>Everyone on mission 6
You fall out of your stasis pod, hacking and retching up globs of viscus fluid.
>You know the drill, people, everyone get to the shuttle. I've got 14 years worth of news to check up on.
You pick yourself up and gather your belongings, your suit and weapons, and head to the hanger, a mob of semi-conscious prisoners coated in synthetic snot. You suit up as the shuttle finishes fueling and pile into the crew compartment, strapping yourselves into the harnesses despite the easy flight ahead. The hatch closes as the last man steps in and you're away just seconds later.
>Alright, quick catch up for everyone. The anomaly is still there and still stable as far as we can tell. You're gonna be the first official UWM Team to go in, but you're not going in completely blind. The Samsonite brothers-there were 3 of them, there's 1 now- have been exploring the abyss in the years we've been absent and have mapped a good bit of it. The last of them, Conrad, is gonna guide you lot in for a bit and give you some information on the abyss. I suggest you follow his lead. Each of you have been given some rope and other basic tools to climb with, and some paper and pens, in case the situation calls for it.
The shuttle ride lasts another 40 minutes, the last 10 of which are extremely bouncy. The weather outside must be bad. The shuttle lands and you and your squadies pile out into soft muddy soil and light rain. The shuttle touched down right in the center of a large dirt road. To either side of you is what might have been farmland once, years ago, but has been overgrown by tallgrass and weeds, the wooden fence around it rotted and crumbling. At the end of the road, maybe a 100 yards away, is a house. It's a two story wooden thing, white washed at some point in the past but chipped and patchy with exposed wood now. The windows are all have their shutters closed and the entire thing seems sunken and bowed as though crushed beneath some unseen weight.
There is a man standing on the porch, dressed for weather much colder then the current climate. The right sleeve of his jacket is knotted at just above where his elbow used to be and head is wreathed in thick, blue smoke from a cigarette held limply in the corner of his mouth. As you and your team walk closer you can see just how pale his skin is, how sunken his eyes are and how haggard his face has become. He looks you and your team over without a flicker of emotion, just a dull sort of comprehension, before gesturing for you to step inside.
You follow him to a simple dining room with a large table and a hanging lamp above it. The place reeks of water and mold, and You notice, as he turns the lamp on, that the shade around it is stained glass, a depiction of stars with a few constellations you know. The man digs a roll of paper out of his backpack and unrolls it on the table. It's a crude drawing, a map of sorts.
"This is your route." He says, placing one finger on the map on a black point marked "Entrance."
"This is the entrance to the Abyss. We call it the Plains. Mostly flat and usually safe. It's lit up and the wildlife don't like it much. From there-" He traces a line up through a blank area with "PLAINS" written on it, up to what looks like a crudely rendered drawing of a forest, "-We'll head through the Dead Forest. Thats the first night's camp. It's also where we'll be parting ways."
He glances up at the men and women around him for a moment before looking back at the map and continuing.
"Past that is the Pitted Lands" he indicates an area that looks like The Plains, but with drawings of circular pits scattered across it. "Don't go in them, don't drop anything down them. Next is-" he moves his finger along to a scribbled rendition of what looks like the base of a tall building, but with most of the top missing, "The Tower. That's the camp site for the second night."
He looks up again.
"There's a thing that lives around there. We call him the Lighteater. If you see him, leave him be. He's not dangerous as long as you don't do anything stupid like shoot him."
He turns back to the map.
"Just beyond there is what we call The Fall." He points to a drawing of what looks like a cliff with a completely flat face, like a wall, "It's over 30 miles tall, so you're gonna be taking an elevator cart we set up there to the bottom."
He moves his finger along to the next scribble, a cluster of standing stones
"Graveyard. Don't stop here and don't take too long getting through. We're not sure what lives there, but camping there is what took my younger brother."
He moves his finger on to the last mark, a question mark with the words "Lost Citadel" under it.
"This is where you're going. It was the farthest my older brother ever got, and I've never been there myself. It's where he went missing. I can't tell you wants in there, but my brother seemed to think it was something important. I hope you can find what he did."
Conrad rolls the map back up and puts it back in his bag.
"Any questions?"
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Original Thread: Rules, Armory, Misson archive 1-11) (Read 3981575 times)