CAL(OOC): How far away are the ruins? I.e specifically, are they within range of CAL's clairsentience (1000 inches)?
ERICT (OOC): Yep, I was gonna say pretty much the same thing, but the GM beat me to it ;) I am realizing that I didn't ask any questions of the patrol boat crew, but most of the the stuff I might have asked they wouldn't have had info on anyway. The only thing they might know was more about the nature of the weapon he was firing at them, and I would have relayed that to Peter to ask. At one point I thought they had talked about what the weapon was, but in looking back through emails I guess it got overlooked. Simple questions like beam or projectile, silent or noisy, might help, even if they don't have more specifics.
ROCK: It would probably be good to have Cal scout it with his senses then approach on foot invisible with the group trailing a bit behind. Rock is not worried about being discovered if something is waiting here. What sort of traffic does this site look like it has had? Is it overgrown and appear like nothing has been here for decades, if not more? Or are their more worn paths and such that would indicate that the area gets frequent traffic?
PETER (OOC): Remember, we can also have Peter scout invisibly or disguised as a native animal. Or as an alternative, have Peter at a mid-point between scouting and the group in case Cal needs help. Of course Cal is the one really skilled in recon, so he should do the main job. He also has clairvoyance, which is a real help too. But we have other options as well.
ERICT (OOC): Rock can also get us much closer to the ruin without revealing our position by tunneling, if we believe it truly is infested with these lethal cyborgs. We might even be able to bypass their defensive positions altogether that way.
MARCO (OOC): Since it wasn't mentioned, should we assume that no "minds" have been detected along the route, or even at the ruins?
ROCK (OOC): While we should probably do traditional scouting, Rock could take his mud form and approach that way. Or he could just walk in on his own and see what's there and if he gets into trouble he can take mud form and escape. I'm fine doing a more traditional approach but throwing out the unusual approach in the case that we might want to try it.
With the ruins only half a kilometer away, Cal decides to use his clairvoyant abilities to see what he can see while Marco scans the area for active minds. Marco picks up a dozen or so animal minds in the direction of the ruins.
Cal sends his perception point whisking off in the direction of the ruins. An aerial view reveals a dozen or so ancient houses razed and pillaged long ago leaving nothing but melted plastic and stone rubble. He zooms in to investigate more closely. His perception point probes into the various nooks and crannies of the ruins but comes up with nothing more than a dozen or so badger-like creatures living in a nest among the ruins. Cal describes them to the group and Rosin recognizes them as relatively harmless carnivores who are only likely to attack if cornered.
With nothing of interest apparent to his clairvoyant senses, Cal turns invisible and scouts the ruins. He steers clear of the badger nest but probes all of the other buildings. He eventually reports that all is clear and te rest of the team moves up.
GM: Is there anything more you want to do here or do you want to continue moving north along the coast?
PETER: {Last area of interest, guys, is underground. The bases we've found so far are all there. Let's start with passive senses. Rock, Erict, Marco, and I will scan underground for anything out of the ordinary. Then, just in case it's shielded, Rock, I want you to dig around beneath the village for a little bit. Go in a sort of criss-cross pattern. If there's anything man-made, you'll bounce into it.}
PETER: {And if that gives us nothing, then we'll continue onward. Either there's nothing under the village or it's so well-hidden that we'll never find it.}
ROCK: Rock will investigate first with his senses then go underground. If he's going by himself he'll take mud form since it leaves no trace and he can still use all his underground senses. He's also quite different to damage in that form.
As the rest of the team waits, Rock takes mud form and slides into the earth. He moves through dirt, rocks and stone under the ruins, crisscrossing back and forth for 15 minutes or so but finds nothing of interest. He reports this to the team.
With nothing of apparent interest here, Peter gives the word to move around the ruins and continue north along the coast. By now it is getting quite late and the group looks for a place to set up camp for the night. The terrain at the top of the cliffs is mostly hilly plains at this point, with the occasional stand of trees. Close to the cliff, there are also quite a few large boulders. Cal, in the lead, spots a promising jumble of such boulders at the edge of the cliff and investigates them with an eye towards a defensible location to spend the night - with a little help from Rock's earth shifting powers. However, as he enters the jumble of boulders, he spots an ancient staircase going down. He moves up to the edge of the cliff and peers down. Some 50 meters down, he can see a small sandy beach nestled among the cliffs. He can also see the staircase, carved into the stone of the cliffs, zigzaging back and forth down the cliff towards the beach.
