Log:Lord Markham's School, Scene 1 New Zealand

From Champions MUSH

Advances Plot:
Lord Markham's School
Previous Scene:	Next Scene:
None	TBA
Contains Appearances by:
Jade, Michelle, Rakshasa, Wasp
Log Date:
07/22/2008

Wasp hurries into the Past Times coffee shop, flying in rather than walking. She looks around the interior of the establishment and a slight frown comes to her face briefly. She comes over to Michelle. "Hi. We haven't met. My name is Wasp. Do you have time to give me a hand?"

Michelle peers over at Wasp for a moment "Uhh maybe..." she looks confused "What do you need help with?"

Jade was just heading into the coffee shop herself, after having escaped from her family again, and saw Wasp's entrance. She hurries in the door, keen to meet another meta.

Wasp says, "I've been asked to help search for a group of children who have gone missing during an adventure holiday. The children are from a school in England. They have gone missing in New Zealand. The headmaster of the school knows me from my involvement with some children who went to the school a few years ago. He's asked for me assistance."

Jade smiles as she gets in the door to see not only Wasp but another obvious meta- (or even not-) human.

Michelle hrms at Wasp "Well sure I'll help... New Zealand is pretty far away you know"

Wasp nods. "TransMat will get us to the capitol city of Wellington. I can fly us into the western mountains from there. This probably is more than a simple case of lost children. The children are from Lord Markham's School. It's a school for Metas."

Michelle nods some "Alright then... I suppose it would be interesting to see someplace else"

Jade's thought of introducing herself vanishes from her mind when she sees something is up - and then she changes her mind again on hearing about the school. "Lord Markham's? Whoisitwho'sgonemissing andwhereexactlyarethey?"

Wasp turns to face Jade. "Hello. I'm Wasp, and you are?"

Jade says, "HiI'mJadeAchcroftandIwenttoLordMarkhamsuntilacoupleofweeksago!"

Jade's anxiety makes the speed of her speech somewhat worse.

Michelle shakes her head at Jade and ponders "Well while we're sitting here we're not exactly getting the job done are we?"

Wasp says, "Ah. There's five children who have gone missing. Ann-Marie and Marie-Ann Willkins. Timothy Green. Robert Smith, and a girl named Nulla."

(editor's note: Ann-marie and her twin sister are flying bricks. Timmy is a genius gadgeteer. Robert is a fire based energy blaster. Nulla is unclassified but think power nullification. Ages range from seven to twelve.)

Jade nods. "Iknowthemall whathappenedtothem? Whendidtheygomissingandwhere?"

Wasp tells Michelle and Jade. "They were retracing the fictional journey of the ring bearer's party through the caverns used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They entered the section that were used for Moria and communications were cut off. A search party found no sign of them."

Jade says, "Howlonghavetheybeengoneforandwhatequipmentdidtheyhave? Whowaswiththem?"

Jade thinks . o O (Timothy could surely find some way of communicating if he's ok and has any sorts of components - and he has Robert as a likely power source if that's a problem... Doesn't sound good.)

Wasp says, "Just over two hours. They had a guide from the tour company and a teacher, Peter Barlow. They had backpacks with lunch and drink flasks but nothing special that I'm aware of."

Michelle nods some to Wasp "Alright then, lets get moving. What are we going to need"

Rakshasa walks in and staggers over to the counter, "Coffee. Large. Black. Extra sugar."

Jade thinks . o O (But surely Timothy could make something even out of ordinary PDAs?)

Wasp looks happy to see Rakshasa. "Hi. Make that to go, Rakshasa. I need your help on a rescue mission."

[To Rakshasa] Jade says, "Ohheyagain!"

Rakshasa says, "Bwuh? Uh. Ok. You heard the bug baristameister, gimme that to go."

Rakshasa waves to Jade, "Oh, hi these speedy."

Rakshasa takes the cup, rips off the lid and chugs it down in 10 seconds, "Ah... that's better. Ok, I'm ready."

Wasp tells Rakshasa. "Short story, some kids are missing in underground caverns in New Zealand. Meta kids. So they should be able to handle most stuff. We're the calvary."

Jade says, "Mr Barlow - that'snotsogood... Imean, Ilikehimsoitsnotgoodhesintrouble."

Rakshasa says, "Nu Zee Land..? Where the heck is that?"

Wasp smiles, "The other side of a TransMat portal. Otherwise know as the opposite side of the world."

Rakshasa says, "Ooooh.... Ok, Well whatever. It sounds like there's a definite lack of face punching in this mission, but I suppose it won't hurt my karma do an ordinary good deed once in a while."

