"Well, here goes nothing..." Smith inhales audibly, giving a tentative tug on the cable Chukk had so generously strung across the haphazard pile of innumerable obstacles before him.

Mid first-step he awkwardly pauses. "What IS that??" he questions aloud, appearing to search the cavern's rough hewn ceiling. It's as if he's tracking an annoying fly or bee that's begun pestering him. "Why the hell..." he trails off grumbling as he sets boot to beam and begins crossing the first bar.

11:40, Today: Smith rolled 5 using 1d6
This message was last edited by the player at 18:41, Mon 20 Dec 2021.

For the first five meters or so, Smith inches one boot ahead of the other in an excruciatingly slow display of why he chose the engineering path instead of more rugged pursuits. He fights to keep his wandering eyes on the narrow metal pathway and quash his wandering thoughts about whatever oversight is being made of the trio by... something, preventing any confidence in his balancing beam act from growing.

Smith gets across, but only with much difficulty, scrabbling, sweating, muttering, grabbing at the line securing him, sliding backwards...

Finally, he manages to cross, but he's both tired and anxious... (On Smith's next roll, subtract 1 from the highest result.

Of course, this means if there are two highest results (6 6 4, say), just ignore this.)

Still, at least he's unhurt.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:00, Fri 07 Jan 2022.

"Good... news..." Smith says, still huffing after stepping off the beam at the far end of the cavern "... I made it!" he's directing his statement back in Elern's direction.

He turns to Chukk and offers a high five (or 4 or 3 or whatever Scav have) adding "Thanks for running that safety line across."

"No problem," Chukk said, slapping appendages with the human. "Can't have my buddy doing the Hans Gruber Swan Dive into that big hole over there."

Elern looks at the gap and tries to use the cable Chukk provided.  However it seems this is totally new idea of Elern and he not doing very well crossing the gap.

OOC:
Use detail from watch and motivation but -1 dice.
20:10, Today: Elern rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  follow the others.

Elern starts carefully struggling across the rocky terrain.

It's about 4 seconds before he slides RIGHT INTO THE HOLE.

(One of you other two roll to grab the line and try save him before he hits something! (probably Avoid Danger, if that's something you need to know).)

"NOT THE HOLE!" Smith lunges for the thin steel line, "Hang on, damnit!"

Gathering line in both hands he grits his teeth, braces his boots on a rather large chunk of debris at the foot of the pile and strains to pull it taught again.

18:33, Today: Smith rolled 5 using 1d6
This message was last edited by the player at 01:34, Wed 19 Jan 2022.

Elern falls about 9 feet without hitting anything-- and then Smith abruptly stops the rapid downward descent.

Smith gets dragged right to the edge of the hole, himself... but he's stopped, for now, and he THINKS he's got a good enough position to not slide in himself, too...

(Okay, now someone roll to get Smith and Elern out of this. I'm fine with any of you three rolling for it:

--Elern to climb up the line
or
--Smith to pull him up
or
--Chukk to help Smith pull him up)

As Elern is falling he remember the strange things small human children like to watch.  He always enjoyed the programs.  The others didn't.  So he got to watch them all.  With straight face.  No laughing.

Wings.  Wings would be good.  Being small with wings would be good.  Yes a male version of that character.  She was always fun and happy.  What was her name now. Tinker bell.

Yes.  Being a male Tinkerbell would be fun.  Elern wondered why he never tried to do this before.

OOC:
I use My ability and 1 Zeal:-
Turn myself into a small very very light weight flying fairy.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

(Be SURE to mark off 1 Zeal from your character sheet, Elern...

You are now exactly like Chukk and Smith are used to seeing you, EXCEPT THAT:
--you are about an inch and a half tall, and
--you have large insect wings sticking out of your back, and
--you glow in the dark with a soft golden glow.

You can also use your wings to fly. The faster you fly, the more you glow. When you hold still, you just barely glow.)

Down below, the line suddenly goes totally slack. Damn, did it snap?!?

