Day 0: I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened

[Ezeze]

Mr. E had been prepared for flippant dismissal. He’d been prepared for idle humoring. He’d even dared hope for, perhaps, a grudging admission that with all of her investigation Kacey had also come to the conclusion that something seemed wrong and a willingness to hear him out with an open mind.

He hadn’t been prepared for open hostility and an implied murder accusation.

Nor had he been prepared to suddenly find himself one against three and denied his mask when he’s already admitted, nearly in as many words, that he himself came out here alone and with no backup.

“They’re real” he insists, and he certainly seems to believe so. But whether that’s because he is speaking the truth or is in need of mental help remains to be seen. “Victor Normel-” his voice is drowned out by a sudden, loud siren. Not from inside the building, from outside, but loud enough to hear clearly even though the brick walls. Loud enough you don't doubt that everyone in town can clearly hear it. A calm, feminine pre-recorded voice speaks along with it.

"This is not a test. This is not a test. Enter your nearest blast shelter. This is not a test. This is not a test. Enter your nearest blast shelter. This is not a test"

 

It repeats its self.

Mr. E seems just as surprised and confused by this development as you are.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Ezeze (see edit history)

[Mister Doctor]

"Y'all heard the lady," Cole said, ruining what stealth he had still, "Mr. E, show'em yer hidey hole, I need to grab something."

Without waiting, Cole jogged back to where he stashed the Geiger counter and collected it.

---

Adversity Token: 1

[Knave]

DiceBrawn10 d20+1
Fight d12+1
Grit d10
Charm d8
Flight d6
Brains14 d4 || StrengthsEasygoing: Get 2AT per failure
Protective: +3 to protect
Rebellious: +3 to persuade children or to resist persuasion from adults or children || FlawsIgnorant
Reckless

Adversity Tokens: 4

---

Jackson considers the command of the automated voice and is by nature inclined to obey. "Where's the nearest thing then? Blast shelter?"

[Dr Jackal]

Kacey turns pale. "Ukraine?" she says in a small voice. After a moment, she shakes it off and looks at Mr. Earles thoughtfully.

 

She shakes her head slightly, mostly to herself. The biology teacher had made too many mistakes for his judgment to mean anything, and there was already an expert on this sort of thing right here. "Cole, where do you think we should go? Mr. E., you can come with if you want."

[Ezeze]

Oh, right. Mr. E realizes all at once that he’s the adult in this situation, catalyzed by Kacey deferring to Cole and Cole passing the responsibility on to him.

“Follow me” he says. He leads the four of you (Cole bringing up the rear with his Geiger counter) down the stairs he initially came up. Cole closes the door behind you, for all the help it does. Down three flights of stairs, then into a little room with shelves full of discarded electronics (where, in a fit of foresight, he instructs Emily to grab the short wave radio), then into the tunnel that stretches mostly to the North but a little to the North-North-West. The further into the tunnel you get the fainter the siren above grows, until you don’t hear it at all. Walking the entire stretch of the tunnel takes five able-bodied near-adults maybe eight minutes in total.

The other end of the tunnel is a security door with a bar on your side. Mr. E opens it, steps inside, and you find yourself on the landing of a stairwell very much like the one you climbed down to get to the tunnel in the first place.

There are two big differences between this room and the one Cole found the Geiger counter in. The first; the door you came through. Once everyone is through it Mr. E closes it and you get to see the serious, heavy-duty locks he puts into place that will prevent anyone from following you (not that anyone was - there was nothing to hide behind in that tunnel. You would have definitely seen it if you were). The second is that the stairwell appears to continue further downwards.

"We're in the basement of the Normel History Museum" Mr. E informs you as he locks the door, defaulting to 'teacher' mode on instinct rather than any strategic planning "-which was the Normel Court House when this tunnel was built. We're beneath about seven stories of steel and brick - the original designers didn't want anything happening to the important documents stored in the basement.”
He puts his back against the far wall, starts to sink down into a seated position, but winces. He reaches under his coat, fumbles for a second, pulls out a sword - it can't fairly be described any other way. It's the length of his forearm, made of steel except for thin strip of metal along the blade that shimmers with more of a silvery-blue color. He continues his slump to the floor, sword laid across his lap.

"We'll give it a few minutes. Then, if it's safe, we can sneak out through the gift shop."

[Knave]

DiceBrawn10 d20+1
Fight d12+1
Grit d10
Charm d8
Flight d6
Brains14 d4 || StrengthsEasygoing: Get 2AT per failure
Protective: +3 to protect
Rebellious: +3 to persuade children or to resist persuasion from adults or children || FlawsIgnorant
Reckless

Adversity Tokens: 4

---

Seeing the teacher tooling up, Jackson instinctively tries to copy him, looking around for anything heavy enough to be a makeshift club. As he pokes about he points down the staircase into the dark. "What's down there?"

[Ezeze]

Jackson finds a disappointing lack of options in the 'viable weapon' department.

“Officially? Nothing” Mr. E answers him. “The stairway goes another flight down then ends. Unofficially, some enterprising soul noticed a big crack in the wall down there a few decades ago and kicked it open until it was big enough for someone to fit through. Opens up into an underground cavern, now.”