Jade says, "Iseewhatyoumeanabouteducation wellletsgogetthem!"

Wasp flies everyone to the TransMat terminus. Staff there lead the obvious heroes over to a portal ahead of the queue without asking for tickets. They set up for travel to New Zealand and wave the heroes through. The whole process is speedy and looks practiced.

Stepping through the portal you arrive in a near identical terminal building. Only the destination signs and people in the concourse are different.

Jade glances about taking in the little differences.

Rakshasa says, "Oh, um, hey, Bugsy, what do they speak in Nu Zee Land? I, like, only know English and Sanskrit."

Wasp gets out her PDA and fiddles with it. "Huh. Anyone know how to change the service to New Zealand and set up the GPS of one of these?"

Michelle blinks and looks around, she almost thought she stepped into another dimension but thankful that it wasnt "Umm shouldnt it be in settings somewhere?"

Wasp says, "English, Rakshasa. New Zealand and Australia were both colonised from Britain."

Rakshasa says, "Ooooh."

Jade says, "Surepassithere."

Wasp offers the PDA to Jade. "The GPS for the cavern are written on this." She also hands over a scrap of notepapaer.

Jade hands it back almost immediately. "THereyougo."

Wasp says, "Wow. That was quick."

Jade says, "Wellitsnotverydifficult."

Jade does a quick mental calculation from the lat and long how far away the kids went missing.

Wasp gathers everyone together and starts flying. You're soon out of the city and heading west over grandiose mountain scenery of sheer rugged beauty. Following the GPS pointer Wasp only takes a few minutes of wind swept flight before she lands at a pair of massive 'bronze' doors leading into the caverns of 'Moria'. The fantasy appearance is let down a little by the tourist shop beside the doors selling souvenirs.

Rakshasa lands and looks around, "So what sort of place is this?"

Jade says, "Whoreportedthemmissing andhowdotheyknowtheyremissing?"

There's a group of searchers at the entrance wearing caving overalls and helmets. They are standing around looking frustrated.

Wasp says, "These are the caverns where the famous Lord of the Rings film trilogy was shot over fifty years ago, Rakshasa."

Rakshasa says, "Oh... I was still stuck in a library then. I think I may have seen them on TV."

One of the search party steps forward. "Hi. I'm Bret Farland. The children were reported out of contact one hour and..." he checks his watch, "fifty three minutes ago. The guide with them missed a scheduled checkin and couldn't be contacted."

Jade says, "Wherewasthecheckinpointandwhereweretheylastseen?"

Jade says, "Anddoyouhaveampoftheareawecanlookat>?"

Bret tells Jade, "At the Bridge. It's one of the most famous scenes, where Gandalf stood off the Balrog to let the ring bearer escape."

Another of the search party nods to Jade and hands over a scrolling map display.

Michelle hrms and thinks "Lets just go in and start looking where they got lost?"

Wasp nods.

Jade nods, "Irememberthescene." She memorises the map.

Rakshasa nods, "Sounds like a plan." Her body becomes slightly translucent and she passes through the wall.

Jade says, "Itsagoodplacetostart."

The searchers offer the heroes helmets and lamps. "The ceiling is low in spots."

Jade accepts the helmet more for the light than anything. She's short enough seldom to be troubled by low ceilings.

Michelle nods some and puts on helmet as best she can and looks inside "Yeah well low ceilings dont bother me" she smiles "Worst case scenario we have to dig ourselves out"

Jade says, "Anyideaatallwhatmayhavehappened? Anythingstrange?"

Under the circumstances the fantastic scenery inside the caverns probably isn't as appreciated as it might usually be. It's not long before you come into the Bridge Cavern. There's the bridge across a bottomless chasm. At one side across the bridge are heavy iron doors. On the far end of the cavern is the exit to the next section of the tour.

Bret nods. "There's some fire danage to the cavern and a few drops of what might be blood on the surface of the bridge.

Jade nods.

Jade and Michelle spot the 'bottomless' drop the bridge spans is actually less than three feet, covered by terrific shadowy lighting and a hologram to look terrifying.

There is indeed fire damage to the walls, which Jade will see is consistent with Robert's fire blasts.

Jade nods. "Robert's fire, Iguess..."

Rakshasa says, "Fire..?"

Michelle nods some and hrms "Well Atleast we know they didnt fall down the bottomless pit" she admits noticing the short drop "It looked so much better in the movie"

Jade goes to examine the blood carefully. . o O ( This is where I'm not good as Sherlock Holmes. I don't know anything about blood spatters, or tracking...)

When Jade advances on the bridge to examine the traces she notices... a fiery sixteen feet high Balrog ascending from the pit behind her with a blood curdling roar.

