Wapsi Square Forum

Brass lantern, Rope, sounding more like zork. In a twisty tunnel as well. Acid smell??? Look for the grate!!!! and the candle but hurry.

It will all go downhill from here. lol.

Acidic mine drainage, possible methane buildup, ancient oil lamp -- Cue Acme Products demonstration in 3... 2... 1...

No coyotes were harmed in making this post. Not much, anyway.

Kath... are you positively sure it was a rope? Have you ever smelled a nest of snakes? I have... it has a decidedly acidic stench to it...

Indiana Jones: "Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes!"

Remember Kath... there's no place like home... there's no place like home... there's no place like home...

zachariah wrote:Brass lantern, Rope, sounding more like zork. In a twisty tunnel as well. Acid smell??? Look for the grate!!!! and the candle but hurry.

It will all go downhill from here. lol.

Hope the lantern doesn't go out. Being eaten by a grue is unpleasant.

Character in one of my brother's "Honor Harrington" books:

I'm not all that fond of battle plans that include the words "should" and "probably."

All in all, I'd say that Katherine is taking things quite well. She didn't freak out when picked up and flown (looked scared at first but didn't panic) and was pretty cool when they landed, she didn't freeze at the sight of a minotaur, and she's being very practical about their situation down in the mine.

She may be a bit of a recluse, but that doesn't seem to come from agoraphobia or a panic disorder - she's coping with a lot of strangeness in a very short time without locking up in a brainfreeze or curling up into a ball in the corner.

(and we now know that Atsali was actually listening when Kat said "Mesa Verde" back in the Library. I wasn't so sure...)

(acidic drainage? methane? Possibly the phrase "In the bowels of the earth" applies literally this time?)

DilyV wrote:Kath... are you positively sure it was a rope? Have you ever smelled a nest of snakes? I have... it has a decidedly acidic stench to it...

Sounds like you may have hit upon it. Either that or these two boobies have set off a booby trap in which a vial of acid is currently burning through a length of rope.

DilyV wrote:Kath... are you positively sure it was a rope? Have you ever smelled a nest of snakes? I have... it has a decidedly acidic stench to it...

Very good point. It's been so long since I smelled one of them. Kath just needs to remember rattlesnakes are edible. Just as long as she doesn't break out into Bob Hopes Theme song we'll be fine. 'Fangs for the memories." She could also milk them for the venom. It is worth money your know. And no, I do not know how to get them to keep still over the bucket.

Drops three bent fangs into the pun jar.

Minor editorial quibble, the narration block should be a thought bubble indicating Kat's thinking.

Unless she's saying it aloud.

KnightDelight wrote: ...these two boobies have set off a booby trap in which a vile of acid is currently burning through a length of rope.

That's my concern...IT'S A TRAP!!
Although this is a rather unlikely spot for some Rube-Goldberg-esque death machine; perhaps it is more probable that they've stumbled onto a snakepit.

I just had a thought. Could Asti's nickname be Sparrow? She does love adventure.

Another shapeshifter. She could be a "regular" schoolgirl after all.

So.... has Atsali changed into human disguise now? Must be either that, or she is standing in a hole, because until now she always towered over Katherine.

Why does Atsali have her hand out? Don't tell me Miss Adventure (heh!) doesn't carry some kind of fire starter?

(Always in a pocket or bag: pocketknife with tools; lighter; compass; small notebook; pencil. If you don't normally carry one anyway, disposable cell with minutes card; if you have a little room: water bottle; hard candy; flashlight)

And if you might be going cross-time: formula for gunpowder; spare dilithium crystal/beryllium sphere.


(drops a couple Hershey's Tropical Chocolate bars in the Pun Jar)

zachariah wrote:Brass lantern, Rope, sounding more like zork. In a twisty tunnel as well. Acid smell??? Look for the grate!!!! and the candle but hurry.

As you called it yesterday - we now enter the little twisty tunnels, all alike.

Things are not looking good. They don't have much in the way of breadcrumbs beyond their clothes and I doubt they will be shedding any of those. But at least Kath will not be freaked out by spiders. Maybe not even by snakes.

