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[d20M] League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -- UPDATED 12/4! NOTHING STRESSFUL GOING ON!
- Thread starter Wulf Ratbane
- Start date
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
SCENE TWO: Colorado Springs
SCENE TWO: COLORADO SPRINGS
While the colonel dozed peacefully, the group began their search of the compound. Nemo led them back to a large garage he’d noticed on the way into camp. Inside, two huge iron doors lay flat on the floor, and heavy chains hung from the ceiling, criss-crossing their way back to a large winch. Chains were hooked through the pull-rings on the doors and they were quickly opened, revealing a wide ramp that lead down into an underground complex.
"Stay close, Griffin," Quartermain warned.
"Yeah, no problem…"
Mina grabbed a lantern from the guard post nearby and the group moved slowly down the ramp. It descended about 60 feet though Quartermain reckoned they weren’t more than 10 feet underground. At the base of the ramp, they met with a T-intersection. Quartermain held up his hand to stop the advance. He looked to his right, where the flickering lamplight trailed off into the darkness of a large room. The few crates and barrels that were visible were enough to peg the room as a storehouse for the base.
Quartermain looked to his left and suddenly grabbed Mina’s hand to shine the light closer. Quartermain grunted. Mina hissed a little.
"Griffin, I told you to stay close,"
"How do you know I’m not?"
"Because you’re tracking bloody footprints all over the bloody floor."
"Just scouting ahead… No need to start swearing…"
"No, I mean you’re tracking bloody footprints all over the bloody floor."
Griffin looked down. A pool of blood had spilled around the corner to their right. He peeked around.
"Oh. Dead soldier," he announced.
"Is that your handiwork?" Mina demanded.
"Take a look and you tell me…"
Mina peeked around the corner. The soldier was shredded, literally shredded, from head to toe. If it weren’t for his cap and his boots, and the rifle lying uselessly nearby, the bloody pile would have been nearly unidentifiable.
"Not even Hyde could make a mess like that," Mina admitted.
Dr. Jekyll moved forward, joined by Nemo. Together they performed a quick forensic examination of the remains. "Bits of glass in the bone," Jekyll said.
"Glass? No. Crystal, more likely," Nemo replied, ominously.
"We should hurry," said Quartermain. "And be alert."
"You reckon the Colonel is alright up top?" asked West. It was clearly a rhetorical question.
They moved towards the warehouse. A side passage quickly came into view. "Let’s split up," Mina suggested.
"That’s a fine idea," the group concurred.
Mina and Quartermain took the side passage. Nemo, Jekyll, and West headed into the warehouse. Griffin undoubtedly followed one of the two groups.
At about the same time, each group came to a door. In the warehouse, after they’d satisfied themselves that the warehouse contained nothing more than empty crates (marked "Laboratory Supplies,") Nemo found two double doors in the north wall. Around the corner in the side passage, Mina and Quartermain slipped and stumbled over two more bloody, shredded corpses—they’d obviously been guarding a single door on the east wall. Both doors entered onto the same, huge, slab-floored laboratory, and the group was quickly rejoined.
Towards the south of the lab an iron catwalk wrapped around the huge stone pillar that supported the tesla coil that towered into the sky above them. Griffin nipped up the catwalk to take a look at the control panel there. Lots of buttons. Lots of switches. Griffin displayed a healthy paranoia that was suspiciously lacking in others of the group, and left well enough alone.
"Nothing up here," he announced. "Power’s off."
In the feeble light of the lantern, it took some time to explore the large area fully. There wasn’t really much to it—it was more of a hardware workspace than a laboratory.
"What’s that?" Mina asked. She’d spotted a dark doorway on the northeast wall.
The group passed through into a smaller laboratory, about 20 feet on a side. Three doors inside: two opened onto storage closets. A door in the south wall opened into Tesla’s private lab, which the group ransacked with gusto.
First, there was Tesla’s safe. Nemo allowed Griffin to fumble clumsily with the lock for a few moments before he produced a small shaped charge from within his cloak and blew the door open. Griffin moved in quickly; books came tumbling out and pages started turning. Griffin didn’t understand a word of it. But oh, he so desperately wanted to.
"Bunch of crap," he lied.
"I’ll be the judge of that," Nemo warned.
It was quite a find. First, there were two seemingly identical logbooks, right down to the illustrations—illustrations of enormous, round, machines with paddle-wheels, straddling flowing water. Nemo guessed that they were turbines, and the formulas were instructions on building them, no doubt. But why two copies? It took Nemo a few moments to realize the subtle differences in the mathematical equations that filled each book. "Very shrewd," he nodded, approvingly. One book was a dummy. There was no telling what would happen if you built those turbines using the formulas from the wrong book.
