As the rope parted under her scimitar, Bo used her momentum to slash upwards at the saw-armed aberration, hoping to disarm it before it cut her to pieces.
Bo's blow bounces off the hardened armor of the strange humanoid machine. Behind her Pearl whines, clearly unwilling to jump into empty air, regardless of what Bo says. But seeing her friend under attack, she yowls and makes the leap.
In mid air she turns, gracefully (as all cats) and lands lightly on her paws, on the ceiling with everyone else. She lets out a rumbling roar of triumph which Shriek matches with a scream. Back on the ledge Shanda claps her hands.
Growling her displeasure with the situation, Bo unconsciously echoed Pearl as they moved together to flank the mechanical creature. Scimitar, claws and teeth flashing, they attempted to take the strange, seemingly thoughtless creature down.
Bo and Peal savage the first strange...machine(?). While Bo's blow does little, it does seem to distract the thing while Pearl tears the sawblade arm clean off. The shiny metal clatters to the ceiling,, ringing off the rough stone. It haphazardly tries to swing the stump at Bo but fails to realize it is missing a limb.
The other two start to close, making their way slowly across the ceiling.
Bo shrieked most undignifiedly when the strange saw-arm clanked to the ground. It continued to whizz and grind against the stone, and both Bo and Pearl stepped away from it.
However, her foe didn't seem to realize that it had been disarmed, and continued to attack. Likewise, the other two were seconds away from engaging. Bo was bleeding from the first hit she'd taken, and didn't want a repeat.
"Pearl! Guard!" she cried, and the hunting cat leapt in front of the druid, shielding her. Bo stared up into the dark cavern above (below?), and decided to try something new.
Focusing her attention on the rocky dust particles in the air above, she willed them to rub together just so, creating a static charge in the air above.
Pearl launched herself at the nearest automaton, intent on taking it down.
Pearl growls deep in her throat and launches herself at the first machine-man. However, this one seems a bit faster and more nimble and it manages to avoid any real damage from the cat's claws and teeth. A buzzing, whirring sounds fills the room as a saw cuts into Pearl's back. The cat yowls in pain as a red wound is opened along her graceful side.
The sight and sound of Pearl's distress nearly cost Bo her concentration, but she held on for the few seconds longer, and managed to coerce the strange atmosphere within the cave to do something it never done before.
Overhead, a brilliant light flashed, and an arc of lightning crashed into the machine-man that had hurt the cougar. The boom of accompanying thunder was deafening, and echoed off the walls of the strange cavern.
Stepping into the scorched air, Bo swung her scimitar at the damaged bot, hoping to finish it off. The air remained charged, and Bo was ready to call down a second bolt.
Pearl also pressed her attack, clawing and biting at the oily-tasting metal men.
Between the lighting bolts and the claws, Bo and Pearl destroy one automaton and leave another badly damaged. The bolts of pure electric energy seem to have done more then the usual damaged, sending out sprays of blue-white sparks scattering onto the stone floor. Even as Bo watches, it falls over and hits the ground, twitching. Slowly, the light fades and it stops moving. Pearl sniffs it, growls then trots over to Bo's side.
From the far ledge Shadra looks out, then slowly (but gracefully) jumps out. She flips mid-air and lands on the ceiling.
"That was amazing!" The fey says, looking at the smashed and smoking machines.
With reluctance, Bo allowed her spell to disperse, and the storm-charged atmosphere calmed again. Waiting a moment to make sure the metal men were truly down for good, she then made her way over to them, and examined them for clues.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" she asked the fey, as he looked over her fallen foes.
The fey gives Bo an odd look, as if debating how honest to be then finally, "The other city that is sometimes at the end of the Shortcut has them. Big ones, small ones, some with glowing eyes." The fey shudders adding, "I only see them for a distance, it is scary."
Bo finds little among the machines, who seem to lack any personal effects or markings. She can tell the metal is very old and pitted, and guesses it is only magic keeping them from falling into piles of rust and ruin.
Bo let her brain run away from the idea that a city could sometimes be in a certain place, but only for a moment. This place is....so.... She didn't even have a word to finish the sentence.
Trying to untangle the implications of the fey's words, she tried to clarify. "Are there two cities that might be at the end of the Shortcut? The one Daly is running to, and this other, scarier one?"
