STAY WITH THE GROUP DAMNIT ...oh. you already got lost. whelp. [open exploration log]

[saveournpcs]

Date: 18th-24th of August
Characters: Open!

---

Like every year, there are tours of the tunnels under the cliffs. They are free of charge, but you need to sign up, as group sizes may not exceed twenty persons and only three tours per day are available. While that limits the number of people who can go down, there are waiting lists, and sometimes certain times and dates don't fill up because they're mid-week and one might be able to squeeze in at the last moment.

Before the groups enter the tunnels, the guides give a stern speech about staying with the group and the dangers of not doing so. They'll also hand out helmets and flashlights and explain that there is no phone signal down there, that the floor may be slippery, that the tunnels are in very varying condition and that sometimes cave-ins might lead to steep drops.

And then they go in.


[OOCly this logs works as follows:

• Characters who enter the tunnels will be given information about their tunnel surroundings through brief mod tags.
  
• If they manage to lose their group (accidentally or by choice) we'll rng fun and interesting trouble that they may run into. But you can of course also just follow with a guided tour and get out safely on the other end - some interesting things might still cross their way.]

Comments

[saveournpcs]

The fork leads them down a narrower tunnel, and soon they seem to be heading down, the ground under their feet slippery and the walls slightly damp.

[warped_replica]

As the tunnels begin to cut and veer at greater angles, Benjiro sees the opportunity and shifts to step up in front of Sadie before he begins to deccelerate his pace so that they grow further behind the group bit by bit. The nice part of having wide shoulders is that he can use himself to shield Sadie from any glances backwards as she removes her painted contacts.

When Sadie whispers to him to choose a point for separation, he nods once and makes one more mark in his miniature notebook to close and slip in a pocket. He’ll keep track in his head through the next stages until they can turn the torches back on. Then as Sadie takes his hand, he steps to the side to give her space to pass into lead and tucks his own light against his abdomen. Waiting for the others in the group to lose direct sight of them, he too clicks the light off.

He is left with faint illumination for only a few seconds thanks to reflection sending light to their backs as they move into the opposite side of the fork. As his ability to see anything fades, his grip tightens faintly to Sadie’s hand and he raises the other in front of himself to the other side to limit his chances of blundering into anything while still holding the unlit torch.

Relying on his sense of touch and proprioception, the slope downwards is apparent, and the humidity in the air is palpable. He pauses to ask Sadie quietly, “Think we’re far enough?”

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie rubs circles into the back of Ben's hand as she feels his grip tighten in what to him must be pitch black. Carefully she guides him so that his other hand can brush against the wall.

"The wall is five centimetres to your left." She whispers as the navigate the dp tunnel,pausing to consider his question. She turns around, Ben might just be able to make out the glow of her pupils, and considers the distance.

"Give it another minute...Just to be safe."

[warped_replica]

Benjiro maintains that secure hold, but his muscles do relax noticeably as she rubs the circles on the back of his hand. His eyes are flickering around in the dark, searching for hints of light. Her direction, both physical and verbal, allows him to gingerly find the cool stone wall, and it sends a faint shiver up his arm, “There’s moisture on the wall.”

When Sadie turns, his eyes naturally hone in on the faint glow, and holding her hand, he knows with certainty they belong to her. Voice kept hushed, he responds, “Okay. Let’s hang here until you think it’s clear.”

“And by the way? Your eyes look brilliant in the dark.”

[saveournpcs]

The air is seems thicker with moisture now than it was before, an almost uncomfortable damp feeling that sticks to the skin and settles on the hair, not wet enough to permeate clothes but still decidedly noticeable.

[dragoonrouge]

It's a damn good job that it's so dark because Sadie's face grows red at Ben's compliment, the eyes aren't exactly new anymore but with so few people who know about them, it was hardly something she was expecting.

"Oh" Erm, thank you." There's a pause, "It should be fine to turn your light back on, only one for now I think, once we get a little deeper I'll turn mine back on too."

As for the moisture. "Either we are closer to the cliff base and therefore sea level or this section of rock is more porous." She gets out her own notebook now that there's light and starts noting down her observations at the first proper locality. "Either way we should be very careful moving forward, this rock will be weaker than the stuff before."

