobbling. Her hind legs still smarted a little - that was mostly in her head, her first critical jump over the fence not being so clean. It had been long since she'd ridden a vehicle. The ground had not been padded and she'd been jostled in the center row between the seats at turns. But oh, really, she was shaken! Not hurt!

Cinderella took her first high-step toward the front of the bus and on. It wasn't quite such a grand gait with wobbling knees. The steps to the ground gave her brief pause. She flicked her ears, held her head high, and hopped down in two bounds.

"Indeed! We've arrived! Is everybody still standing? I say that sounded dreadful!"

[espigeonage]

Julien has dragged out the body of the Sage, for no reason beyond not wanting to leave it in there. Out in the clear he sways a little after he drops the double handful of robes.

Mentally he is tired, drained. Physically he still has plenty of energy left - he did very little work, it feels like, and the adrenaline still hasn't crashed yet. Part of this is probably his lungs, he speculates.

He should go over to where the wounded and the clinic staff are. In a moment he'll gather himself up for that. In a moment.

[professorwolf]

The thought has occured to Lyall to do the same thing, but he hasn't wanted to go back in there after finally getting out again. He's had it hammered home pretty strongly just how useless he is against actual and even potential dangers, after all. But when he sees Julien doing what he'd considered, he moves over with the intention of helping, but instead puts a hand on Julien's shoulder to steady him when he stops and sways.

"Are you all right?"