Jade immediately sees the Balrog is another hologram. A remarkably good and convincing one however.

Rakshasa turns solid again and sparks arc down her arm, colescing into a spike of energy which she hurls at the demon, "Hah!!!"

Jade grins at the hologram.

Jade thinks . o O (Maybe it might have given the kids a scare though?)

The spike of energy from Rakshasa passes through the Balrog illusion and impacts into the wall close to where the fire damage is.

Michelle is about to punch the thing in the face but stops "Could explain why there's fire damage"

Rakshasa says, "I knew it was an illusion!" She looks around furiously as if daring anyone to contradict her.

Jade says, "Robert oneofthekids hasfirepowers."

Michelle says, "I'm thinking this isnt where they disappeared... unless someone teleported out"

Jade says, "Noteleporters twoflyingbricks asuperinventor aflamer andonewithnullificationpowersofsomesort."

Close to the spot where the drops of blood are Jade spots a small fragment of charred rock that might have been blasted loose from the ceiling. On the rock there's a smear of blood and a couple of dark blonde hairs, matching the hair of Mr Barlow.'

Rakshasa looks around, "How could kids with those powers end up in trouble in a place like this?"

Jade says, "Therearesomehairsherethatlookliketheteachersbytheblood..."

Jade says, "Itlookslikemaybehewashitbyrockloosenedfromthewallbyfire..."

Jade lowers herself down carefully to look under the hologram. It seems the easiest place for someone to be hidden.

Rakshasa cups her hands to her mouth and shouts, "Hey kids! Can you here me!"

When Jade searches in the pit beneath the hologram of 'bottomless depths' she finds the tour guide. He's unconscious with a head wound from having fallen into the pit.

Jade says, "Hey, thetourguide'sdownhere!"

Jade promptly starts treating his wound. "He'sbeenhurt!"

Rakshasa floats down to take a look around.

Wasp flies down. "Bret, can we have the holograms turned off." She takes over treating the wound from Jade.

Jade says, "CanyouseeanyoneelsedownhereIwashalfexpectingtofindtheteacher."

Jade looks about as Wasp takes over.

Wasp brings the tour guide back to semi-consciousness. "Owww... My head!"

Jade says, "Thekidsmighthavepanickedwhentheguidewentover rememberitlookedlikeadeepchasm butwhereistheteacher ohyoureawake doyourememberwhathappened?"

Jade keeps checking the area under the bridge for any other clues.

Michelle says, "So the kid blasted a rock off the wall, it hit the guide on the head and they probably ran off scared they were in trouble"

The guide nods and groans as he wishes he hadn't. "Yes. One of the children threw fire at the Balrog illusion. I think their teacher got hit by a chuck of rock blasted loose from the ceiling. He stumbled back and knocked me off the bridge. I wasn't expecting it and.. oww. I must have hit my head."

Jade says, "That'swhatIwasthinking butwhere's theteacher ohwait maybethey'retryingtogettheteachertomedicalhelp butgotlost?"

Jade says, "BUtnottheyarentthatstupid Hm."

Bret says, "We're searched the caverns from end to end."

Michelle says, "Then they must have found another way out..."

Michelle says, "ventilation shaft maybe? undocumented tunnel? maybe they went and dug their way out?"

Bret shakes his head. "There are no other ways out. In through the passage we used and out across the bridge and through the exit over there. No other routes."

Jade says, "Notevenifyoucanfly?"

Bret opens his mouth.. and then shrugs. "I'm not sure. I don't think so though."

Jade says, "Thesisterscouldhavemadetheirownexit butthatwouldprobablyhavebeennoticed."

Michelle shrugs some "Might as well go through the rest of the tunnel... Should be able to see anything they might have used to escape without going to the points that they'd expect"

Jade nods.

Jade keeps on going, looking about. "Arethereanyotherholograms becauseitwouldbeagoodthingtoturnthemoffifso."

Wasp stays with the guide taking him back out of the caverns. You advance over the rest of the bridge and make your way towards the far exit. Bret says there are holograms of the Ring bearer's party resting up in the next cavern and he'll have them turned off as well.

The heroes notice the archway, floor, and wall around the far exit is also marked by fresh damage. This is also fire but not the same as Robert's blasts would make. It looks much more like the type of damage that a flaming whip would cause.

Rakshasa looks at the walls and tugs on her right ear, "Ok...that demon earlier, that was an illusion, right?"

Jade starts examining the area round the far exit. "Thisisweird."

Jade says, "Letmeguessyouvefoundonethatisnt?"

Rakshasa shrugs, "Well, unless there's something else down here using a flaming whip?"