[warped_replica]

Her eyes look neat in the dark, that’s simply fact.

Given clearance to turn his light back on, he gives her hand one more squeeze before releasing it. Staying in place, he angles the torch at his feet as he flicks the switch, and as the light floods the floor, he begins to look around as he raises it higher slowly. The walls and floor alike are glistening in the beam from the moisture.

Benjiro listens to Sadie as he pulls back out his notebook to catch up with what he has held in memory regarding their movements, and asks curiously, “Porous...as in due to rain filtering down this way like in natural cavern creation?” He nods at her note to be more careful, already intending to do so with the moisture presenting such a slippery floor.

As they continue on, he’ll take point with the flashlight. Trying to mark in intervals as before, it only takes a slide of one foot to instill caution against marking and walking even at the slower pace. Instead, Benjiro pauses with Sadie to catch up from memory when they reach a more level point in the gradual slope.

[saveournpcs]

The gradual slope becomes more level, only to abruptly drop. The tunnel is now almost vertical, and continuing onwards would likely turn into an uncontrolled sliding-falling descent of unknown length.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie nods, "Partially, a lot of it will also be from proximity to the sea as well. I'd love to get a sample from the wall but, all things considering, probably not the wisest course of action."

The drop pulls Sadie up short and she stops abruptly back from the edge." Shit." She leans over before taking careful step backwards." We should turn back."

[warped_replica]

“We can keep an eye out for pieces already broken off on the floor,” he suggests. Benjiro fully agrees they should not apply any focal point of force at the walls in their current location, but if something has crumbled away naturally, there should be no harm in picking it up.

Marks on the pages made, he tucks the notebook and pen away as his attention turns to the drop off ahead. He stays close to Sadie, but is careful not to crowd her as she inspects the distance down beyond the ledge. Curiosity leads him to do the same once she is away from the edge, shining his flashlight down into the depth, but he retreats without delay once he sees that sheer drop trail off into darkness, “Definitely. You okay to lead back?”

Considering the slope they need to traverse is reversed and still as slick, he’d rather stay behind her.

[saveournpcs]

The climb back up is slippery, but as long as they're careful they'll make it without issues.

They can even find a few small pieces of wall that ave broken away from the surface. (If you wish to examine these, please respond to the mod thread of a setting interactions post with the exact things that they wish to test the stone for.)

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie nods and begins the steady ascent, once again thankful that her eyes can see in the dark as clearly as they can, making picking the less slippy path easier to spot.

Sadie spots one of the pieces of wall in front of her and bends over to pick it up. The moment her hand closes around the piece of rock the emptiness and pounding of the Echo washes over her, causing Sadie to tense in preparation for some sort of memory or other change but nothing changed.

"Oof." Or not. Sadie shucks her rucksack from her back, crouching down to open it. "Ben. It can make objects." She pulls out the bursting at the seams leather notebook that had definitely not been there before.

[warped_replica]

Light angled down to keep focus on his own feet and avoid casting light ahead of Sadie, Benjiro follows her up the slope after a few seconds to give her plenty of space. Initially, he forges upward close to a wall to keep one hand on the vertical surface, and his shoe connects with a small bit of stone broken away from the surrounding tunnel. Stooping to pick it up, he realizes Sadie’s path ahead is more winding, and he elects to walk where she steps instead of relying on the wall. The sample is tucked deeper in his bag with a quick reach through the top zipper.

His pace slows as she pauses to collect a sample herself, and she oddly stiffens only for her to react to something weighing on her suddenly. Startled, he moves up next to her quickly with a concerned tone, “Sadie?” Benjiro watches as she shrugs off her pack to open, and her remark is met with a puzzled frown. Before he can question for clarification, she produces the leather tome that looks well used yet is entirely new to him. It clicks as he realizes what she meant as his eyes widen.

He stares hard at the book, and reaches out one hand curiously to touch an edge just to check the solid state of the material. The longer he stares, the more he frowns at this development before finally he verbalizes his source of consternation, “....does that mean it can convert energy into organized matter without disrupting surrounding solids?!” That shouldn’t be possible!