As they spoke, the druid, fey and cat walked over to the other side of the cavern. Bo tried to see how they would get out of these creepy, upside down pit.
The fey seems to consider Bo's words about the various cities and shrugs, "That is one way to say it. Things change all the time, you know? I don't go outside much..."
Bo walks across the ceiling until she reaches the far end. 'Above' her is a ledge much like the one she leapt from to start the fight, except it has a large metal lever affixed to the ground. Peering down,s he also sees a few small rocks and grit there, sitting 'down' on the ledge, implying gravity is flipped back around over there.
"Do you know the name of that city? Or the other one?"
Bo stared up at the opening, and the lever. She considered trying to throw a rope over it, but was worried about what might happen if she accidentally triggered it. Last thing I need to do is trigger a trap in this place.
Taking a close look at the rock wall in front of her, she decided to try climbing it.
"Names? Do cities have names?" Shandra says, sounding confused.
It takes Bo awhile but she manages to climb up the cavern wall, toward the ledge. Luckily the wall is rough here, with stones having fallen through the long years since this was carved. Or maybe things just age faster in the First World, who knows?
When she is nearly at the top, suddenly the world flips-flops with sudden speed. Up becomes down and her handhold slips. With a sickening lurch she tumbles forward and lands ungracefully on the ledge, sprawled out in the dust. Glancing up, she can see Pearl and Shandra standing on the ceiling, looking upside down again.
Picking herself up, Bo brushed the dirt and pebbles from her clothes. Tying a harness in her rope, she lowered it up/down and called out, "Help Pearl into this, so I can pull her up." The big cat was a champion climber, but rock walls were beyond her abilities. "If you need help climbing I'll pull you up next."
As she waited for the fey to comply, she examined the lever in front of her to try and figure out its purpose.
The fey looks at the rope and the large cat with obvious trepidation. It was one thing for Bo to do that but for some stranger? Pearl growls slightly but consents to the operation.
Meanwhile Bo looks at the aged lever. Heavy and brass, the connection to whatever mechanism it is attached to is hidden behind old piles of rocks and scree, long fallen in place. There are markings but not in any language Bo knows.
Slowly, and with considerable effort, Pearl is soon harnessed and 'lowered' to the other ledge. Bo almost laughs when she considers the strangeness of the event. She was pulling the cat down toward, almost as if her friend was a giant kite. Then they cross the tipping point and Pearl suddenly twists in mid air and falls the rest of the way, rope going limp in Bo's grip. She lands with a slightly yowl and starts to rub on Bo's leg, clearly unhappy at their latest adventure.
Shandra simply leaps into the air with enough force to find the tipping point and lands on the ledge gracefully, light as a feather.
"What does that lever do?" Instantly the fey is touching it, clearly intending to turn it.
Meanwhile Shriek flies overhead, clearly happy to be gliding.
"Woah!" Bo cried out, putting her hand on the fey's arm to stop her. "Let's see if we can figure out what this is before we pull it. I take it this didn't used to be here before?"
Bo began moving stone and debris away from the bottom of the mechanism, hoping to see what it attached to.
Bo laboriously begins to clear some of the stones and piled earth away, while Shandra watches. The fey quickly become bored again and begins tossing stones into the seemingly endless pit. If she throws them far enough they suddenly flip in mid air and pile on the ceiling. Otherwise they merely sail down into the Abyss.
Soon Bo has the lever cleared. The metal rod enters the ground in a narrow crack worked into the stone, without enough empty space for the lever to be pushed downward. While the druid can see little of the mechanism inside, the lever seems functioning and could probably be pushed without much effort.
Bo puzzled over the mechanism for a while, then finally shrugged. "I can't figure it out. Could do something bad, could do something helpful. No reason not to try it, I guess. I'll just be ready to pull it back if something nasty happens."
Hoping for the best, Bo pushed the lever.
Bo grabs the lever, squeezes tight and pulls it down. There is a single moment of resistance as the metal holds on out of sheer inertia and time. Then it breaks free and smoothly slides toward the floor. With a click it locks in place then....silence.
Then, without warning the rocks and heaped piles of destroyed machines fall from the ceiling and plunge silently into the black abyss past the ledge. In midair Shriek gives a indignant squawk as he is forced to do a barrel roll to correct his balance and avoid dropping debris. With obvious disdain he ghosts back and lands on Bo's shoulder.