Theodemus wrote:So.... has Atsali changed into human disguise now? Must be either that, or she is standing in a hole, because until now she always towered over Katherine.

She may be in the background a bit, or Kath is standing up on something. Possibly something unpleasant. I wonder if Atsali breaths fire so as to get the lantern lit? No doubt that will be tomorrow's cliffhanger, when they see what is actually surrounding them. Insert earplugs before reading.

KnightDelight wrote:

TheSkulker wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:To the south there is a maze of small twisty passages, all alike.

1975, two broken legs, with lots of time on my hands, Z80 box running CPM, maxed out 640KB RAM, 80x25 text monitor, dial-up connection to my office PDP 11/23 running RSX ==> a large sheet of paper with lots of colored squiggly lines ... ah yes, those were the days!!!

To me, THESE are the days. I remember those days too, but things are so much better now. We've gone from a 5 MB hard drive the size and weight of a Volkswagen to a 64GB micro SD card the size and weight of a little finger fingernail....

My nostalgia post yesterday was NOT for the technology of yesteryear. I continue to be as, or more, amazed than most about the progress of tech - after all, I do go back to party line phones and operators, pre-television, 8" 240 KB floppies, motherboards with 64 KB of RAM (max), my first 5 MB HDD that cost $3000, IBM 1690 & 7090 "modern"computers, rooms full of NORAD's SAGE-BUIC vacuum tube computers each bigger than a car, etc. The list goes on and on and is still evolving.

Yes, today's tech is great but I was referring to the freedom of time. There is more to life than computers. [Oh blasphemy, did I say that???]

Them were the good old days refers to when I had the freedom to do nothing more than heal and play D&D for two months. I had no duties, the checks came in the mail, my ex-wife got the groceries and cooked. All I had to do was dial in and draw maps. It doesn't get much better than that. (Except when it itched under the cast...)

BTW, re all the comparisons to the minuscule computing power of Apollo and the ilk - your smart phone continues to have much more power than even the current space traveling computers. The technology that goes to space today, especially long distance missions such as Curiosity, is typically ten or more years old. Everything has to be shielded and space hardened to withstand the rigors of cosmic rays, temperature extremes and other hazards and then tested and retested and retested. That takes time.

Opus the Poet wrote:Minor editorial quibble, the narration block should be a thought bubble indicating Kat's thinking.

Shelly's had a shot at the narration when it was her story; this is Kath's adventure, she can narrate it.

That said, a few things are revealed here. Kath can see in a lightless mine shaft? Hm! Also, we now know Atsali can morph to human.

As for the acidic odor, I smell a set-up.

Fairportfan wrote:Character in one of my brother's "Honor Harrington" books:

I'm not all that fond of battle plans that include the words "should" and "probably."

Honor would do quite well I'm thinking. With her tree-cat familiar on her shoulder - dis integrator in her shoulder holster - and her personal shield ready to activate .

NOTDilbert wrote:Why does Atsali have her hand out? Don't tell me Miss Adventure (heh!) doesn't carry some kind of fire starter?

(Always in a pocket or bag: pocketknife with tools; lighter; compass; small notebook; pencil. If you don't normally carry one anyway, disposable cell with minutes card; if you have a little room: water bottle; hard candy; flashlight)

And if you might be going cross-time: formula for gunpowder; spare dilithium crystal/beryllium sphere.

Hmm...that's not the order of priority I'd give things in my adventure pack. Especially not when I'm planning on exiting The Library somewhere near Mesa Verde. Water bottle trumps cell phone (aren't they looking into the Dead Zone anyhow).

DilyV wrote:Kath... are you positively sure it was a rope? Have you ever smelled a nest of snakes? I have... it has a decidedly acidic stench to it...

Indiana Jones: "Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes!"

Remember Kath... there's no place like home... there's no place like home... there's no place like home...

I like snakes (I'm aware that this makes me weird in many people's opinions). I can't say I've smelled a nest of them though, so that little tidbit is good to know.