Video Game and Heated Caverns Adventure
I was playing a video game on a small hand-held device. The screen was about 5 inches by 6 inches and color, although the game itself was in parchment and a maroon/black. The game graphics were a top down view of a classic parchment treasure map, the player represented by a circle with a symbol in it as were all of the other living entities. I was stuck underground and kept circling back to a well. Finally I figured there was no other actions I could think of, so drank from the well. I turned into a swirling tunnel making icon and began to chew madly through the clear areas of the map, discovering tunnels and chambers I hadn't seen before. Rather than stopping and dealing with what was in the chambers I raced around the map trying to dig my own paths to as many rooms and chambers as I could. I noticed I was slowing down, and some of the creatures were following me, so I headed back to the well. I drank again, this time I became invisible (Just dotted lines on the map.) I snuck past the creatures that had followed me, and went through their chambers, taking the good stuff, I checked my inventory screen, a drawing of myself and my bags and packs with a list written in a fancy manuscript font. (One of my favorite oxymorons there.) I saved the game and immediately thought "I have to make notes about this, it would make a cute Flash game." Very Funny. I have no idea how to do anything in Flash.
Back to sleep I found Nan and I in a large underground cavern following along a fairly well marked trail when we felt the ground rumble and shake. The floor beneath us opened up and we slid down about 50 feet of newly formed sinkhole wall to find ourselves in a large chamber with a huge angry and very injured white bear. It shuffled after us as we scrambled into a side corridor. I was trying to figure out where we were on the map, but nothing was matching up, I tried to keep an idea of where we were relative to where we'd last been, but as we twisted and slid then climbed I couldn't be sure of our direction or distance. It was quite cool as we went deeper. I shut off my flashlight to conserve our battery supply. I also had one of those wind up radio/light units in my bag, so brought it out and cranked it up. There was no radio reception except a hissing pulsation that seemed to be pretty directional. The light was irregular as the battery began to drain and the light was relying more and more on my cranking, which was start and stop as we needed our hands to climb over some of the rubble we found.
We fond ourselves eventually in a tunnel that showed signs of having been worked, pictographs on the walls, benches carved out of stalagmites, the floor leveled in most places. There were several tunnels leading away from the room. I turned the radio on and we chose the one that gave us the clearest reception of the pulses.
As we made our way up the tunnel, it became more obvious that it was worked, it began to take on a buttressed and arched look, the path seemed to slope slightly upwards, which we took to be a hopeful sign. Also the tunnel felt as though warm dry air was blowing through it.
We came to another large chamber, no doubts that this one was crafted. There were a half dozen three foot high ledges across the room from us. The lowest ledge had large vents in it about 2 feet wide, in pairs about 4 feet apart. The warm dry air seemed to be coming from them, there was a low orange glow behind them. The louvers kept us from seeing what was causing the glow. The ledge above that was empty, the rest of the ledges were filled with video monitors of all sizes, the largest being easily 12 feet across in the center of the top ledge. The monitors were all of the 50's rounded corner TV tube style, although they looked more like flat screens. The top ledge, in addition to starting about 18 feet above the ground had a huge wall of monitors with the largest in the center and a couple of other big screens to either side. The rest of the wall was filled with monitors of various sizes, the effect being a video mosaic. Many of the monitors were dark, a few were just showing static and the ones that were working showed various views of the planet, night and day, most from atop mountains or elevated locations of some sort. The top level was a single scene, but there were so many monitors out of whack that it was difficult to determine exactly where it was, except that it was overcast and dusk.
We were about half way across the floor of the cavern, looking around for other exits, a phone, etc when the louvers opened up and the hot air began to blow very hard. We ran to the first ledge, diving against the ledge when slots opened on the ledge above. Sheets of something whistled over our heads. The heat vents began to close. Nan jumped over to the gap where I was, one of the louvers next to me had failed to open so I had more space, less heat. We waited until I heard the grinding of gears below us, "Jump up to the first monitor row!" I shouted and leapt up to the next level with Nan right behind. We raced across the ledge, it was wider than I thought when looking from across the room. We leapt up to the first monitor row just as something whistled beneath our feet. The first monitor row was actually a wall around a seating area with control consoles. The monitors were bigger than I thought and about 12 feet away. There must have been about 20 consoles, two of them were occupied with short, large-headed skeletal remains.
"I hope this is a Halloween prank." said Nan.
