Khorboth Khronicles

The roof has caved in, the power is out, and the rest of the floor is cut off from the elevator. The PCs decide that the elevator is a bad idea and go for the stairs which travel the entire distance next to the elevator shaft.

So, by the light of Mitzey’s hand, they proceed to pry the door open. Looking up, they see twisted metal slag that used to be stairs. Looking down, there is more twisted slag, and rubble completely blocking the shaft. At least the shaft is mostly intact. Zeth knows that the elevator/stair shaft is a major structural fixture in the base.

Now that he’s more relaxed, Bill finds that he’s able to shift back into normal, fleshy form. He’s still extra strong, but not nearly as strong as he is as a stone guy.

Plan B: The elevator. Bill’s newfound strength is easily able to open the elevator doors. Looking down, they see the elevator stopped 20 feet below where they currently are with some rubble on top. The cable appears to have snapped as it’s piled on top of the car as well. On the plus side, there is a ladder that goes all the way up. Bill turns to stone and starts to climb down to the elevator. He seems to be bending the rungs on the ladder, so figures that it’s better to be fleshy. When he gets down there, it’s hard to see. He asks Mitzey if she can make more light. Mitzey tries to make as much light as she can. I grin.

Everybody but Mitzey is blinded by the extreme amount of light created. She made a light source brighter than anything they’ve ever seen. Brighter than the sun. And she did it in an elevator shaft.

While the others recover, Mitzey turns down the light and climbs down to the elevator. She guides Bill to push the rock off of the hatch so that she can get into the car itself. The hatch is bent and stuck, so she can’t open it. Fortunately, Bill recovers and is able to easily yank the hatch off its hinges. The elevator is empty, and it’s a long way down to the equipment level. The decision is made to go up and look for survivors.

Bray floats substantially faster than the group climbs, so he goes ahead. He opens the doors on every level and finds the way blocked by rubble. They yell and hear no responses. Every level is the same. They discuss options. Zeth knows that there is a radio in the hanger on the surface, so they decide to go up there and radio for help.

Bray realizes that he can carry one person easily and lifts Michael to the top level. It’s really cold up there, but the PCs are used to this. Feels like it’s about 15 degrees. Michael grabs one of the bright orange one-size-fits-nobody snow suits from the locker and starts to look around while Bray continues to ferry up more people. Zeth and Mitzey make it to the top while Bray lifts Bill.

Meanwhile, Michael is poking around upstairs. The plane is gone, and the hanger doors are open. This means that is should be much colder than it is. Or, more accurately, she’s now resistant to cold. The others notice similar things as they emerge, except for Zeth. He appears to be more resistant because the -40 degree temperature (they check) in the shed doesn’t seem like more than a cool summer’s day to him. Zeth lends his custom North Face gear to Mitzey and they start poking around the garage.

It quickly becomes apparent that a small bomb went off inside the radio cabinet. As an added bonus, it seems that the snow cats have been tampered with. As they are investigating, they hear a crow caw from up in the rafters. Being no fools, they all recognize that there are no crows on this continent. Mitzey can easily see that it’s a robot crow because it has glowing red eyes; everybody else just sees a black bird. It tries to fly away, but Bray grabs it with his mind. Bray tries to bring it down to the ground well away from his friends, but it spectacularly self-destructs. They make a note to stay away from the robot-crow-bombs and take stock of their options.

The snow cats have all had had the wires for the glow-plugs removed, so they are inoperable. There are a number of small stations which transmit weather and astronomical data, and Zeth figures that he can probably rig something up there. He has his board-sailing rig, but doesn’t want to go alone. Several people attempt to get Michael to try jumping the snow cats, but she’s reluctant to try. Eventually, they convince her, and the snow cat fires up. The group takes inventory to determine what they want to take with them.

The preparations are interrupted as a wolf comes into view outside the hanger doors. Since there are no wolves on this continent either, they rightly assume that it’s another robot. It opens it’s mouth, it’s jaws click into place, and a gun barrel extends from inside. The first hail of bullets sprays ice and snow around but fails to come close to anybody.

Michael grabs Mitzey in a blur and dives behind a snow cat. She does this much faster than she should be able to. It seems that she can now run at about 112 MPH. Bill turns to stone and picks up the nearest object to use as a weapon, depriving the girls of their cover. He throws the snow cat at the robot wolf, and finds that it’s exceptionally easy to throw large objects even for his extreme strength. The only running snow cat crushes the poor wolf-bot, and they both go skittering and tumbling across the ice for a hundred yards or so. The PCs don’t even bother trying to sort out the wreckage.

Now that there is someone who can run very fast, Zeth decides that the two of them should go out to the station to call for help, and the others should see about survivors. They all take short-range radios from the supplies. Zeth gets his para-boarding rig out, and they suit action to words.

Clearly, nobody ever picked horror movies for these movie nights, because we’ve now split the party. Zeth and Michael head off toward the weather station while Bill, Mitzey, and Bray look for survivors.

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