“Between the natural underground rivers, old Native American tunnels and the remnants of the old, closed down silver mines an experienced Knight can get from one edge of the town to the other without setting foot above ground.”

[Ozma]

"Is that how you got here, through the underground tunnels?" Emily asks quietly. She hadn't said anything when she'd popped out of the room, and had quietly followed her teacher down with the others. Her eyes pointedly glance at the sword their biology teacher was holding, then back at the man's eyes without comment.

[Ezeze]

"Oh, no" Mr. E confesses, shyly. "Teachers get free admission into the Museum. I came in through there."

Edited February 28, 2023 by Ezeze (see edit history)

[Knave]

DiceBrawn10 d20+1
Fight d12+1
Grit d10
Charm d8
Flight d6
Brains14 d4 || StrengthsEasygoing: Get 2AT per failure
Protective: +3 to protect
Rebellious: +3 to persuade children or to resist persuasion from adults or children || FlawsIgnorant
Reckless

Adversity Tokens: 4

---

"Sounds cool. I mean, the tunnels, not the free museum or whatever." Jackson heads down the stairs to get a look into this cavern.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Mister Doctor]

Cole was making a point to stay well away from Mr. E and was not looking at people even more than usual as though there were some unexploded bomb he was worried the slightest attention would set off. However, when Mr. E mentioned coming in through the museum Cole could not help but look over at him, eyes narrowing as he considered what the man was saying.

"Were... were you wearing the bird mask the entire time?"

---

Adversity Token: 1

[Dr Jackal]

Kacey says nothing, and her face is a mask. Part of her is irritated by the others right now, for discussing trivialities when it might literally be the end of the world. A slightly larger part envies them, for being able to discuss trivialities when it might literally be the end of the world.

 

Then the largest part pushes those thoughts aside as irrelevant. Survival mattered. What what there around that would be useful in an apocalypse?

Edited March 1, 2023 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[Ozma]

"I think free admission to the museum is pretty cool." Emily adds softly. "I mean, we already get free admission for being students anyway. But still." Emily takes a slow look around the space they're stuck in. "If we need too, I think the Gift Shop has some snacks in it. Depending on how long we may be stuck down here."

Edited March 1, 2023 by Ozma (see edit history)

[Ezeze]

It’s not difficult for Jackson to find the crack Mr. E was referring to. It’s literally the only feature in the remainder of the stairwell, barring the stairs themselves. It was once just barely big enough to squeeze through, but time and use have widened it. Now it’s large enough that Jackson could almost walk through it head on. He’d have to turn a little to fit his shoulders through, but honestly the same is true of narrow doorways. His smaller friends would have no trouble at all.

Getting close enough to look through it requires a little bit of careful footwork. The crack may have started in the wall, but now it continues downwards and halfway across the floor. It’s probably stable. Stable enough, anyway.

Peering into the crack Jackson sees nothing but darkness. When the others aren’t speaking he can hear, faintly, the sound of a trickle of water – more like a leaky pipe than a river. In a stroke of uncharacteristic genius, Jackson remembers that he has a cell phone. He fumbles it out of his pocket. No bars, Mr. E did say you’re about seven stories down, but that’s OK; he can still hit the ‘flashlight’ button.

That turns on the light on the front of the phone originally intended to provide flash for photos. Using that he peers into the crack again but, honestly, the view is not much better. Just a few feet in front of the crack there is a wall of uninteresting brown stone. There’s a drop between the floor he is standing on and the ‘floor’ of the cavern beyond of about five feet (about 1.5 meters). It’s not immediately clear from where he is standing that the cavern goes any further in any direction, but he could climb in if he wanted to know for sure.

Back upstairs, Cole’s question succeeds at making Mr. E chuckle. Not maliciously; he seems to have honestly believed it was a joke. Instead, he answers Emily. “It has some astronaut ice cream and chocolate bars, but I don’t think it will come to that.”

Kacey doesn’t find much more of use. There’s the Geiger counter that Cole grabbed. There’s the short wave radio that Emily is still holding onto. If we’re talking long-term survival, there were chips in the other room, but they are on the other side of the door and down that tunnel. But apparently, if Mr. E is to be believed, you could follow the underground tunnels to other locations?

[Knave]

DiceBrawn10 d20+1
Fight d12+1
Grit d10
Charm d8
Flight d6
Brains14 d4 || StrengthsEasygoing: Get 2AT per failure
Protective: +3 to protect
Rebellious: +3 to persuade children or to resist persuasion from adults or children || FlawsIgnorant
Reckless

Adversity Tokens: 4

---

Jackson is about to squeeze into the hole when he remembers something. He heads back to where their teacher is sitting. "First up, sir, sorry for grabbing your mask. You want it back?" He holds out the bird mask he's been carrying since their scuffle. "I thought maybe you was gonna hurt her. But that was a cool move you did. You do karate maybe? MMA?"

Then he remembers the something again. "Oh yeah, you said Steph got grabbed by some vampires or whatever. Not sure about that, but do you know like, where she is, or what happened to her? Or who was the folks that did it maybe? We all kinda feel like maybe, you know, that there's something should be done about that whole thing. Dunno."

Edited March 2, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)