When the lights and holograms are turned off Michelle see the sealed doors at the side of the cavern glow faintly to her eyes

Jade nods. "Imhopingsomethingelse thoughthatsbadtoo."

Michelle hrms and peers at the sealed doors and asks "What's behind there?" she asks curiously.

Jade looks back at the spot where the balrog hologram appeared, pondering. Then runs back to have a look at the hologram generator.

Bret the tour manager smiles, "Oh those are just stage dressing. They're not real."

Jade says, "Whoknewthekidswouldbeonthistour? Howlongagowasitbooked?"

Bret checks. "Not booked. They came in and bought tickets for a normal tour. Only they bought all the tickets for their tour.

Michelle knocks on the doors for the hell of it

Jade says, "Wellitwasworththechecking."

Michelle hrms and thinks for a moment "Stage dressing or not, it seems like someone might have made some unauthorized additions to the tour... its hollow behind this door"

Jade says, "Letmesee canyougetthrough?"

Jade heads over to the door.

Rakshasa says, "Want me to phase through and check?"

Michelle shrugs some "Maybe they made their own exit and cleverly concealed it so they wouldnt be followed"

The doors look much like the magically sealed doors in the Hobbit illustrated book. There's a puzzle that need to be solved and probably, if consistent there's need to be some type of magical/mystical energy applied to activate the doors when the puzzle is completed.

Rakshasa shrugs and goes immaterial again, and tries to walk through the door.

page rakshasa=The doors block your progress.

Rakshasa bumps into the doors, "Huh!?"

Rakshasa glares.

When Rakshasa tries to pass through the doors the glyphs on the puzzle glow.

Jade tries saying "Mellon" - worth a go. Failing that looks at the door.

Rakshasa's form shimmers and dissolves into energy as she tries to teleport through the door.

One set of glyphs brighten. There's another set that is a logic puzzle.

Jade examines the glyphs.

Rakshasa scratches her head, "Waaaait a minute... One of the kids is a power nullifier, right?"

Jade says, "Yes, ofasort."

Rakshasa says, "Maybe that's what's blocking me..."

Jade says, "Thekidscouldhavesetthisupbetweenthem butwhy?"

Rakshasa grrs and summons up another energy spike which she hurls at the door!

The glyphs on the doors brighten even further as the spike hits the doors and appears to be absorbed.

Rakshasa cackles to herself, "Let's see what you've got!" She begins hurling more spikes.

Jade can puzzle out the secret behind the glyphs. It's kind of a 'which is the next in this sequence' logic puzzle, with six choices - one of which is correct.

Jade solves the puzzle. "BUtmaybeweneedsomesortofenergywithit?"

The glyphs are glowing brightly by now with Rakshasa throwing power spikes into the doors.

Rakshasa stops hurling spikes while Jade examines the door

Jade does whatever it is she reckons will open the door.

Michelle says, "What sort of energy?"

The doors open as Jade traces out the correct glyph with a fingertip. There's a passageway behind the doors but the roof has caved in. The cause of which is possibly signalled by the fiery whip marks in the walls and ceiling. Further access is blocked by fallen rubble.

Michelle says, "The kids really dont want us to find them do they?"

Jade sighs. "Ican'tshiftthis - canyougetthroughtherubble?"

Rakshasa fumes, "Ok, if the little buggers are just messing with us, do we need to rescure them?"

Jade in the meantime examines the passage for any further clues.

Jade says, "We'restillnotsurewhat'sreallygoingon."

Rakshasa sighs, "Fine, like, whatever." She starts shifting the rubble.

Jade says, "More blood..."

Michelle nods some "So we head through the rubble?" she asks and flexes her claws

It's slow progress going through the twenty to thirty feet of cave in as Michelle starts tunneling. Strangely it becomes slower progress as you make your way into the passage. But finally you break through the rockfall into a small chamber. The kids are huddled in there, a couple of them crying. When they see the rescuers they run over calling out "Jade! Jade!" and gather around her.

Jade says, "Whatsgoingon whathappened?"

The teacher, Mr Barlow, is in the chamber too. Out cold.

Michelle is a bit dirty after digging and in some cases a little pulverising of rock... regardless she's just glad the kids are fine. She steps back and lets the others who know the kids deal with the situation. "Didnt expect there to be that much cave in"

Jade goes to tend to the teacher while calling for Wasp.

Timothy tells Jade. "The Balrog attacked us on the bridge. Mr Barlow was knocked out and the guide fell into the pit. We ran into here but the Balrog knocked down the roof and trapped us. Nulla was scared and kept crying and was too scared to turn off her nullification so we ccouldn't get out."

