Chapter 1- Bolivia

[Snapper]

Crowley:

"Get a grip, people, show some northern hemisphere sang-froid for the locals. Orderly retreat up the stairs. Gentlemen, and ladies, firearms at the ready if you please."

Crowley starts heading up with the rest of the roped together party, flashlight continually sweeping between the stairs in front of him and the pit beneath.

[Mephistophilis]

'The locals would not have been foolish enough to come down here' harrumphs Alex.

[aine]

“Sang froid my foot, Mr Crowley.” Jan Shouts from above. “You haven’t seen it; all glistening black and too many legs. Come on!” Jan pulls the rope which tightens at Alex’s waist.

[Snapper]

Crowley:

"Madam, I'm sure you are right and I'm sure it will be ghastly but there's not much to be gained by losing our footing and falling a thousand feet. Other than amusing whatever the beastie is. We retreat in an orderly fashion, ready to defend ourselves."

[SunlessNick]

June is still panicking, and trying to scramble her way back up the stairs.

[kabukiman]

You arrive at the surface and feel the heat of the sun like a blessing in your face. Even the destruction of the landscape seems nice...
You all feel something in the dark, waiting for you, but it doesn't try to follow you. It is only... waiting.
June is near a nervous colapse.


OOC: Jane roll the sanity loss.

[Mephistophilis]

Staring down into the cold abyss Alex wonders out loud, 'Is it just sunlight it's afraid of or any light, fire perhaps?'

[aine]

Jan feels slightly better out in the sunlight. She goes over to June and unties the rope around her waist. She takes out her hip flask,
“Here, take a deep breath and drink this. My god, I’ve never seen the like, never.”

Sorry! San loss 1d10=3

[Snapper]

Crowley:

Crowley peers down with interest. "Does this mean it can come up and out at night time?"

"What if we go back down to about the point the light fades, then see if we can lure it up into sunlight?"

[Mr. Handy]

"It's a guardian, so I'd guess it doesn't leave," says Harry. "Fire sounds like a good idea to me. If we could reflect enough sunlight down the hole, maybe we could hit it with that."

[Snapper]

Crowley:

Crowley's eyes light up. "Most intriguing idea! If we had a big mirror or two, we could reflect much more sunlight down there. But how? Where could we find two big mirrors?"

"Ladies, women carry mirrors, do they not? Except for my dinner date's Andaman Islander flatmate. She just had a blowpipe and poison darts."

[aine]

Jan misses most of the conversation whilst she’s helping June, but she hears the last bit.
“Blowpipe? I’ve got a blow pipe in my rucksack. Do you want to borrow it?”

[Mephistophilis]

'A mirror might be asking too much but perhaps we could find some sheets of metal to polish up and get some sunlight reflected off. Or we could just use the dynamite to blow open the top of the shaft, open it up to the light in a more direct fashion. I don't suppose we can just leave it alone? No, no, I suppose not, the villagers and the aid camp.' He sighs.

[Starspawn338]

"I'm not sure if dynamite is going to expose 1000 feet of pit to the sunlight." Butch offers. "And I bet it's so deep to prevent the sun from shining all the way down even if we redirect it with mirrors."

He looks around in thought before continuing, "There was a battle here, perhaps there is some unused ordnance or even better, a flamethrower. I'm a bit handy, perhaps I could cobble something together."

[Mephistophilis]

'And you're going to tell me we can't just toss down the dynamite because it will destroy whatever it is this thing is protecting aren't you?' says Alex morosely.

[SunlessNick]

OOC: Jane roll the sanity loss.

I already did, I lost 10. That's not a fifth of what I had, but it's bout of madness territory.

June drinks when Jan directs her to, but it's almost autonomic, and doesn't lessen her shaking.

[Snapper]

Crowley:

"Explosives will just cave in the hole, surely? We want to see what's down there, not fill it in. Not yet anyway."

"Even if we could reflect enough light to get us down further, that might give us more clues for the next step."

"I'm going to head back to the aircraft to see if it has some flares." Crowley limps back to the plane.

OOC:   Are there any shiny things on the aircraft that could be used as reflectors? Are there emergency flares in the aircraft?

[Mr. Handy]

"What if we pour gasoline down on it and then light it on fire?" asks Harry.

[Snapper]

Crowley:

As he hobbles away, Crowley calls back: "I like that can do attitude and flagrant disregard for safety. Qualities I admire."

"But I think we'd need to be a bit nearer the beast. If we pour from here, the gasoline would splatter down walls and steps then evaporate, I expect.."

[Mephistophilis]

'I seem to recall we previously had good results from a glass bottle filled with gasoline' says Alex, shuddering at the memory of those creatures in the Antarctic.