"At this point, the device going off might be the best thing. But we need to ensure they can't disable it. We should try to hide it, then go find the Shapiro-demon." Antonio looks at the device, grimly.
The team hides the haftorang device in the dhole tunnel near the entrance to the smaller ghoul warrens and makes their way back to the surface, sadly reduced in number.
The sun is in the west, a few hours from setting. The strange creatures clinging to the cliff face haven't begun to stir. Yet.
Chakos will start sneaking up the hill, rifle in hand.
Abraham moved quietly along the hill-face, trying to still his still racing mind. Each step was perilous and overall, this mission had gone wrong from the get-go. With weapon in hand, he moved up higher and higher.
Antonio tries to follow the other two silently, but slips a bit, slamming his knee into the rock. The Priest gives a short cry as pain shoots through his leg.
Shotgun in hand, Elliot follows after Abraham. He keeps a sharp eye on the creatures, wondering if they'll stir...
Unfortunately, he puts his weight on a rock that suddenly gives way beneath him, setting off a minor rockslide that clatters down the steep slope.
A single one of the eyeless, flying nightmares takes note of you and falls free from the cliff face, spreading its huge leathery wings and gliding swiftly towards you!
Antonio shouts as he sees the winged nightmare flies at them. The priest, grabs his shotgun, but prepares to swing it light a bat as the things nears them.
Chakos will steady to fire his shotgun when the thing comes into point blank range to attack someone...
Elliot growls a curse as the thing launches toward them and fires his shotgun as well when it gets close.
Sawed off 12-gauge Shotgun (2B): Regular: 60 / Hard: 30 / Extreme: 12 ; Damage: 4d6/1d6
………………… Range: 5 / 10 yards ; Attacks: 1 or 2 ; Ammo: 2 ; Malfunction: 100
Abraham pulls out his pistol, taking aim at the creature as he had begun to scale the cliff face. Pulling back the hammer, he aims and takes his shot.
Abraham shoots the flying monster through the shoulder, but it keeps on coming. Just as it is about to attack, Father Antonio wallops it in the jaw with the butt of his shotgun. Spitting blood and teeth, the monstrosity veers away and flaps off into the night!
Our Heroes climb up to the strange hexagonal opening, avoiding further conflict with the creatures clinging to the cliff face. The hexagonal tunnel is white and featureless, emitting just enough light to see clearly by. Whatever this place is, it isn't normal.
Chakos smiles and nods at Elliott, "A couple well placed warning shots, and that thing wanted no part of us!"
Chakos turns to his companions, "if you two can carry that machine, I'll lead the way into the abyss."
Chakos puts away his shotgun and pulls two pistols.
Elliot shakes his head. "Had to leave that machine down by the hole. Couldn't have made the climb with it. We'll just have to survive this place to get back down there and take care of it. Right?"
He too readies his shotgun and follows after Chakos.
Antonio nods. "Let's just find the demon-Shapiro."
The team walks down the white corridor and enters a large hexagonal room. In the center of this room rises a six-sided step-pyramid of polished metal, thrumming with arcane energies. Circling through the air above the pyramid are two hexagonal frames of white metal, also crackling with power. When the two frames align in their spinning, a crackling pop of electricity momentarily reveals the image of some other place.
Two other exits lead from this room. One is blocked by an ancient rockfall, but the other leads into a similar hexagonal room with darkened windows covering three of the walls. Various control panels sit under each window. Serpentine sigils and glyphs cover the controls.
You can sense that these things are ancient, though very much in working order!
Any skill to try and read the keyboards, or to figure out what this stuff does?
"Dios Mio...." Antonio stares at the spinning hexagon frames. "Is this some sort of gateway?"
He approaches the frames to try and see if the scenes change or if they are of the same place(s).
[ooc]The controls are in the other room. You going in there, Chakos?[ooc]
Antonio, you see a strange world of caverns and tunnels. Something vast is moving in the distance.
Chakos says, "cover me, I want to see what this thing does, or how to control it," and he moves into the next room.
Elliot gazes at the strange 'portal' for a long moment, his thoughts echoing those of the good Father. Chakos' statement breaks his reverie and the archaeologist gives a brief nod, following the other man into the next room.
Chakos and Elliot can see that the "windows" are in fact large screens, some advanced form of oscilloscope or television (a newfangled device recently featured in Life magazine) although they're dark and not operating. Various serpentine sigils and glyphs can be seen on and around the control panels, suggesting the facility’s association with serpent folk.
Antonio comes over to try and make any sense of the language on the panels.
"Stupid newfangled widgets!"
Chakos will go ahead and use 3 Luck on the Mythos roll.
Antonio, you recognize Naacal, the language used by the serpent folk of old, but you can't translate it.
