Geartopia : The Case of the Assassination Plot

[meat_mooks]

||Attention, Attention. Would the following personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Please bring with you any weapons and tools you might need. Attention, Attention. would the following personnel please report to the Observation Deck

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4

[zouichi]

[Hopefully I'm doing this right?]

[detectivederp]

And a Tim to join in!

[meat_mooks]

There are no wells in this area, and it is therefore much more dark, apart from the sign near the end. Otherwise, you'll need to move the torch to get a better feel for what's around you.

Where you can only see a large black hole after it, there is a large DANGER sign painted in bright red paint, surrounded by what appears to be tiny little globes that give off their own light, possibly a natural occurring species of glowing plants. Dried flowers are spread under it as an offering to Wild Ones so they will not get insulted by the sign.

[zouichi]

Zouichi moved to touch a few of the tiny globes. Bioluminescent plant life? The danger sign did not worry him, in any case, but he offered the torch to Tim as he reached into his front pocket for a flashlight to shine around the area.

"Feel like living dangerously?" he asked Tim. After all, where best to find clues than in all the dangerous crevices?

[detectivederp]

"Only always," Tim replied, taking the torch and peering forward. He had his own flashlight, of course, but the torch would do for the time being. He'd keep the light safe in his belt, in case.

He took a cautious few steps forward, not far, just peering to get a closer look at both the plants (reaching one hand into his belt to get a vial for samples-- you never knew what could come in handy), and to see if he could see further into the darkness behind the sign.

[meat_mooks]

The closer Tim got to the plants, he could hear a rustling sound and suddenly the plants comically folded in, and retreated into a hole into a very tiny hole in the cracks. They appeared to be some form of sentient and did not like the idea of being prodded.

That part of the cave was suddenly covered in total darkness apart from light from the torch.

The charm behind the sign seemed to go deep, deep into a river. Once in a while they could hear something slashing, and a strange, scuttling sound.

Near the sign there was a series of footprints, the path easy to follow as it ended abruptly before it looked like someone had fallen down and ran off in the other direction. Where the footprints had changed directions, there was patterns of waves like slithering snakes that seemed to reach right to the chasm itself.

[nobel_berserker]

Caves. Allenby didn't like them. They probably had bats in them. And rats. And rat-bats, who the hell knew, this was an alien cave and there were probably things that had creepy worm tails and bloodsucking fangs why yes, she did deliberately not learn basic animal bio to piss off the Swedes.

Also, how the hell did people find their way around? In the navigational sense... at least there were these convienient glowy things on the walls in some places, but this area seemed to be short on them. Which made it a big relief to see what looked like the back of Zouichi's head and mask kid--Red Robin, that was it.

"Hey!" she whispered as she grabbed onto Zouichi's arm who needs dignity in creepy caves. "Oh... footprints... and danger. Like we needed a sign to know that."

[zouichi]

Zouichi blinked in surprise as Allenby grabbed his arm, then put his now-dark flashlight back into his pocket. "Yeah, I'd say they did a pretty good job of advertising without the sign."

Why didn't these flashlights ever work in haunted caverns jeez. Instead, he began following the trail, making his way cautiously in the direction the person had run off.

[detectivederp]

Tim spared a glance for the girl who had joined them-- Allenby, he recalled, though he didn't know her well-- but otherwise he didn't react much to either of the two of them, just now.

He pressed on along with them, torch raised high enough for them to see clearer. His other hand was close to his belt, ready to grab either his weapon or anything else he might need in an instant.

He was mostly interested in the marks surrounding the prints, right now.

[meat_mooks]

It was, perhaps a good thing that Tim had was ready to grab his weapons, as their walking close to the ledge had alerted the reason the huge danger sign had been placed there. The splash of water echoed in the cavern until they could something trying to get a better view from inside the cavern walls. the creatures luminescent skin made him easy to see as it jump into the water, and it disappearing into the darkness a few seconds later.

...at least until the tentacles reached out, slithering around on the ground, right up to where the other man had run off. It seemed to be the limit of where it could go, as they moved, searching for its prey. Following the man's footsteps had been a wise move, and longer and they might have been dragged down into the waters below.

[nobel_berserker]

Oh. Okay. No rats, just a GLOWING CAVE LAKE TENTACLE MONSTER. Allenby stopped dead in her tracks, making an undignified and kind of high-pitched noise in the back of her throat. She fought the urge to dash over and start jumping up and down on the tentacles as hard as she could. Otherwise she'd find out what they were coming from real quick--

--hey, that was an idea! Allenby glared into the water and held out her hands, aiming her attack at where she figured the monster's body must be. "Nobel Hula Hoop!" Would it work in water? Good question! But damn, did she want it to, and a Gundam Fighter's spirit played a huge part in the effectiveness of their techniques.

[zouichi]

Since they seemed to be out of reach of the tentacles for now, Zouichi aimed his gun at the monster, but didn't fire. He didn't like harming animals unless he had to... though if it tried coming after them, he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

"See anything?" he asked Tim, eyes still fixed on the creature.

[detectivederp]

Tim was quick to pull out his staff, extending it to be ready to defend himself but... it seemed 'safe' for the time being. He tensed, looking out at the creature and raising his torch higher.

"Allenby," he said firmly. "No point making it mad. It doesn't seem like it can reach us here." And he didn't want to test if attacking it could inspire it to reach a little further. Or if it would get out to come after them.

"Whoever was in here," he said to Zouichi, "was pretty obviously attacked by this thing." He frowned. "We should probably head that way while we still can, it seems like there's not much else here." He peered into the water one last time, just to verify that, but he didn't get any closer.

[meat_mooks]

There was nothing buy an angry beast in the water. However, near the tracks running backwards, a piece of paper could be found, completely dry.

[nobel_berserker]

"It's probably mad at everyone all the time," Allenby muttered, but she didn't launch an another attack. As long as they stayed here and the tentacles stayed there it'd be fine. And okay, it was a good thing she'd thrown it at the water than the tentacles themselves. Maybe just this one time avoiding a fight was better.

She edged along the tracks, still throwing wary looks at the water, but something on the ground caught her eye. "Hey, look at this!" She picked up the piece of paper--for being in a dank, dripping cave with krakens in it, it was in really good condition. "This can't have been here too long, look at how dry it is... the writing is total gibberish, though." She held it out to the other two. "'Bout all I can read off of it is the four."

[zouichi]

"It's code," said Zouichi, frowning at it. "Whoever left this is asking us to rescue their daughter."

Four fountains, huh? Hopefully the 'four' wasn't in code, too. In any case, there were only two areas marked on the map that met that description...