[Taocow PBEM] Book 3 - Chapter XVI - Assault on the Kydians

[Aaron Clausen]

>> [GM]
>> With Ted in the lead, the company makes their into the hallway. The
>> cleanerbots are busily cleaning up the mess made by the killing of the
>> Kydians.  It is quite a grisly scene as they cut the Kydian's armor at
>> the joint, and literally dismember the creatures with small but fairly
>> powerful lasers.
>> 
>> The Cleanerbots, successfully reprogrammed by Oz, make absolutely no move
>> against the company, and in fact, don't seem to notice them at all. 
>> Where anyone gets in their way, the robots simply move around them.
>> 
>> It takes a few moments of probing to find the hidden panel. Meanwhile,
>> the Splugorth are increasing their onslaught as more troops arrive;
>> mainly Kydians, but the three Slavers approach as well.  The company may
>> be able to hold them for a few rounds, but not much longer.  The
>> Splugorth seem to have become aware that there are intruders that have
>> foiled their slave-taking, and now they clearly want to stamp whoever is
>> messing with their plans.
>> 
>> Skarn's code activates some machinery somewhere in the building, and
>> moments later there is a thud behind the back door.  The door slides away
>> to reveal a very large elevator, big enough to hold at least four
>> Wastelander ATVs.
>> [/GM]

>> [Louissa]
>> Louissa glances at the elevator and whistles. "I wonder what's down there
>> that needs this big an elevator."
>> [/Louissa]

> [Ted]
> Ted enters the elevator, scanning the ceiling and corners with his rifle
> to make sure nothing hid inside.  "I have no idea," he says to Louissa
> when he finishes, "but let us hope it is either dead or deactivated when
> we find it." He holds the door while waiting for everyone else to join
> him.
> [/Ted]

>> [GM]
>> At that moment, Alex and Vesper see two of the Slaver barges open fire on
>> the building.  The top floor of the building explodes, shaking the
>> ground.  Inside the elevator, despite its size, begins to sway and creak
>> horribly.  The floor itself begins to buckle under their feet.
>> [/GM]

> [Vesper]
> "Alex shoot the ceiling above the slavers, a grenade if you have one."
> Vesper used his own rifle to fire at the the area above the slavers.
> [Strike: 15]
> [/Vesper]

[GM]
The shot is well-placed, and goes above the Slavers.
[/GM]

> [Vesper]
> Vesper mentally spoke to his familiar.  Use your telekinesis to cause
> their aim to be off.  He prepared to create an energy field dome above him
> and Alex to protect them.
> [/Vesper]

[GM]
The familiar quickly complies. It has some effect, as the next shot that
comes from one of the Slavers ends up being a good six or seven feet off.
[/GM]

> [Alex]
> Since she has used less ammunition for her pump pistol than regular
> grenades, she will use a few pump pistol rounds to try to take down the
> ceiling.
> [/Alex]

[GM]
It takes no great finesse or aim, and as the structure does not appear to be
megadamage, no great amount of ammunition, to bring the ceiling crashing
down. Vesper's energy field keeps Oz, Alex, Ithdalkal, and Skarn and his
dwarfs safe from injury.
[/GM]

OOC: I'm going to take what I hope isn't a great leap and assume that
everyone crowds into the elevator.

[GM]
The elevator has more than enough room for everyone, and fortunatley seems
to operate on some other principle than cables. As the company gets in, the
building completely collapses around them, and the elevator drops about ten
feet in a split second; knocking several people to the floor. Then, its
lifting mechanism recovers and the rest of the ride is gentle, though
clearly quite swift.

Despite the speed of the elevator's descent, the trip takes a good two
minutes. They must be thousands of feet underground by the time it slows,
and finally stops.

The door opens on an enormous cavern, at least three hundred feet high, and
a three thousand feet in diameter.  Great pillars carved out of living rock
in the shapes up of dour-looking dwarfs, hold the ceiling up.  Wherever
water leaks from the walls and ceiling it is channeled into rivers that
cascade into pools of shimmering water.  The whole chamber is lit by several
bright globes that shine with daylight.

There are small stands of trees, lawns, gardens, stone-houses carved out of
the floor of the great cavern.  In the middle of it all is a single squar
stone pillar about a hundred feet in width, that reaches up to the ceiling. 
A single great door of shining metal sits at its base.

"This is our true dwelling." Skarn says. "Kizak-kuzdan. It is our greatest
creation, and now we must destroy it. But come, you wish for the cold iron."

Skarn leads them to the great central pillar and at the door, he murmurs a
series of Dwarfish incantations. The door noiselessly opens to reveal a
spectacular scene. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of
ingots of gold, silver, platinum, and other precious metals. There are
gemstones both familiar and unfamiliar neatly placed on shelves. There are
coins of every kind of metal in the thousands. It is safe to say that none
of the adventurers have seen so much wealth.

Skarn leads them up a flight of stairs, and at the top, about a hundred feet
off the ground, is a display case.  Within are about fifty to sixty rods of some
sort of blackish-bluish metal.  They are about an inch in diameter, and six
feet tall.

"You would have to journey to our ancestors halls on Palladium to see a
greater store of the cold iron." Skarn says. "Take what you need, you have
earned it."

He pulls a small device about the size of a credit card out of his armor. On
it are two black buttons. He presses one of them, and in the distance a loud
voice starts speaking in Dwarfish "Kaz kaz ukruk nakat-zirk. Kaz kaz ukruk
nakat-zirk."

"But you must hurry." Skarn continues. "This whole complex, and the town
above, indeed the entire valley, will turn into a fireball in five minutes.
There are two ways to escape; in here, where we will be shifted to a nearby
dimension to begin anew, or via the elevator, down to the escape tunnel
several hundred feet below us. There is a mag-lev transport that will take
you about eighty miles west of here."
[/GM]

[Ithdalkal]
Ithdalkal shakes her head, and then says, "What of the ship? We are
assuredly to deep in the earth to use radios to warn them, and if they do
not move soon, they will be destroyed."
[/Ithdalkal]


-- 
Aaron Clausen
mightymartianca at gmail.com