Underground Explorers North

[Sonnie Wu]

"OooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoo!" she emitted, as she found the coins. "I'm rich! Time to retire!" They were so shiny, too! Well, they would be if it weren't for all the grime and crap on them. But a little cleaning and polish, and they'd be so pretty!

Pocketing the coins, Sonnie looked around. She watched Circe restore the old shotgun with curiosity. "That's a neat trick!"

Once that was all done, there seemed to be nothing to do but go up. The Steepscrambler smiled, as climbing was, like, totally her thing. A thought occurred to her, though, and first she paused to call upon a Contract. She had a magical alliance with primates, and one clause of that pact gave her the climbing abilities of a monkey. Well, even more so than normal. Since she rarely used it, Sonnie decided to give it a whirl!

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-08-18 12:32:17	Sonnie Wu rolls 7 to Tread of Swift Hooves: Dex 4 + Wyrd 3 (10 Again)	9, 10, 6, 9, 8, 4, 2, 3	4 successes

Monkey laughter echoed in her ears as the Wyrd imbued her body with (even more) of the agility and athleticism of simians!

Tread of the Swift Hooves (Fang & Talon 4) is active for the scene. Sonnie gains +5 to Climbing rolls and can climb 5 times faster than normal!

"Let's go, Goaty!" With the goat skull held by her tail, the Monkey Beast leapt onto the wall and went up, up, up at a breakneck pace!

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-08-18 12:37:27	Sonnie Wu rolls 16 to Climbing!: Str 3 + Athletics 4 + Climb spec 1 + Kith bonus 3 + Contract 5 (10 Again)	2, 10, 6, 10, 4, 2, 6, 3, 6, 1, 3, 3, 3, 10, 10, 8, 4, 3, 5, 1	5 successes

A step stool? Pssh! Who needs it?

[Circe]

Circe:
Circe has decided she'd had enough of the shitter room. And Sonja needed following, just in case. Hence the shotgun being left aside as she readies herself to just scale the wall.


"Okay, okay," she inhales, "Cerca di non succhiare." She, sort of encourages herself, and reaches up the old stairwell's bricks, looking for hand holds. Sonja had shown her this in the past.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-08-19 20:46:24	Circe rolls 9 to Str + Ath + Mantle (10 Again, WillPower)	4, 2, 5, 8, 7, 5, 1, 4, 5	1 success

---Narration
Anatole discovers that the brickwork of the walls is quite nice. Very long lasting and the mortar has held up well for a century of time. Not quite Roman concrete held up, but it still held up. There are no secret doors or entrances anywhere for him to locate. Though there are some oddly shaped wheels just lying about he notices whilst inspecting the walls.


Climbing the wall reminds Sonja Wu of something. Something she climbed before. The holes in the bricks and the uneven protrusions. Oh right, PipeWorks! So many easy hand holds. This was kiddy stuff. The Springy Beast was certain she could climb this with her eyes closed.


There isn't a lot of room at the top of the stair well. Sonja, agile and nimble, has no problem getting into a good spot without even a stumble. A perfect landing.


Circe?

Yeah no. The over eager Summer finds that the wall is indeed quite easy to climb, just as Sonja thought. But the stopping at that plaster wall? The plaster has NOT been made as well as the brick basement. Very cheaply done, and a century of rot has made it as durable as a paper wall. What Circe had expected to be a solid surface to brace her shoulder instead easily gives way to the Summer Queen.


This leads to another tunnel! Except it is more like a station of some kind, slightly elevated platforms with mine cart rails between them. Minecart rails that lead into the rather low tunnel off intot he darkness. Clearly a rather long distance away to the next destination. Probably crawling for a couple of hours lest the Lost wish to make their own. Or getting a mechanic creeper with rail wheels.


Though this does beg the question, did the toilets come from whence the Lost had? For there is no way a mortal could have gotten them through that low tunnel.
---Circe
"Wiiiin fuck!" Circe starts coughing at the dust and plaster. "Okay, okay, I'm, Oh cazzo dai! Un altro maledetto tunnel?!"


Circe glares at the area in rage, her mantle flaring. "Anybody feel like crawling fer," she looks crouches down to look into the tunnel. The light doesn't pierce through the darkness. "Feeeeer, at least an hour or something. Because there is another damn tunnel!"

We are at the month mark. Do you wish to continue for this last leg or turn back? Maybe rig a mechanic's creeper with the rail wheels Anatole found?

Lionell / Jasper
Yum Yum Crow / Anatole
Abyssalstar / Sonnie
Saber Sloth

[Anatole]

Anatole would rather stop and take stock.

[Jasper]

If it wasn't for that golden glint of metal he saw while glancing through the muck, he wouldn't have put his hand in it. He pulled out the coins and then the handful of jewelry has him making a bit of a squeamish curl to his canine snout but he doesn't throw them away. He curls his long-fingered hand around them and gives them a mighty shake towards the wall, flinging off any debris that he can before he pockets the metal items. He gives a small glance towards Sonnie as the Beast pockets her coins and he flicks his ears towards her. There's a glance at Circe and that shotgun. "Geez.. You would find the gun, wouldn't you?" he says, a bit mockingly, before he watches as his fellow Beast climbs up so quick and easy, watching her go. It brings a small frown to his lips at that, thinking about how he misses being able to climb that easily... He used to do it all the time with Flick... He gives a might shake of his head and then looks around. "Another tunnel? Wow..."

He looks over at his Wizened friend and then back up at the tunnel. It's pretty high up there and he's not sure if the old dwarf could make it. "Maybe we find a ladder or something to bring back next time?"

Jasper is up for either option.

[Circe]

With grime, dust, and the daunting prospect of stomach crawling for who knows how long, the Lost instead opt to be smart about this. A ladder for the less athletic to get up the stairwell is a must. And using the rail wheels and track with something to speed up the crawling is preferable to stomach crawling for a lone time.

A ladder would help with carry such things. After they figure out what those things are that is.


They depart with their loot, to come again another day.

Calling it then. End Scene. Well done everyone. I'll get up a follow-up talkie scene soon.