Shandra and looks down into the blackness below. "I wonder where it goes."
Bo shuddered, stepping back from the infinite blackness below. "Good thing there weren't extra machine men here, waiting to pull the lever on us." Then she frowned - she could have saved her and Pearl some hurt if they'd simply dodged past the slow-moving machines and just dumped them into the abyss.
Sighing, she said, "Well, at least you can put pull this again if you come back this way, and need to cross the ceiling."
Turning her back on the abyss, she moved forward into the unknown.
Together they push deeper into the winding mines and caverns of the mountain. Shandra says nothing but seems to know where she is going, leading the way at intersections and crossroads. On her own Bo would have shortly been lost, going in circles in the endless dark.
They pass under an arch when Bo suddenly hears a voice ahead saying, quite clearly, "Is someone there? Please wait a moment, I'm in the middle of something."
Shandra looks totally surprised and confused, cowering behind Bo's leg. Pearl sniffs the air and gives a puzzled snort as if confused by whatever she detects. A long moment then, that same voice, vaguely masculine but with a strange accent says, "Come on then!"
The corridor beyond is dark but there is a sense of air here, like it opens into a sizable room in a short distance.
Bo leads the others slowly forward. She didn't sense any menace from the voice, but didn't want to walk into a trap either. "Who's there?" she called. "We don't want trouble, we're just passing through."
"I guessed that." the voice says, sounding slightly annoyed, like a fussy professor being interrupted during a lecture. "No one talks to em unless they are passing through." A pause, as if waiting for a reaction and then, "Oh, you don't know who I am so that meant nothing to you..."
Suddenly the roof overhead starts to glow faintly, a pale arcane blue filling the corridor, slowly growing brighter then a weird sunrise. In a few moments the light is strong enough to read by and clearly shows the way ahead.
A small stone room lies ahead, little more then a widening in the tunnel. The walls are blank and unmarked, with no sign or carvings. The far wall however.....
A large stone door is worked into the far wall, directly across from Bo. In the middle of it a bearded human face is carved directly into the stone..and it is moving. As if it were alive, the stone shifts and ripples as the face peers across the unfurnished room toward Bo and Shandra. The voice was a door?
'Now do you get it?' the door says tiredly, sounding bored already with the joke.
Above the door, carved in fine letters, is a message reading "The password is Midnight"
Bo couldn't help smiling with delight. She'd never even imagined a talking door. And unlike some of the other strange, unimaginable sights in this place, the door seemed funny and benign.
"Greetings, sir door," she said. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Bo, and this is my companion, Pearl, and my guide, Shandra."
Turning to the fey, she said softly, "I assume this wasn't here before?"
Shandra shakes her head and mutters back, "The door was always open before."
"Your assumption of honorific and aristocratic lineage is flattering but unnecessary. I am not a member of that lordly and ruling caste of lords and ladies. 'Sir' is not required when addressing me, just a simple 'door' will do, Bo and companions."
The door looks wistful for a second, "There was once a time when they brought brilliant wizards and radical philosophers, deep thinkers and gray-bearded logicians to speak with me. We would talk deep into the darkest nights, with riddles and puzzles, traps of logic and tricks of memory. Aah, those were the days when all thoughts seemed fresh and new, when the entire world of reason and contemplation seemed ripe for the picking."
The door sighed, stone moving as easily as flesh. "Then again, recent time has been quiet, which is good for thinking. I have re-computer out several branches of mathematics from first principles in these years, using sheer logic mind you. I had just begun on advanced trigonometry when you interrupted." His tone isn't angry or scolding but a bit distracted, like a busy man who is trying to be polite but keeps an eye on the large stack of papers on his desk.
"Go ahead then, go on."
Bo wasn't sure what advanced trigonometry was, but it sounded like something you'd need a cleric to take care of.
"It sounds like you've been alone for some time. Have you always been...ah...here? In this doorway?" Though really, Bo didn't know why she was asking. In this place, the word always meant very little.
"I couldn't help but notice a password written above you. Do we need that to pass through?" It seemed polite to ask.
