From pmoyer@jurai.net Sun Dec 17 21:14:47 2000 Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 07:53:46 -0500 (EST) From: Philip J. Moyer To: John Biles , Amy "General Chaos" Borden , Chris Angelini Subject: [Amber/TAMD] Mikage -- Tendrils Lori asks, "OOC Okay, Last time, you'd just finished setting Shark vs. Kraken, right?" Mikage nods Lori says, "OOC Hold on, must rifle through my notes." Mikage says, "I may bug out after an hour or so... I have an exam in a bit" Lori says, "OOC Fair enough. I cna't stay up too late anyway, as I have an 830 AM class tomorrow." Mikage nods ========================================= ========================================= The next two days of travel are fairly peaceful. The jungle begins to thin out, and far, far above, you can see places at times where there is ice on the surface high above you. The amount of wildlife thins out as well. Towards the end of that second day, you start to get a bad feeling, like something is crawling up and down your flesh. Tybalt wakes up. Mikage says, "We may have more than pirates to worry about, Captain." Lori blinks. "Hmm? Is there some sort of problem?" Mikage says, "Just a feeling." Lori nods. "We'll keep an eye out." Mikage nods, but places a hand on his sword handle unconsiously. The boat suddenly lurches to one side, then begins to arc to the right. Mikage asks, "What the---?" Lori exclaims, "Bring us up a side view!" One of the viewscreens shifts. You can see a constantly shifting black cable which is wrapped around the ship, beginning to tug it along, stretching out of sight through the jungle of plants. Mikage asks, "What is THAT?" Lori asks, "I don't know. A magical construct, maybe?" Lori turns to one of her crew. "Do we have some sort of reading on that?" Mikage leans against the wall in an effort to retain balance The crewman says, "It's not organic, not magical, and not inorganic. So I haven't got a clue what the hell it could be...sir." He adds the last bit as if suddenly remember not to curse around a superior officer. Lori frowns. "Turn towards it, move a little that way so we get some slack, then try to turn us so we can use full thrust against its strength." Mikage asks, "Can we possibly cut this thing?" The boat turns and begins to manuever as per orders. You page, "Really Fscking Thick Logrus Tendril? Or Skippy? Or Outsider? Or none of the above? *wry look*" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Big ass Logrus Tendril" to you. You page, "Gotcha." to Akemi. Lori says, "We can try disrupting it with our stinger. And try firing an explosive harpoon into it." The Explosive harpoons prove to have little effect. The Stinger causes the tendril to turn purple, but has no obvious other effects. Full force, the Engines prove able to slow, but not stop the inexorable tugging of the cable. Lori frowns and looks thoughtful. Mikage begins conjuring a rebreather as a precaution. Lori asks, "I am going to send out some of the marines to see if they can physically cut that cable. You wouldn't happen to have any powerful cutting weapons, would you?" Mikage says, "Give me a moment," and conjures up a chainsaw as well. Lori asks, "OOC Okay, gonna head out with the Marines?" Mikage says, "OOC Yup" Once you conjure up some underwater gear for yourself, you head outside with the marines, who are armed with large axes. You all swarm around the cable, hacking at it; it seems to have no ability to defend itself, but it also just ignores your efforts to attack it. The waters around you are starting to turn orange. Mikage places a hand on the cable, unconsciously touching his signet. You get a mild jolt from touching it, sort of like walking on a wool carpet, then touching a doorknob. You can feel the cable is full of Chaosy Goodness, and that while it doesn't contain a mind, it's likely linked to a mind at its far distant end. Mikage uses the cable as a conduit to flood the mind of the controller. You begin reaching down the cable. It quickly becomes obvious this is going to take a while, because it's a loooooong trip to where the guy is. You do think you will reach the guy's mind long before he pulls the boat to him, but it could take a few hours. Mikage directs the marines to guard him while he performs the operation. ======================================== ======================================== Mikage says, "And I gotta go. :P I'll try to get online earlier tomorrow." *** TimeRunner goes OOC. *** Shizumaru has connected. Mikage says, "Bye." TimeRunner has disconnected. >> Timerunner gets swallowed up by a Corridor, leaving behind a mindless Analogue. Philip Moyer----------------Qapla'-------------pmoyer@jurai.net "To boldly go where no one has gone before!"-Capt. J. L. Picard "Roads? Where we're going we don't NEED roads!"-Dr. E. L. Brown "If it can be dreamed, It can be done."- ReRob Mandeville "Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection, The Lovers, ---------- The Dreamers, and Me."- Kermit The Frog ------------