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie is straight up glaring at the notebook despite her curiosity. And oh boy is she curious. The notebook itself is bound in a beaten, well-loved, dark red leather cover and sized somewhere between A5 and A4, however, the most striking thing about the notebook is the sheer volume of stuff stuffed into it, looking to be about three times the amount that the book was originally designed to hold.

Tied to the spine with two rough bits of string is the most basic pencil Sadie has ever seen and on the other a series of slightly scratched lenses.

"This is bloody ridiculous. This Number stuff was already ridiculous but this is even more so!" She complains quietly at Ben. She isn't going to deny the impossibility of it all, not at this stage but she shares Ben's consternation.

Opening the book reveals rows upon rows of writing, some accompanied by landscape sketches but all of it is in a scrawling, bizarre alphabet. "Oh my god, what on earth is this?!"

[warped_replica]

His thoughts are racing to come up with alternative hypotheses to explain the sudden materialization of a book in Sadie's bag. Teleportation is just as unlikely as creation, as it requires an organized break down and reformation of an object that should, similarly, not be capable of moving other matter out of the way in the process. Collapsed matter expanding from a container planted in her bag - that would require not only similar levels of science fiction manipulation, but also for someone to have snuck something into her bag without her notice which seems highly unlikely even if possible. Conversion of something else already within her bag is just as wild.

Oh he's definitely not going to sleep tonight.

Watching as Sadie looks over the outside of the book, he too takes note of the basic nature of the materials and the level of wear it seems to have sustained from weather and use. The mystery only deepens when she opens the tome and reveals symbols he doesn't recognize. Half joking, he answers, "Either the worst handwriting ever seen, or a language I've never heard of." The measured control and consistency of the symbols is not supportive of poor handwriting skills as an explanation, and the sketches indicate another level of dexterity for the owner.

A drip of water falling on his hand from the ceiling draws his attention back to their surroundings, and he tightens his jaw before he speaks to it, "As much as I hate to say it, we may need to figure this out later. Flashlights in a damp tunnel are not really suited to giving this a thorough examination." He looks directly to Sadie to ask, "We can try to catch back up to the tour group to get out of here more quickly if you want to forget the tunnels."

He would rather their Numbers not ruin the expedition, but moving forward this is going to stay on their minds.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie takes a moment to recall their conversation with Walter about the Numbers, looks like they were going to have to rethink some theories because of this nonsense. Who needed sleep and piece of mind when something was literally bending the fabric of reality and the laws of Physics? Not them that's for sure.

Sadie closes the notebook with a snort of amusement at Ben's quip, placing it back into her rucksack. "We have some time before the next tour..." True but they were now going to be cutting it close. "I don't want this to stop us exploring."

[warped_replica]

This certainly opens up a whole new spectrum of possibilities when the echoes occur. It leaves him questioning exactly how far out the parameters of what could happen to them may reach if it so blatantly defies modern scientific understanding. Much the same as Sadie being able to breathe underwater.

So long as they are in agreement, then on they would continue.

With a nod of his head, he stands back up straight and turns his light up to illuminate the last distance of the slope to return to the fork where they had initially split from the group. Considering the time remaining, he elects exploration over precision, "Then in that case, let's pick up the pace once we get back up to get away from the main route. I'll try to keep a rough estimate of the layout in my head, but sacrificing the chance to map this place until next year is a small price to see more of it."

Light brought back down out of her way, he leaves it to Sadie to lead them back to the fork before he moves up by her side once more.

[dragoonrouge]

"Okay, base routes now, and next year can be the detail year." She agrees before continuing on up the slope. Luckily for the two of them it isn't as wet and slippy at this part of the tunnel and so their rate of progress is faster, even more so once they make it back onto the main path and Sadie leads them towards the next cross roads.

"Well at least its been just as interesting as we'd hoped so far?"

[saveournpcs]

The next cross roads doesn't offer many options for them - both alternatives end in cave-ins shortly thereafter. The next time, they have two viable options - one leads straight on, one is bending up.