(Smith, please roll Avoid Danger to avoid falling backwards and sliding into the hole from the sudden unexpected loss of weight...)

"Oh."

Smith can't even muster a yell as the shock of the line giving way completely stuns him. In an instant he goes nearly limp, flattening himself on the gravelly slope and praying for traction between scrabbling finger nails and boot treads.

After a moment, through the dust cloud, Smith manages to eek out a hoarse cry;

"E...?"

He waits in silence for a response or for the slope to give way.

19:29, Today: Smith rolled 5 using 1d6.  Avoid Danger
This message was last edited by the player at 02:43, Mon 24 Jan 2022.

"What the ch'hrt?" Chukk asked, staring at the tiny flying person.

The little figure fly's around creating a lot of light for everybody to see with.

In Elern normal dry speech it says.
Well that works very well.  Then he adds after a few laps of flying.
I believe Smith that flying is what you humans call enjoyable and exhilarating.  You and Chukk should try it some time.

The little creature then returns to hover close to the other two.  Before them is a small looking Elern with a set of nice wings and glows a little.  Or a lot depending on how much he is flying around.

"The hells??"

Smith would have made an effort to swat the thing clear of himself had he not been so preoccupied getting back to safety and solid ground.

Smith slides down into the hole... but catches onto the side of it with both hands.

(Chukk will be able to get Smith back up and on his feet without a roll... but Chukk will have to come back to this side of the room to do so...

Alternatively, Smith can roll again to get himself out...

OR Elern can change form back to normal size and help Smith up without a roll...)

"Damn it," Chukk grumbled, moving carefully but quickly back to where Smith was. HE grabbed him and pulled him free from the hole. "We've been through too much to be wiped out by a stupid hole in the ground."

Smith, afraid to move, doesn't hinder Chukk but also doesn't help much.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you, thank you..."

Chukk'Chee rolled 1,5 using d6,d6 ((1,5)).


Chukk crosses the room (again) with relative ease. The ability to travel on all fours or upright, as required, can be extremely beneficial in such circumstances.

Complaining, rather loudly the entire time, Smith gets about halfway back across to Chukk...

14:28, Today: Smith rolled 1 using 1d6

(All right, I've had enough of this...)

Chukk has a hard time, for a scav... a lot of scrambling and muttering... and then he has to back up and drag Smith along with him...

...Finally, though, the two team members without wings get across to the other side in one piece, although tired and frustrated.

(Chukk, the next time you roll, take -1 on the highest die. (If there's a tie for highest, just ignore this.

Smith, we're going to act like you've had to roll to not die, and made it. But that means that if you have to make such a roll for real this mission, you'll have to beat +1 higher number than you would otherwise to avoid using Zeal.)

"Good grief, if there's not another way out of here after we catch this nutjob I might just make myself at home and stay on this side of that deathtrap."

In the end, the mine administrator was found, and the memory device that held the secrets of fixing the security glitch back at home was acquired.

But (with some impassioned and rhetorically-brilliant persuasion from the team of heroes) the bigger find was a new ally: the psychic insect race calling themselves Iada, long-dormant under the surface of the planet, unknown or forgotten even to the Scavs.

Together with the Iada, the rebels began to fight back against Megacorp in earnest, with a new sense of hope...

"And even when, well if, we drive Megacorp from this space rock we call home, there will always be another Megacorp somewhere on the horizon." Smith reflects over a hot cup of coffee in a tunnel amongst other 'rebels' one distant morning. He looks at his Scav friend, then at Elern before blowing down into the mug trying to cool its contents. An appreciative smile creeps over Smith's face.

"There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story." he adds, unknowingly quoting long since forgotten Earth author Frank Herbert.

Elern sit beside Smith.  He been quite since the mission had ended.  It seems a lot was on his mind.
Trying to work out if he made the right decision or not.  Things where a lot more complicated than he imagined.  He looked around.  However he did not have anybody to talk this over with.
His two new friend just could not be told.
So he listened to Smith and nodded his head.