Stone Men In Water Street

[Bjorn]

A lightsource would be good.  Flashlight, ideally, we have two lanterns already.  You'll need that anyways.  If you can find some rope, that'd be good.  Other than that, just the bow.

Once you're in the mine, turn left at the T-intersection -- not that you have a choice.  Follow the tunnel, and you'll find us.  I'll leave this "connection" open, just in case you need to get in touch with me, okay?

Out loud, Bjorn says, "Nathan's on his way.  He'll be a few minutes, and then we can get going."

[Rezantis]

"Flashlight I have, rope I'll ask about."

Rez hmms as he starts packing things away . . .

"Er. Where is the mine entrance?"

After receiving an answer to this most vital of questions, Rez packs up the uplink and the laptop and stashes them in the car, and wanders over to ask Bart about possibly getting some rope . . .

[Brian]

It takes very little time to assemble a lightsource (hooray lanterns!) and a rope (thankfully, not vintage).  You've got about 30 meters of cord.  Nylon, looks pretty sturdy.  The hardest part is navigating through the mines until you find Bjorn, fist clenched around a handful of air, and a lantern in his off hand.

Victor is there, carrying a much shorter (and more aged) piece of rope, and another lantern.

"Well," he says, once you arrive.  "I had hoped you were coming.  Now shall we find what secrets this ancient lair of earth and steel will yeild?"

[Bjorn]

"That's the plan," Bjorn says.   "Shall we?"

After waiting for confirmation from the two, he leads the way down the mineshaft.

[Rezantis]

"Ahm, one sec.  If you actually want me to have my bow -ready- . . . are we expecting a particular amount of trouble?"

[Bjorn]

"Let's say 'yes' and be pleasantly surprised, shall we?"

[Rezantis]

"Ych."

Rez buckles on his quiver and gets the bow out of the bag before reoffhanding the thing.

Holding the bow in his left hand, and carrying the flashlight in his right, Rez nods at Bjorn. "Ready when you are, I guess."

[Bjorn]

Nodding, Bjorn glances over at Victor.  "If you don't mind...." Reaching over, Bjorn briefly touches Victor's hand, and then pushes the mindboard out towards both Victor and Rez.

There.  Assuming this worked, we should all be able to chat without talking -- which would probably be prudent, under the circumstances.

[Brian]

Fun for all! Victor replies, though the mesage skitters across the board and bounces into Nathan's mental territory.

Nodding at Bjorn and Nathan, Victor strides into the unknown, looking as though he would prefer to be whistling a jaunty tune.  It's dark that way, and appears (from your vantage) to proceed some distance in that direction without curving.  But then, most darkness looks the same, to your eyes.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn follows Victor, studying the mine shaft as he goes along curiously.

[Brian]

This place looks like it's out of a cartoon, or some recreation of a mine, rather than a real mine.  That's what you think -- until you start running into the spider-webs.  These suckers are pretty big, about the width of a thread.

Victor pauses, and after a moment says, "Well, they look heavily dust-coated," but you sense a certain lack of confidence in his voice.

While old looking, there are well preserved pieces of equipment lying about.  Shovels, pick-axes, rope (this has aged poorly, upon examination), and spare wheels for mine-carts, along with a few lengths of unused track, and the wooden boards that go beneath them.  The track continues down the center of the tunnel, but Victor has paused, eyeing the webs warily.

That same rush of wind comes again, cold, heavy air being sucked along the floor of the cavern at about ankle-depth, causing the cobwebs to sway as though being drawn in by some massive creature's breath.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn follows Victor's gaze, studying the webs as carefully as he can.  Are they strung across the tunnel, or along it?  What sort of pattern is the weaving?  What's stuck in the webs, if anything?  Are they high on the walls?  And do the webs look any more damaged, the lower they are?

[Brian]

The web immediately in front of you looks like strings, stretched across the corridor to capture unwary miners.  There's no tears in it (at all) and it's taken on that dusty, gray color of an old abandoned cobweb.  Looking at it closely, even though it does completely cross the corridor (from two upright wall-supports), it does not seem to have a spiral weave, or any points where the threads are much thickly grouped (aside from the center).  It looks an awful lot like someone just stretched strings around the area, for some reason.

Further down, through this hybrid web/string barrier, is what looks like more of the traditional cotton-candy-thick cobwebs.  Down near the bottom it looks like there's a gap (to the right of the rails) where you can crawl through without pulling any of the strings.

"Interesting," Victor says, looking at the two of you expectantly.

[Bjorn]

Bit of an odd thing, isn't it? Bjorn writes.  Hold this, please.  

Passing the lantern to Victor, Bjorn gets down on hands and knees and trie to wriggle through the gap in the webs.

[Brian]

Bjorn, you attempt to wiggle through the gap without touching the strings.

Code Select Expand

<Faceless> roll 3d6
<Chibi-Suu> Them bones was tossed for Faceless ... :3d6 --> {11} Whoops.  Looks like more of that Workshop food stuck to your ... ribs ... than you thought.

On the positive side, you know it's not webbing, it's really strings someone threw across the corridor for some reason.

On the not-so-positive side, you've figured out that said reason is to ring a whole bunch of tiny bells, hanging on the ceiling above the 'web' array.

Victor raises an eyebrow at this, and peers into the darkness, cupping one hand to his ear as though to listen for something.