I looked at the skeleton. It didn't look like a human skeleton, but it certainly did look real. I found a couple of spent rounds on the ground next to the bodies, and a couple of cartridges near the left wall. I traced out a doorway, a little shorter than was comfortable for me, but just high enough for Nan to stand upright in the doorway, if we could have opened it. The door was sealed around the edges, the stone melted into it from the other side.
"Lets start seeing if anything works on the consoles, I don't think we're getting out that way." Nan said heading for the first control console and pressing buttons. I went back to the alien bodies, looking on the floor again for any sort of communication device, or ray gun.
Back to sleep I found Nan and I in a large underground cavern following along a fairly well marked trail when we felt the ground rumble and shake. The floor beneath us opened up and we slid down about 50 feet of newly formed sinkhole wall to find ourselves in a large chamber with a huge angry and very injured white bear. It shuffled after us as we scrambled into a side corridor. I was trying to figure out where we were on the map, but nothing was matching up, I tried to keep an idea of where we were relative to where we'd last been, but as we twisted and slid then climbed I couldn't be sure of our direction or distance. It was quite cool as we went deeper. I shut off my flashlight to conserve our battery supply. I also had one of those wind up radio/light units in my bag, so brought it out and cranked it up. There was no radio reception except a hissing pulsation that seemed to be pretty directional. The light was irregular as the battery began to drain and the light was relying more and more on my cranking, which was start and stop as we needed our hands to climb over some of the rubble we found.
We fond ourselves eventually in a tunnel that showed signs of having been worked, pictographs on the walls, benches carved out of stalagmites, the floor leveled in most places. There were several tunnels leading away from the room. I turned the radio on and we chose the one that gave us the clearest reception of the pulses.
As we made our way up the tunnel, it became more obvious that it was worked, it began to take on a buttressed and arched look, the path seemed to slope slightly upwards, which we took to be a hopeful sign. Also the tunnel felt as though warm dry air was blowing through it.
We came to another large chamber, no doubts that this one was crafted. There were a half dozen three foot high ledges across the room from us. The lowest ledge had large vents in it about 2 feet wide, in pairs about 4 feet apart. The warm dry air seemed to be coming from them, there was a low orange glow behind them. The louvers kept us from seeing what was causing the glow. The ledge above that was empty, the rest of the ledges were filled with video monitors of all sizes, the largest being easily 12 feet across in the center of the top ledge. The monitors were all of the 50's rounded corner TV tube style, although they looked more like flat screens. The top ledge, in addition to starting about 18 feet above the ground had a huge wall of monitors with the largest in the center and a couple of other big screens to either side. The rest of the wall was filled with monitors of various sizes, the effect being a video mosaic. Many of the monitors were dark, a few were just showing static and the ones that were working showed various views of the planet, night and day, most from atop mountains or elevated locations of some sort. The top level was a single scene, but there were so many monitors out of whack that it was difficult to determine exactly where it was, except that it was overcast and dusk.
We were about half way across the floor of the cavern, looking around for other exits, a phone, etc when the louvers opened up and the hot air began to blow very hard. We ran to the first ledge, diving against the ledge when slots opened on the ledge above. Sheets of something whistled over our heads. The heat vents began to close. Nan jumped over to the gap where I was, one of the louvers next to me had failed to open so I had more space, less heat. We waited until I heard the grinding of gears below us, "Jump up to the first monitor row!" I shouted and leapt up to the next level with Nan right behind. We raced across the ledge, it was wider than I thought when looking from across the room. We leapt up to the first monitor row just as something whistled beneath our feet. The first monitor row was actually a wall around a seating area with control consoles. The monitors were bigger than I thought and about 12 feet away. There must have been about 20 consoles, two of them were occupied with short, large-headed skeletal remains.
"I hope this is a Halloween prank." said Nan.
I looked at the skeleton. It didn't look like a human skeleton, but it certainly did look real. I found a couple of spent rounds on the ground next to the bodies, and a couple of cartridges near the left wall. I traced out a doorway, a little shorter than was comfortable for me, but just high enough for Nan to stand upright in the doorway, if we could have opened it. The door was sealed around the edges, the stone melted into it from the other side.
"Lets start seeing if anything works on the consoles, I don't think we're getting out that way." Nan said heading for the first control console and pressing buttons. I went back to the alien bodies, looking on the floor again for any sort of communication device, or ray gun.
posted by Fermius Firefly | 8:32 AM
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