Rakshasa laughs, "Silly kids! The Balrogs just a hologram!"

"No it ain't!" The twin girls tell Rakshasa angrily.

Jade says, "Theonewesawwas butthenwhatmadethewhiplikeflamemarks?"

Wasp comes in to tend to the teacher.

Rakshasa says, "The guide said they were just set dressing!"

Jade says, "THeguidesokbytheway. Whatisthisplace? Itsnotsupposedtobehere."

Michelle hrms and ponders for a moment "You know the guide is here too" the skunk lady points out to the kids "He didnt fall into a bottomless pit"

"Did too." One twin says. "I saw him falling." adds the other.

Jade says, "Thepitwasn'treallydeepthatwasjustahologram."

Michelle heads back to tell the guide to go in there and see the kids.

Jade says, "Whathappenedexactly? Canyoutellmewhathappenedinorder?"

Jade notices the room's walls are covered in concealed glyphs. Working out the meaning it becomes obvious the glyphs are really circuits, and the chamber is, although dressed up to look like a Tolkin film set, is actually a reality warping device to summon a genuine balrog from another dimension. The circuits are a good fifty years old and permanent. But there's a second system that disables the summoning - the second system being more susceptible to Nulla's effect.

With Nulla inside the hidden chamber both sets of circuits are disabled. If she was outside, say on the bridge, only the second set would be nullified. The summoning circuit would work.

Jade speaks very carefully and slowly. "Nulla - can you turn your power off now?" If your power is *off* we'll be perfectly safe."

Timmy relates the events, "The Balrog came up from the pit. Robert blasted fire at it as it lashed at us with it's whip. Mr Barlow fell over and knocked the guide into the pit. We tried to run out but the Balrog was whipping at the exit. So I solved the puzzle on the doors and we ran in here. The Balrog whipped at the roof and knocked the rocks down and Nulla was scared so Ann-Marie and Marie-Ann weren't strong enough to move the rocks out the way."

Rakshasa hmms, "So... what caused the roof to fall..?"

Nulla nods clinging tightly to Jade's legs. She's the youngest of the children and the most scared but the presence of grown ups calms her down.

Timmy explains. "The Balrog was too big to come in here afterus so it used its whip to make the roof fall in so we were trapped."

Jade says, "It's ok, Nulla. If your powers are off there won't be any Balrog."

Nulla nods and everyone with powers feels the lifting of a oddly deadening sensation.

Jade explains a little to make sure Nulla will remain calm. "You see these symbols? They're really something to make the Balrog go away. All that happened was you turned them off."

Nulla protests, "It came before I turned on."

Michelle says, "Maybe you can activate the holograms and shrink it down to a foot tall so they can see for themselves"

Jade says, "THat *was* the hologram. But it did look really, didn't it? Very scary."

Nulla nods vigorously, "Yeah. It was real scary."

Jade says, "Anyway, the hologram it turned off, and the real one won't come if your powers are off - so it's safe to go. Shall we?"

Nulla asks Jade, "Will you hold my hand?"

Jade smiles and takes Nulla's hand.

Nulla nods. "Okay. I won't turn on even if it's scary now grown ups are here."

Rakshasa says, "Good! The only scary thing here is me!"

Jade hopes this is true! She does her best to remain calm, even though it's hard work not to fidget.

Nulla hides behind Jade's legs peeking at Rakshasa. Meanwhile the twin nine year old flying brick girls are cooing over Michelle's fur and tail.

Ann-Marie asks for both of them, "Can we stroke you?" she says to Michelle.

Jade waits until everyone is safely outside and a long way away from the room before saying to the management - "Now - WILLSOMEONETELLMEWH"YANDHOWYOUHAVEAFIFTYYEAROLDINTERDIMENSIONALBALROGSUMMONINGMACHINEINTHERE?

Michelle hrms and ponders for a moment "I wouldnt worry, all these tourist destinations are usually pretty safe, even if they try to scare people with fancy trickery" then meeps at the girls "Sure... though I probably need to have a bath after all that digging" the skunk lady admits to the twins

Jade finds it difficult to believe they summoned a real Balrog to make the movie. It might beat CGI, but health and safety wouldn't have it.

The tour manager looks blank, "Huh?" He says to Jade. "There's lighting and the holograms in there. We only opened up twenty years ago. If it's fifty years old it's something the film people left behind."

Jade thinks . o O (Or more likely some supervillain - that sort of tech is still in prototype stage now, let alone 50 years ago...)

The rescue is successful. The children unharmed and headaches for the teacher and guide will go away after a few aspins and some rest.

Rakshasa is confused