The following morning the team awoke and began milling about gathering equipment for the days foraging. After a brief conversation with Kage about what they still needed they headed out into the forest to see what they could find.
They decided to head north to a cave of some sort where there seemed to be a way to go underground. When they arrived the found an aged chipped metal enameled sign that read MARTA. The cave headed down with a set of stone stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs the group found a large open area with tile and concrete everywhere and a large vehicle of some sort. Wraith decided it was a 'Rocket ship' and everyone but Butch went on board to start seeing what they could scavenge. Florida Man and Wraith were very interested in the chairs while Socket spent his time gathering controls and levers from the drivers compartment.
After a few minutes Butch heard a noise down the end of the tunnel heading Northwest and called into his companions to warn them that something may be afoot. Wraith took heed and went out to investigate with Butch.
As they reached the 'end' of the tunnel they found a large barrier made of debris and junk that looked like it had been there a while. The barrier was steady leaking water and it was obvious that there was a large quantity of water putting pressure on the debris. As they watched it appeared to be weakening and so as Wraith transformed into a dragon to hold the barrier for a few more moments, butch ran and warned the others and every one made it to the stairwell in time.
The water burst the barrier and sent Wraith crashing along with a pile of debris down the tunnel a ways causing him to crash into the 'rocket ship' and then get stuck in the mouth of the tunnel leading southeast.
When the water subsided, they went top side and Socket deftly hid their acquisitions with an invisibility device and then they headed back down to investigate the tunnels.
After a short walk down the tunnel they encountered something ahead of them that was roughly human size but had really large ears and a strangely shaped head. Butch fired a shot down the tunnel and the creature bolted. Scamper ran after it and Wraith followed suit. Eventually the chased it down to a room off the side of a tunnel and waited for the others.
Butch threw in a ration pack and then had to throw another because Wraith had caught it and stolen the chocolate out of it. After some cautious conversation they were able to coax the Rat Man out of hiding and they discussed his fears. Apparently he was weary of humans and outsiders and did not want to tell them too much until he talked to the 'King Hirgg'. They arranged to try to make friends with the creature and parted with a promise to return later for more conversation because Florida Man and Socket were obviously getting agitated because they were bored.
They continued to head through the tunnels with Socket finding more controls and eventually found themselves in another 'cave' with stairs leading up. Here they encountered three humans wearing Rat skins. They identified themselves as members of the Kopar tribe and they were there hunting the Rat men. Wraith did not like this idea and went off to warn the Rat Men they met.
Eventually they headed back to base camp with their salvage and told Kage everything they encountered. They decided to head to a large building to the south so that they could get more material to build the compound with.
When they arrived they heard a really loud cracking noise and then they saw a large herd of dinosaurs with prominent bone protrusions on their heads that were having some kind of altercation. Florida Man thought he would play Dino Lord again and jumped out int he middle trying to control all of their minds only to realize he simply was not strong enough to do so; the dinosaurs proceeded to try and flatten him.
Socket rigged up some confusion 'grenades' while Wraith tried to confuse them as well. The grenades worked well and only after Butch shredded one with his mini-gun and the rest were confused by Socket's devices, did they make a tactical retreat.
They made notes about the place and then headed back to the base camp to heal Florida Man and rest. That night they woke to the sounds of something crunching the walls around the camp. The Trysia faeries from the Lankton's knot had come back for revenge leading a large herd of Anklyosaurs to the camp who were eating the fortifications.
Next week: How to move a tank when it can think!
Ray had been bonding with his new pack when the group set off but he heard them in the woods and wandered over to join them, whereupon it took perhaps six minutes for him to completely derail the expedition by getting excited about the rocket ship.
ReplyDeleteThe important lesson of never sticking a dragon in a dyke completely failed to be learned by all concerned.
No-one appeared to be at all concerned that Ray had started behaving like a raptor and was happy to accompany Scamper at a steady lope, barking and chittering as though carrying on a conversation although in all fairness, that wasn't dramatically stranger than anything else he'd done recently.
This general willingness to put up with most anything from the strange young man extended to the Kopar, who mostly made small aversion-signs and edged away from the unarmed youth in a light mechanics jumpsuit who merrily jogged past them after they parted from the group, unconcerned at what he might meet in the twisting darkness.
Sockets means of inflicting confusion on the pachycephalosaur herd was through magical grenades hastily put together from supplies he had on hand. Ray conversely, waited for one to finish charging and then jumped up to head-butt it, startling all three nearby dinosaurs and buying him time to run off as Scamper emitted a flight call and dove for safety behind the building.