Pelican Tracks -- Entry 3
Jul. 7th, 2014 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaI’m happy to report that we weren’t eaten by some subterranean monster and are the darlings of the town.
So we were sitting in the runs of this town entombed in an enormous cavern. The children of nearby Greenbaugh had gone exploring here and none of them came back. Having taken a moment to rest it was time to go looking around to see if we could find anyone.
To prevent a repeat of whatever had happened to the kids, we were determined to search as a group. We selected a tall building off in the distance and using it as a landmark, we set off towards it. After a little scrabbling over the ruins we finally made it to the front door. It appeared to be some sort of apartment building or maybe an office of some kind.
Wrench took a look around. He discovered a pair of boots inside that appeared to be of recent make and some footprints going in and out of the building. Since these didn’t seem to be the tracks of the kids, we decided to try following them. I was concerned that perhaps there was someone else who’d found the ruins and who might have wreaked some mischief.
We followed the tracks which seemed to go wide of the main campsite we started from when we heard a voice crying for help. We followed the sounds to a large building that had been split by a sinkhole. Leaving Wrench with the majority of the rescue party, Sanna and I and a couple others went inside.
Passing a lot of heavy machinery we came to a back wall where the sinkhole dropped down. We could hear running water and a frightened young voice. With no other choice we carefully pulled in the rest of the group and set up for a rescue. Sanna was considered to be the person best able to handle this so we improvised some gear to try and help keep her warm when she went into the drink. Then we rigged her up into a harness and down she went.
It was a serious situation but everything went smoothly. Our biggest fear was that the girl was upstream from our position but that turned out not to be the case. Sanna grabbed onto the girl (Jessi was her name) and we carefully hauled them out of the sinkhole. Jessi was in quite a bit of shock. Apparently she and someone named Nigel were out wandering around in the ruins when the sinkhole opened up and swallowed them both. Sadly, it seems as though Nigel is lost to us.
We detailed a couple of people to take Jessi back to the camp while the rest of us continued to follow the tracks. These lead us to a street criss-crossed with bike tracks. We followed these down a long hill and discovered that this was the primary racing circut for the kids. They’d improvised a turn-about at the bottom of the hill and then raced back up and out towards their camp.
We proceeded up the racetrack back towards camp keeping an eye out for side tracks. We found a set of foot prints and followed them to a caved in building where we heard another cry for help. Once again we followed the sound to a collapsed building. This time it appeared as though someone was trapped under some fallen rubble. Although it’s not his particular forte, Wrench was the closest thing we had to a mining engineer so he assessed the situation and organized the work to clear the rubble. Even so, it was dangerous work and in our efforts to free the trapped boy there was some slippage and he received a nasty cut on the head. Luckily, they all look worse than they really are and we were able to pull him out. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been in time to save the poor guy next to him who hadn’t made it when the rocks came down.
Hauling up the injured and the dead we continued back up the racetrack towards camp. Here we caught a good piece of fortune. Our noise and lights attracted the attention of small group of six kids who were cold and scared and hungry but otherwise in good shape. We took them with us back to camp and took stock.
Questioning the kids we learned that there were between 14-17 kids in the group. We’d recovered 8 alive, 1 dead and 1 missing probably dead. There didn’t seem to be any malice to their predicament, they’d set up camp and then all gone off in ones and twos and simply gotten lost or trapped.
We decided to evacuate all the kids back to town. We’d found a majority of the children and wanted to get them back to town where they’d be better cared for. We also wanted to swap out some of the searchers. Some had minor injuries, some were tired, some were happy or inconsolable parents who didn’t need to be out here any more. Sanna and Wrench ran back to the Pelican while I helped evacuate the rest. We improvised a small landing spot near the cave entrance and Sanna dropped it right into place. We loaded up and returned to town.
In town we quickly unloaded and explained the situation to the mayor. Aside from getting more people for the search party we also filled our hold with glow rock -- moving through the tunnel to get to the city was difficult and I wanted to have marked trails all over the city as well so we really need a lot of light.