The staircase is about 2 kilometers north of the ruins that you just investigated. Let me know if you want to investigate it now or wait until morning. It is starting to get dark and the beach below is in deep shadow.
ERICT: {It makes the most sense to me to wait until daylight can help us as much as possible, since it's likely that the cyborgs will be able to see in the dark fairly well anyway. I personally am not likely to need the light because of my sense, but some of you might. All this assumes we haven't already been detected and will be facing an ambush in the middle of the night, though. I recommend we pull back into hiding and use passive senses to attempt to learn if there is any activity in the area, and if there isn't pull back and rest until daylight.}
ROSIN: {Isn't it going to be dark at the bottom of a zig-zag staircase anyway?}
The cliffs face east. If the sun ever shone in this part of the world (remember that there has been 100% persistent, thick cloud cover since you came to the southern continent) then the sun would be shining full on the staircase in the morning. It won't be brightly lit in the morning, but it won't be in deep shadow either.
ROSIN (OOC): But would that just light up the first decent well? If it's a zig-zag starcase, wouldn't the zigs and zags act like light traps? Or am I just picturing this wrong, I was thinking of a back and forth staircase like the emergency stairwell in a modern building, but with solid stone between the flights instead of open space.
GM: The staircase zigzags down the face of the cliff. That means that, as you go down, one side of the staircase will always be against the cliffs and the other open such that if you fall, you will fall to the beach below.
CAL: Cal will send his Clairvoyance down the stairs looking for, really, anything - including signs of recent use. Which brings up an interesting question: Cal has both Nightvision and UV vision - do these function through the clairvoyance?
GM: Cal's Clairvoyance is with the entire Sight and Hearing Group so yes, his UV and Nightvision work through it.
As the rest of the team moves into the boulders, Cal sends his clairsentience down the cliff face to the beach below. The sand looks wet leaving Cal to believe that at high tide, the beach is mostly underwater. He scouts out the small beach, which is only about 100 meters wide and 20 deep. Beyond that, to the north and south, the cliffs flair out to the sea.
Cal then focuses his perception to the back where the beach meets the high cliffs. He first examines south of the staircase. Around a bulge in the cliff, at the south end of the beach, he spots a cave entrance. He sends his perception slowly inside.
The cave is not large - about 12 meters in diameter. It appears to be a natural cavern. The floor of the cavern is sand and lying in the middle is a large creature. The creature is curled up making it difficult to describe but Cal would estimate that it is probably about 3 to 4 meters long with a sleek, fish-like body and half a dozen legs ending in duck-like feet. The blunt face of the creature is large with a bony ridge above its six eyes. Four of the eyes are currently closed while the other two are opening and moving around. Its large mouth is closed and its breathing seems rhythmic.
With nothing else of interest, Cal pulls his perception point out of the cave and continues searching south until he reaches the point where the beach ends. Then he sends it winging back to the north to examine the cliffs north of the staircase. He finds another cave entrance at the north end of the beach. A short length of tunnel leads to a cubical room, 6 meters by 6 meters. The walls, floor and ceiling are coated with a silver substance. At the back of the room is a silver panel that appears to be a door. Next to the door is a key slot. Written on the door is the word "SAMURAI" in Zhdant.
CAL: Woot! Of course, this means that we'll have to get past the B.E.M. first.
GM: B.E.M.? Big, evil monster?
ROSIN: B.E.M. stands for Bug Eyed Monster, a reference to 1930's sci fi. Although not all BEM's have compound eyes, for example the Daleks from Dr. Who are referred to as a BEM
CAL: Cal relates what he found, including mental images of both the animal and the silver room and their relative locations, back to the team through the mind link.
GM: Assuming you are talking about Marco's ability to allow others in the mind link to see what you see, that won't work here. They could use the ability to see through Cal's eyes, but cannot use it to see through Cal's Clairsentience. He will have to make do with the old fashioned way of describing it. :) |