Start of Post Date & Time: Wednesday, February 5th, 3:19 PM
Start of Post Weather: 36 degrees F, you are all underground, so dry and not sunny.
Location: Mine in the vicinity of Dawson Springs
End of Post Date & Time: Thursday, February 6th, 11:02 AM
End of Post Weather: 46 degrees F, light snow flurries and partially sunny.
Location: MercTown Airfield, G.I.R.L.S. HQ
Stuck In a Hole
Jez's jacket still has a splat of goo on it from the dwarves weird looking gun and it has eaten away some more of the synth-leather (
-14 MDC). Soon after it dissipates though, leaving an ugly grease-like stain. Hopefully it'll wash out.
The radar-like device was heavily damaged in the collapse, strangely enough with it's apparent destruction the towns folk seem to be coming out of their zombie like state.
The mining machine is mostly intact, although a large rock landed on the machine's drive motor. The motor shows pretty serious damage now.
As they recover from their stupor, the towns folk begin mingling and it starts to become fairly loud as people shout names around as they begin looking for family and friends. This is punctuated by startled cries and clipped screams of horror at the sight of those folks who have these tentacle things attached to them. It takes some doing, but eventually Susan figures out how best to remove the things and eventually the tentacles all of the survivors have had them removed. In the end, Susan has 42 patients on her hands who are in bad shape. Not dying, just non-ambulatory, so they will need to be carried out. Over the course of two hours, the people manage to get a head count among their own and after much crying and sadness they discover the bodies of 30 of their own.
While the above is going on, Jez and the dragon continue to work on making a suitable exit from the mine. In response to James, Zollassi the dragon smiles in a way that shows she is trying to be understanding and says,
"Thank you for the attention and flattery. You are not unattractive and you are at least a little interesting, but right now I have a great deal on my mind.", and with that she continues with her earth moving. Just as the town's people are settling down Jez sees light on the other side of the cave in and soon enough she and Zollassi have a big enough space cleared to allow them to start moving people out of the cave. It takes a bit more work, but they are also able to get the mining machine out as well, though this requires pushing it since they discover the drive motor is indeed broken.
As the pair have been digging their way out, they come across a number of weapons left behind by the dwarves (1 Nuhr Bastard Sword, 2 Nuhr Morning Stars, and 2 Nuhr Musket Pistols). Just as they are finishing up, Jez hears the dragon mutter something about
The Chained One but the dragon declines to explain when asked for details.
Once her lair is cleared of guests, Zollassi appears to be in a much better mood. So much so, that she approaches the group saying,
"Thank you for your usefulness. It is nice to see that some lesser races still make an effort to curry favor with dragons. Here is a token of my appreciation.", and so she pulls a simple but elegant silver ring set with a round cut ruby and hands it to James.
"Should you ever need my assistance, just whisper the name Zollassi the Crimson to it while picturing me as a dragon and I will hear you. I warn you though, it had better be a real emergency and I will only answer this call once!". And with that, the dragon heads back into her mine/cave.
GM Note: To translate, you now have an adult dragon on "speed dial" as BoS put it, but only good for one call...after that it is just a pretty ring.
By the time G.I.R.L.S. and the dragon have dug their way out and have everyone outside and rounded up at the groups vehicles, it is just after 5 PM. The first thing Jez notices is that there two splat marks on her Titan robot and these marks are identical to the one on her jacket (
-46 MDC from the Main Body). Others will notice several more of these gooey marks in the area, on trees and on the ground. Becky River comes bounding out of the Salamander to greet the group and tells Jez about a vehicle (one that matches the description of a Zone Ranger Truck) that
"Came flying by reeeeeaally fast and this dwarf guy in the back shot something that left those sticky things on your 'bot!".
The young girls excitement is short lived however, as one of the townsfolk steps forward and it is only then the group discovers that Becky's parents are among the dead. The child buries her face in the woman's chest and openly cries. The woman picks the little girl up and carries her over to one of the SUVs to take care of her.
Kat suddenly recalls that Captain Cullen has a medivac unit on standby and in short order she hails him on the Salamander's radio. It takes another an hour, but his team arrives in an NG Skybunker and three GAW Blackhawk helicopters. Susan organizes her patients and soon has them all loaded onto the aircraft, mostly by ordering the medivac staff around.
Among the remaining survivors, there are just enough healthy individuals to pilot the large mess of vehicles (which are a half dozen 5 ton military trucks plus more then 2 dozen off road 4x4 trucks and SUVs) back to Cadiz, although the top convoy speed with so many is only about 30 to 35 mph.
It takes the group about an hour to get everyone loaded up and then another two hours before the group arrives at Cadiz around 8 PM. Lisa Skinner, the town inn keeper, insists that the G.I.R.L.S. stay the night. She gives each of them a room, as well as a good hot meal and all the local ale they can drink.
The next morning the group finds the mining machine hitched to a GAW Hummer (Flex Fuel engine, see jump bikes, +20% to standard range, with a full tank of gas), the later is a gift to the group. The only downside is the paint job...it's metallic lime green. Being the only one who knows how to pilot it, James ends up driving the garish military vehicle. The mining machine has been "fixed" and put into permanent neutral gear.
Half an hour later and the group arrives at Dawson Springs. Captain Cullen is ready with their pay of 350,000 credits. He congratulates them on a job well done and thanks the group for saving the folks of Cadiz. Sullivan Jones decides to tag along with G.I.R.L.S. as they prepare to head back to MercTown using his own vehicle
Home, Home on the Range, Where the Bullets are Flying All Day!
Travel time from Dawson Springs to MercTown is not overly long. The group arrives back home around 11 AM. Now all that is left is to collect your pay from Fixer Jones.
Post to G.I.R.L.S. Hangar & HQ (1a)