The Pelican took off and made it’s way back to the entrance. We lead the search party back into the city. I’d left behind a small care package and a note explaining we’d be back soon. I was hoping that some more kids would be attracted to the noise and light and come back to camp, but alas no one was there. Since we had found a few kids just with activity, I thought we might try sending up a flare to see if we could attract attention.
The group went back to the tall apartment building we’d started from. I launched a flare. It bounced off the ceiling (about 100 meters up) and landed on a nearby roof. So...not super useful. We split our party in half and each went in opposite directions, we’d circle the campsite from here and cover a lot more ground. We’d also be marking our position with glow rock to help people find their way around. Wrench, Sanna and I went off in the direction we hadn’t gone last time.
In a few hours we came across two more kids who had broken bones but were otherwise ok. We also encountered a flow of fresh air coming down from a former street that was now pitched up into a steep hillside. It seemed like the kids might have tried going that way but it’d take us off our path. We marked the spot and continued the circle. Eventually we met up with them. They’d found another three kids and that put us to a total of 14 found. We moved the kids back to the Pelican and then went back to that airflow to have a look around.
We climbed up the street and wandered through a low tunnel. Soon, we discovered it pierced the caldera and opened up on the outer edge of the island. We didn’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity so we marked the area as best we could and went back to the Pelican. We were exhausted, there were only a couple of kids unaccounted for and we were all dead tired.
In the morning we took more people back to the ruins. At this point, I felt the Pelican and its crew had done more than enough and those who were still lost would require more than our hands-on help could supply. We will be happy enough to ferry people and equipment over, but the city is pretty well marked out and our assistance probably won’t shorten the search. We did help the searchers precisely identify where the other entrance to the ruins came out. They sent some people through while we hovered on the other side of the caldera. They managed to signal us and we fixed their location. That team did search around a bit more and found some tracks but it was inconclusive. We found a few nearby logging camps but no one had seen anything.
Still, I’d say we did a pretty bang up job. All this effort, however, really chewed up the time. We’re expected at the Baron’s for supper tomorrow night and I haven’t had a chance to explain the spoon situation to Sanna. A very grateful town has put us up in the nicest still-standing hotel in town so we should have a good night’s sleep and be quite presentable for the occasion.
* * *
I didn’t write down any quotes but it’s still a fun game.
later
Tom
So we were sitting in the runs of this town entombed in an enormous cavern. The children of nearby Greenbaugh had gone exploring here and none of them came back. Having taken a moment to rest it was time to go looking around to see if we could find anyone.
To prevent a repeat of whatever had happened to the kids, we were determined to search as a group. We selected a tall building off in the distance and using it as a landmark, we set off towards it. After a little scrabbling over the ruins we finally made it to the front door. It appeared to be some sort of apartment building or maybe an office of some kind.
Wrench took a look around. He discovered a pair of boots inside that appeared to be of recent make and some footprints going in and out of the building. Since these didn’t seem to be the tracks of the kids, we decided to try following them. I was concerned that perhaps there was someone else who’d found the ruins and who might have wreaked some mischief.
We followed the tracks which seemed to go wide of the main campsite we started from when we heard a voice crying for help. We followed the sounds to a large building that had been split by a sinkhole. Leaving Wrench with the majority of the rescue party, Sanna and I and a couple others went inside.
Passing a lot of heavy machinery we came to a back wall where the sinkhole dropped down. We could hear running water and a frightened young voice. With no other choice we carefully pulled in the rest of the group and set up for a rescue. Sanna was considered to be the person best able to handle this so we improvised some gear to try and help keep her warm when she went into the drink. Then we rigged her up into a harness and down she went.
It was a serious situation but everything went smoothly. Our biggest fear was that the girl was upstream from our position but that turned out not to be the case. Sanna grabbed onto the girl (Jessi was her name) and we carefully hauled them out of the sinkhole. Jessi was in quite a bit of shock. Apparently she and someone named Nigel were out wandering around in the ruins when the sinkhole opened up and swallowed them both. Sadly, it seems as though Nigel is lost to us.
We detailed a couple of people to take Jessi back to the camp while the rest of us continued to follow the tracks. These lead us to a street criss-crossed with bike tracks. We followed these down a long hill and discovered that this was the primary racing circut for the kids. They’d improvised a turn-about at the bottom of the hill and then raced back up and out towards their camp.