"What’s that?" Jekyll pointed at a small booklet that was working its way out of the safe.
Nemo snatched it up. "Unless I miss my guess, which I highly doubt, this would be a cipher booklet. It will help us decode these logbooks and figure out which one is the real one."
Griffin had already moved on to Tesla’s desk. A cursory search turned up nothing, but the requisite search for hidden compartments struck gold: There was an ancient text tucked away under a false bottom in the drawer. Before Griffin could snatch it, he was roughly jostled aside. Nemo was bad enough; he didn’t expect Quartermain to be all over him as well.
"Don’t touch, Griffin—the damn thing may just fall apart." Quartermain pulled the entire drawer from the desk. He grabbed a pair of forceps from the laboratory and carefully turned the pages.
"Atlantean," Quartermain announced.
Griffin snorted. "Of course…"
"This will take some time to study," Quartermain said as he turned the last of the pages.
"Yeah? What’s that, then?" There was an encrypted note written on the last page—in Tesla’s hand.
Dr. Jekyll stepped up to help, Tesla’s cipher booklet in one hand. His eyes wandered over the ancient script, the illustrations of crystals, canals, alchemical and astronomical signs. The book itself seemed to address ancient Atlantean power sources-- hydro power, vast canals, and gigantic crystals similar in function to Tesla's own miraculous coil, but much more powerful. Indeed, the final passages of the text seemed to warn that too much power could split the Earth like an apple. The very thought made Jekyll so nervous his head was swimming.
He concentrated on Tesla's post-script. "It says, Where to harness the necessary hydro power? Oh, dear..."
"Gentlemen," Mina called from across the room. "Why would Professor Tesla leave his jacket here? And why would he have a tourist’s brochure for Niagara Falls in his breast pocket?"
The group ran-- scooping up logbooks, cipher pamphlet, ancient text, and an unconscious Colonel, and headed for town, where West's train was already idling in the switching yard.
SCENE TWO: COLORADO SPRINGS
While the colonel dozed peacefully, the group began their search of the compound. Nemo led them back to a large garage he’d noticed on the way into camp. Inside, two huge iron doors lay flat on the floor, and heavy chains hung from the ceiling, criss-crossing their way back to a large winch. Chains were hooked through the pull-rings on the doors and they were quickly opened, revealing a wide ramp that lead down into an underground complex.
"Stay close, Griffin," Quartermain warned.
"Yeah, no problem…"
Mina grabbed a lantern from the guard post nearby and the group moved slowly down the ramp. It descended about 60 feet though Quartermain reckoned they weren’t more than 10 feet underground. At the base of the ramp, they met with a T-intersection. Quartermain held up his hand to stop the advance. He looked to his right, where the flickering lamplight trailed off into the darkness of a large room. The few crates and barrels that were visible were enough to peg the room as a storehouse for the base.
Quartermain looked to his left and suddenly grabbed Mina’s hand to shine the light closer. Quartermain grunted. Mina hissed a little.
"Griffin, I told you to stay close,"
"How do you know I’m not?"
"Because you’re tracking bloody footprints all over the bloody floor."
"Just scouting ahead… No need to start swearing…"
"No, I mean you’re tracking bloody footprints all over the bloody floor."
Griffin looked down. A pool of blood had spilled around the corner to their right. He peeked around.
"Oh. Dead soldier," he announced.
"Is that your handiwork?" Mina demanded.
"Take a look and you tell me…"
Mina peeked around the corner. The soldier was shredded, literally shredded, from head to toe. If it weren’t for his cap and his boots, and the rifle lying uselessly nearby, the bloody pile would have been nearly unidentifiable.
"Not even Hyde could make a mess like that," Mina admitted.
Dr. Jekyll moved forward, joined by Nemo. Together they performed a quick forensic examination of the remains. "Bits of glass in the bone," Jekyll said.
"Glass? No. Crystal, more likely," Nemo replied, ominously.
"We should hurry," said Quartermain. "And be alert."
"You reckon the Colonel is alright up top?" asked West. It was clearly a rhetorical question.
They moved towards the warehouse. A side passage quickly came into view. "Let’s split up," Mina suggested.
"That’s a fine idea," the group concurred.
Mina and Quartermain took the side passage. Nemo, Jekyll, and West headed into the warehouse. Griffin undoubtedly followed one of the two groups.
At about the same time, each group came to a door. In the warehouse, after they’d satisfied themselves that the warehouse contained nothing more than empty crates (marked "Laboratory Supplies,") Nemo found two double doors in the north wall. Around the corner in the side passage, Mina and Quartermain slipped and stumbled over two more bloody, shredded corpses—they’d obviously been guarding a single door on the east wall. Both doors entered onto the same, huge, slab-floored laboratory, and the group was quickly rejoined.