[warped_replica]

"And then some," he says with a soft chuckle. For as much as it perturbs him, the appearance of a mysterious book is rather exciting.

Following Sadie to the two cave-ins, Benjiro will spare a few extra seconds to pick up a couple additional stone samples, one from each collapse if possible, and add them to his backpack. He only takes samples from the floor that are clearly separated from the pressured debris and are smaller than his palm.

The next fork in the tunnel is an interesting split, and his instinct is to remain deep to avoid reaching a barred exit from the pathways. He defers to Sadie as he looks between them, "Think we should stay down while we can?"

[dragoonrouge]

The cave ins had been frustrating but this appeared to be far more promising. "Yes! Let's give a shot." She pauses, the end of the previous corridors coming to mind, "A careful, careful shot."

She starts to cautiously lead Ben down the path, keeping a close eye out for any obstacles or dangers.

[warped_replica]

Once more leaving it to Sadie to take them through the darkness and spot dangers, Benjiro examines the tunnel walls as they continue onward with his light carefully angled away from where Sadie may be focusing. The path that takes them straight stretches for a ways before an opening appears on the left with sharp turn leading down a shorter path into an open chamber while the straight path continues further ahead. Coming up behind Sadie, Benjiro reaches to rest his hand on her shoulder quietly before he steps off into the left branch with his torch turned towards the chamber ahead to illuminate the way, “This may be another dead end. I’ll check it.”

Better to let Sadie scan ahead than waste her time on what seems to be an obvious detour with no outlet.

Walking with a steady pace, Benjiro enters the chamber that expands out and upwards with curved walls and a rounded ceiling. As he walks to the center, he turns his torch. Angles catch the light, casting shadows that resemble doorways only to disappear when directly illuminated. The sound of his steps change as he comes to the middle, eyes turned upwards as his shoe splashes into a shallow pool of water that has collected at the low point. That sound echoes around him in the cavern and his heart answers with a harsh thud.

A memory plays in his mind as he reels back a step with his free hand moving to his chest. Visions of a tunnel leading into a larger chamber with architecture to it lying beneath the city, connected to other pathways. To sewers. To the nearby ocean. The smell of the two combined is rank… As though defying all the clean structure of the pillars and sharply angled doorways, all the surfaces of the chamber are coated with something dark, invasive, and organic. Unnatural like him.

Blinking hard against the memory of leaping with ease to the second level that sits above a where a second story window may rest, he shakes his head to clear the awful feeling of belonging in such a place.

[saveournpcs]

There is, indeed, a faint scent of the sea in the cave even in the present - but, oddly enough, there seems to be no breeze coming in.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie remains by the fork, watching until Ben disappears from her sight and then waiting a moment more before heading up the other fork. She wouldn't go far, it wasn't safe to split up for too long after all.

Sadie spends a few minutes follow the tunnel before she loses her nerve and heads back to the fork and walks to the other tunnel.

"Ben. Are you alright?" She calls down the tunnel, trying to be mindful as to how the sound carries. "Ben?"

[warped_replica]

Reeling from the dizziness, one last image is recalled from immediately prior to making that jump. He had looked pointedly off towards a specific wall, and mimicking the turn of his head towards his left, he can better see the figures in his mind. Four green...terrapins? Were those the turtles the human had been talking about in his first memory? A weight of dread builds as he realizes they were, and they were caught, hanging from the wall suspended by restraints that he had put there himself. He had been looking to make certain they had not escaped. That Donatello had not slipped away before he could be dealt in finality.

No, not him. That monster. This was a memory from the creature.

Benjiro hears that his breathing had grown too quick and he sees the light ahead trembling on the cavern wall. Tightening his grip on the torch and pressing his hand harder to his chest with teeth clenching, he struggles to distance himself from the flashback.

When he hears Sadie calling his name a couple minutes later, he has regained control of his anxiety and answers her without delay with voice slightly strained, "Yeah...yeah, I'm here. It's a cavern, but it smells like the ocean in here." That much had lingered too strongly to not be real. He turns the beam of his light through the cavern more slowly, looking for signs of a crevice from which the water may have seeped inside.