We proceeded up the racetrack back towards camp keeping an eye out for side tracks. We found a set of foot prints and followed them to a caved in building where we heard another cry for help. Once again we followed the sound to a collapsed building. This time it appeared as though someone was trapped under some fallen rubble. Although it’s not his particular forte, Wrench was the closest thing we had to a mining engineer so he assessed the situation and organized the work to clear the rubble. Even so, it was dangerous work and in our efforts to free the trapped boy there was some slippage and he received a nasty cut on the head. Luckily, they all look worse than they really are and we were able to pull him out. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been in time to save the poor guy next to him who hadn’t made it when the rocks came down.
Hauling up the injured and the dead we continued back up the racetrack towards camp. Here we caught a good piece of fortune. Our noise and lights attracted the attention of small group of six kids who were cold and scared and hungry but otherwise in good shape. We took them with us back to camp and took stock.
Questioning the kids we learned that there were between 14-17 kids in the group. We’d recovered 8 alive, 1 dead and 1 missing probably dead. There didn’t seem to be any malice to their predicament, they’d set up camp and then all gone off in ones and twos and simply gotten lost or trapped.
We decided to evacuate all the kids back to town. We’d found a majority of the children and wanted to get them back to town where they’d be better cared for. We also wanted to swap out some of the searchers. Some had minor injuries, some were tired, some were happy or inconsolable parents who didn’t need to be out here any more. Sanna and Wrench ran back to the Pelican while I helped evacuate the rest. We improvised a small landing spot near the cave entrance and Sanna dropped it right into place. We loaded up and returned to town.
In town we quickly unloaded and explained the situation to the mayor. Aside from getting more people for the search party we also filled our hold with glow rock -- moving through the tunnel to get to the city was difficult and I wanted to have marked trails all over the city as well so we really need a lot of light.
The Pelican took off and made it’s way back to the entrance. We lead the search party back into the city. I’d left behind a small care package and a note explaining we’d be back soon. I was hoping that some more kids would be attracted to the noise and light and come back to camp, but alas no one was there. Since we had found a few kids just with activity, I thought we might try sending up a flare to see if we could attract attention.
The group went back to the tall apartment building we’d started from. I launched a flare. It bounced off the ceiling (about 100 meters up) and landed on a nearby roof. So...not super useful. We split our party in half and each went in opposite directions, we’d circle the campsite from here and cover a lot more ground. We’d also be marking our position with glow rock to help people find their way around. Wrench, Sanna and I went off in the direction we hadn’t gone last time.
In a few hours we came across two more kids who had broken bones but were otherwise ok. We also encountered a flow of fresh air coming down from a former street that was now pitched up into a steep hillside. It seemed like the kids might have tried going that way but it’d take us off our path. We marked the spot and continued the circle. Eventually we met up with them. They’d found another three kids and that put us to a total of 14 found. We moved the kids back to the Pelican and then went back to that airflow to have a look around.
We climbed up the street and wandered through a low tunnel. Soon, we discovered it pierced the caldera and opened up on the outer edge of the island. We didn’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity so we marked the area as best we could and went back to the Pelican. We were exhausted, there were only a couple of kids unaccounted for and we were all dead tired.
In the morning we took more people back to the ruins. At this point, I felt the Pelican and its crew had done more than enough and those who were still lost would require more than our hands-on help could supply. We will be happy enough to ferry people and equipment over, but the city is pretty well marked out and our assistance probably won’t shorten the search. We did help the searchers precisely identify where the other entrance to the ruins came out. They sent some people through while we hovered on the other side of the caldera. They managed to signal us and we fixed their location. That team did search around a bit more and found some tracks but it was inconclusive. We found a few nearby logging camps but no one had seen anything.
Still, I’d say we did a pretty bang up job. All this effort, however, really chewed up the time. We’re expected at the Baron’s for supper tomorrow night and I haven’t had a chance to explain the spoon situation to Sanna. A very grateful town has put us up in the nicest still-standing hotel in town so we should have a good night’s sleep and be quite presentable for the occasion.
I didn’t write down any quotes but it’s still a fun game.
later
Tom