Chakos, you realize that Gate technology here is responsible for the weakening of the barrier between dimensions (explaining a lot if not all of the weirdness you've experienced) and that the barrier would be strengthened if the Gate were destroyed.
"Gentlemen, I believe there is some form of gate in play here. It is somehow weakening the barrier between dimensions. I'm positive I wouldn't have believed it before I met you all, but I do believe it now. We need to destroy the gate. Perhaps with the death machine we left on the surface?
"No," says an unexpected voice. Turning, you see Quentin Shapiro standing by the entrance. "You can't destroy it. It might destroy this place, which is our only hope of survival."
"Bad news, guys. I've completed the analysis and it is Yellow Death. Most if not all the people in that valley are going to die before it burns itself out. Millions more if we let it escape. I'm afraid the only option is to hide here, away from the haftorang device and let them die cleanly. When it's safe, we can leave."
"Hahahaha!" Chakos laughs, and then he opens fire on Shapiro...
Elliot is stunned at the appearance of Shapiro, but then realizes that perhaps the impersonator doesn't realize they know the truth. In fact, it seems quite likely...
His thoughts are interrupted by Chakos' laughter and then the heavy booms of several gunshots!
Antonio is stunned by Shapiro's appearance. But he quickly finds his crucifix to display it to the demon. "Begone Demon!" His words are drowned out by the blast of Chakos' pistol.
"Shapiro" staggers back as the large-caliber bullets him repeatedly. The image of the man you knew fades away like mist in the morning, revealing a dying serpent man that collapses into a seated position. It coughs up blood as it laughs weakly.
"You're too late! Too late! Vermin. You'll never escape this valley in time. Everyone in this pitiful valley is going to die. You may have spoiled our plans this time, but soon the Inner Night will rise again and the citadels of humanity will fall under our claws!" With a final cackling laugh he falls onto a control panel and collapses, dead.
Almost instantly, you realize that the gateway hexagons have stopped turning and have locked into place. The gate is becoming more real by the second! To make things much worse, one of the enormous worm-creatures is moving towards the gate!
Chakos chuckles, "I never really liked that guy anyways." He jerks a thumb at the gate, "what's the plan with that? Shotgun blasts to the mechanism?"
Antonio quickly approaches the body to look at it and search for any items not-Shapiro might have held. "If we had the bomb, we could throw it through. Otherwise, destroying the machinery might be the best option!"
Antonio quickly finds that the image of Quentin Shapiro was just that - an image. It fades quickly when touched, revealing the dead body of a serpent-man. That serpent-man is carrying a Webley revolver and four Mills bombs - grenades. These were likely stolen from the British camp.
You can see that the Mills bombs are unlikely to do much damage to that immense worm.
Elliot nods in agreement. "If we can destroy the gate, we can maybe keep that thing out of our world. If it gets through... I don't know, maybe somehow get it down to the bomb. Quick, let's use the Mills bombs and try to blow the gate back to Hell!"
"Do it quickly! Anything we can do to shut this down!" Antonio tosses each of them a grenade for them to use together. The priest, pulls the pin and tosses it towards one of the control devices. He quickly runs the other way.
Chakos dutifully pulls his pin as Father Antonio does, and throws it where he thinks it will do the most damage.
Glad that the priest seems decisive in following the plan, Elliot mutters a short prayer that they aren't dooming the world to something catastrophic and horrible, then pulls the pin and moves away after tossing it at the gateway, though he turns back to see what happens to the portal - hoping that the horrifying image of the oncoming dhole is obliterated...
As the dhole approaches the gate, it comes into full view. The sight of the apocalyptic worm is enough to shatter sanity!
THEN we'll get to the grenades.
Woot!
Though the archaeologist had read something of the dhole in the occult books he had found in the collection of his good friend Algernon Blackwood, still the sheer size of the thing hurtling toward them was enough to make part of his mind try and scurry into a corner, close its eyes and cry until sweet oblivion swept him away. But in the next instant Elliot takes hold of his fear and follows through with the plan they'd hurriedly come up with...
Okay, sadly the failed Luck roll means that the dhole is aware of you! just as you hurl your grenades into the whirling gate mechanism, it spits caustic goo into your world!
The goo covers all of you... and that's a good thing. It hardens around you, burning your flesh, but in that instant, all the Mills bombs go off, one after the other, wrecking the gate, the controls and the control room... but not you.
The BAD news is that you can't breathe. Trapped in an acidic rock-hard shell, you begin to suffocate!
The boxer grits his teeth and slams his shoulder against the hard shell, cracking it just enough for him to get the room to throw an elbow against the same spot. He gasps for air as the thing shatters.