"Yes, this is where I have resided since my construction. Are doors often found in places other then doorways where you come from? Just leaning in odd corners or maybe on a rooftop somewhere?" There is a sarcastic edge to the dusty voice but not really meanness, more like an effected boredom.
When she asks about the password, the door visibly roll its heavy stone eyes and shifts, almost like sitting up straight. Someone reluctantly coming to attention for a long held but unimportant duty. The door's tone become formal and he intones gravely, "The way is shut. Let us proceed with the Opening."
A long pause and then, voice more normal the door mutters, "Get on with it."
Bo was a bit surprised that the door was so eager to see them on their way. Surely he'd be happy to have company to talk to for a while. Maybe one of the symptoms of his advancing trigonometry was a desire to be alone.
Clearing her throat, she said, "First, may I ask what lies beyond? Are there dangers we should prepare for?"
***
"I think you for your help, Door. Please open for us. Midnight."
The door narrows his rocky eyes at Bo's first question then shrugs, speaking in the 'casual' tone. "I face this way and know nothing of what lies beyond. I will say however, I have heard from others, long ago,t he way is short and easy to the surface."
Shandra nods and ventures, staring up at the rather imposing stone entryway, "Only a few hallways. At least, last time I was here."
When Bo speaks the 'password' the door stands mute for a moment. Then, voice back in 'formal' mode says, "I cannot. The requirements for Opening have not been met."
"What happens if somebody wants to come through from behind?" she asked.
***
Bo rolled her eyes - of course it wasn't that easy. "Hmm. How about, The password is midnight."
The door gives Bo a long suffering sigh, takes a deep breath of earth and stone saying, "Please look at the hinges upon my side. They face toward you which means....I open outward, in your direction. When I am opened, I merely see more of that lovely wall over to the left, your right."
When Bo tries to re-word the password, the door remains locked in place saying, "It is."
Sighing, Bo says, "Darling door, can you please tell me what more is required of me to complete the rite of Opening?"
The door shakes his head, an impressive effect considering he can't really move side to side.
"That is not permitted, forbidden by the arcane rituals that formed my being. I cannot do that anyone then a fish breathe air or the Sun stop shining." The door pauses and then says, whispering, "Not that such things mean much in the First World, but you understand my intention."
Shandra, so far silent then pipes up saying, "I can walk through stone. Can't I just walk through and push it open?" The fey starts to move toward the doorway, hand outstretched.
"I would advise against that particular course of action." The door says, voice calm and academic, like an architect discussing a historic fire that killed hundreds. Shandra freezes in place.
"My esteemed creators crafted any number of security measures into my being, most of them quite deadly and painful. Most of them would be activated by any attempt to circumvent myself by such means. I implore you to avoid that route."
The door glances back at Bo, "Simply solve the Opening. Must less painful for all involved."
"Simply solve the Opening," Bo muttered. "Simple, but not easy."
As she thought about it, something occurred to her. "Did a tiefling man come this way in the last few days?"
Hmmm. The password is Midnight. "Do we need to wait until midnight for you to be able to open? I have no idea what time it is." It seemed like they'd been underground for a week.
When Bo asks about Daly, Shandra speaks up, "No, remember? We wanted to come this way but he attacked me and ran back out into the mountain pass. No one came this way or I would know."
"No one has passed this way recently." the door agrees, adding, "Although time means very little here."
"As for your other question, no. All of the requirements, data and participants required for Opening are currently in this room." The door gives Bo a look as if this is a significant clue.
Bo's eyebrows came together as she tried to puzzle out the door's hint. There was precious little in the room...in fact...there appeared to be nothing in the room. Still, perhaps there was something she was missing. The druid took a moment to focus her senses, then carefully walked the perimeter of the room, looking for a hidden clue.
Bo turns from the door and begins examining the room. She scours the floor, the joints in the wall, the lintel around both entryways, the carven words of the 'password'. She even investigates the ceiling as best she can, pearl following behind her, sniffling obviously wanting to help.
She finds....nothing.
The door watches with mild amusement as that slowly becomes annoyance. Finally it says, stone shifting into am impatient grimace, "Everything and everyone you need is already available to you."
Bo stopped her fruitless search and stared at the door. "Okay, so you keep saying 'everyone' and 'participants'. Do we all need to say the password?" Turning to Shandra, she said, "You say Midnight too." Turning back to door, she said, "I hope you'll forgive the animals, they're non-verbal."