Towards the south of the lab an iron catwalk wrapped around the huge stone pillar that supported the tesla coil that towered into the sky above them. Griffin nipped up the catwalk to take a look at the control panel there. Lots of buttons. Lots of switches. Griffin displayed a healthy paranoia that was suspiciously lacking in others of the group, and left well enough alone.
"Nothing up here," he announced. "Power’s off."
In the feeble light of the lantern, it took some time to explore the large area fully. There wasn’t really much to it—it was more of a hardware workspace than a laboratory.
"What’s that?" Mina asked. She’d spotted a dark doorway on the northeast wall.
The group passed through into a smaller laboratory, about 20 feet on a side. Three doors inside: two opened onto storage closets. A door in the south wall opened into Tesla’s private lab, which the group ransacked with gusto.
First, there was Tesla’s safe. Nemo allowed Griffin to fumble clumsily with the lock for a few moments before he produced a small shaped charge from within his cloak and blew the door open. Griffin moved in quickly; books came tumbling out and pages started turning. Griffin didn’t understand a word of it. But oh, he so desperately wanted to.
"Bunch of crap," he lied.
"I’ll be the judge of that," Nemo warned.
It was quite a find. First, there were two seemingly identical logbooks, right down to the illustrations—illustrations of enormous, round, machines with paddle-wheels, straddling flowing water. Nemo guessed that they were turbines, and the formulas were instructions on building them, no doubt. But why two copies? It took Nemo a few moments to realize the subtle differences in the mathematical equations that filled each book. "Very shrewd," he nodded, approvingly. One book was a dummy. There was no telling what would happen if you built those turbines using the formulas from the wrong book.
"What’s that?" Jekyll pointed at a small booklet that was working its way out of the safe.
Nemo snatched it up. "Unless I miss my guess, which I highly doubt, this would be a cipher booklet. It will help us decode these logbooks and figure out which one is the real one."
Griffin had already moved on to Tesla’s desk. A cursory search turned up nothing, but the requisite search for hidden compartments struck gold: There was an ancient text tucked away under a false bottom in the drawer. Before Griffin could snatch it, he was roughly jostled aside. Nemo was bad enough; he didn’t expect Quartermain to be all over him as well.
"Don’t touch, Griffin—the damn thing may just fall apart." Quartermain pulled the entire drawer from the desk. He grabbed a pair of forceps from the laboratory and carefully turned the pages.
"Atlantean," Quartermain announced.
Griffin snorted. "Of course…"
"This will take some time to study," Quartermain said as he turned the last of the pages.
"Yeah? What’s that, then?" There was an encrypted note written on the last page—in Tesla’s hand.
Dr. Jekyll stepped up to help, Tesla’s cipher booklet in one hand. His eyes wandered over the ancient script, the illustrations of crystals, canals, alchemical and astronomical signs. The book itself seemed to address ancient Atlantean power sources-- hydro power, vast canals, and gigantic crystals similar in function to Tesla's own miraculous coil, but much more powerful. Indeed, the final passages of the text seemed to warn that too much power could split the Earth like an apple. The very thought made Jekyll so nervous his head was swimming.
He concentrated on Tesla's post-script. "It says, Where to harness the necessary hydro power? Oh, dear..."
"Gentlemen," Mina called from across the room. "Why would Professor Tesla leave his jacket here? And why would he have a tourist’s brochure for Niagara Falls in his breast pocket?"
The group ran-- scooping up logbooks, cipher pamphlet, ancient text, and an unconscious Colonel, and headed for town, where West's train was already idling in the switching yard.
Waddya mean, "not good"? We didn't even kill anyone in this update. Of course, that was probably because all the guards were already dead when we got to them, but hey!
Actually, we did pretty well here. We managed to resist trying out the humonguous Tesla coil, we found the safe with the lab notebooks, *and* the cypher booklet in the hidden compartment.
Actually, we did pretty well here. We managed to resist trying out the humonguous Tesla coil, we found the safe with the lab notebooks, *and* the cypher booklet in the hidden compartment.
Thomas Hobbes
First Post
RatPunk said:
And again.
OK... I am bored.
I figured out why (pretty smart like that I am...).
I am not getting enough of my favorite story hours.
This is one of them.
A job is not required.
The joy you give to others should be the only sustenance required...
Then again if you do need to eat to finish the hour... I guess your working is tolerable.
Though just barely.
Thankee,
Hagy
I figured out why (pretty smart like that I am...).
I am not getting enough of my favorite story hours.
This is one of them.
A job is not required.
The joy you give to others should be the only sustenance required...
Then again if you do need to eat to finish the hour... I guess your working is tolerable.
Though just barely.
Thankee,
Hagy
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