Shandra shrugs and says, "Midnight."
The door looks somewhat impressed and says, "The animals are not required. You are close to the solution but have not quite solved it yet. Keep thinking." The door remains closed.
"But there's nobody else here..." Bo trailed off, then grimaced. "Door, dear, would you be so good as to speak the password, Midnight, and open yourself up?"
The door smiles a bit condescendingly, like a professor pleased when a usually troublesome student answers correctly.
"Midnight."
A moment of silence and then the door swings open, stone grinding on stone. Shortly the way is clear, and a dark passage lies beyond while the door, now facing away says with apparent sincerity, "Good luck, Bo and Shandra."
Then, after a short pause, she can hear it muttering, "Sine = Opposite ÷ Hypotenuse, Cosine = Adjacent ÷ Hypotenuse, Tangent = Opposite ÷ Adjacent"
"Thanks, door. Good luck with that trigonometry."
As they passed the strange door, Bo felt a pang of sadness, leaving him alone in the dark like that. But as his murmuring voice came to her, she realized he was probably happier with fewer distractions.
Calling her animals to her, Bo moved forward into the passage.
The door is silent as they pass by, but once they are all in the corridor behind it closes slowly, careful to not to pinch anyone in the heavy stone. It grinds closed, sealing off the arcane light that had filled the door chamber.
They move off into darkness, Shandra leading the way as usual. The passages twist and turn, breaking off and re-joining in random patterns that remind Bo more of gopher tunnels then anything else, a dizzying maze without a larger plan.
Shandra doesn't doubt however and soon they enter a wide hall full of pillars. At the far end, a tiny dot of daylight gleams, seemingly endlessly remote. Bo's fey guide stops and looks at it, apprehension clear on her face.
"That's the way out." A pause and then, "I don't want to go closer. The sky...scares me."
Bo had picked up her pace, excited to see the sky again. However, she stopped at the fey's words. "I can see how it might be scary, for somebody used to always having a mountain over you. All that emptiness? But you know, it isn't really empty at all. The sky is full of things. Clouds, rainbows, birds, insects, stars..."
As she spoke, Shriek cried out in delight, and swooped off her shoulder and flew for the exit. Clearly the bird had had enough of being underground. "See how excited Shriek is? Would you like to come out, just for a bit, to look around? I'll take care of you." The druid was loathe to leave the fey alone in the dark, even though she seemed to like it here.
Shandra looks terrified at the mere idea and shakes her head violently. "No...no! I won't go, you can't make me." Then, without warning she turns, jumps and dives into the rock floor of the pillared chamber. She vanishes into the solid stone like a diver into water, and is gone in a moment. No sound or sign the fey was ever there.
Pearl sniffs the ground a bit where Shandra had tunneled into then seems to shrug and rub on Bo's leg. Shriek, of course, is long gone, flying quickly for the distant open door.
"No! Wait" But it was too late, Shandra was gone.
Feeling terrible, Bo called out, "I'm sorry I scared you! Thank you so much for guiding me." She wasn't sure if the fey could hear through rock, but she hoped so.
A yawn cracked her jaw, and Bo realized how tired she was. Looking down at Pearl, she saw that the big cat was tired too. "Let's go take a peek and what's out there, and collect Shriek. Then we'll eat and sleep."
That decided, she moved towards the dot of light, wondering which city she'd find at the end of the tunnel.
Bo moves toward the speck of light in the distance, watching to slowly grow larger and larger. The bright white light slowly changes as she approaches, taking on more colors and variety. Soon Bo can feel fresh air, a slight breeze blowing on her face. It feels wonderful after so long in the warm but stale air of the cavern system.
Soon she arrives and, eyes squinting after so long in the dark, the druid peers outside.
The tunnel opens onto a flat hot plain of sandy earth, nothing like the high pine mountains behind her. The sky is bright blue with the sun a heavy blazing halo of shimmering white, with no clouds. It feels like high summer here, dry and sun bleached. A single winding road enters her vision from the left, little more then a dirt track, leading to a distant circle of walls in the distance. A city...but too far to make out much detail. Bo sees no other signs of life from her vantage point, just plains stretching brown and dead looking to the horizon.
Shriek flies out of the tunnel and starts circling above, screaming in joy.