riverviewlogs | [closed] to dungeons deep

who: Team Intrepid Explorers: Hiccup Haddock, Christian Fischer, Dave Stutler, Keith, Yuri Plisetsky, Jon Snow, & Freya Vaughn
what: Mission: Cave Crawl
when: Late February
where: A network of caves out in the wilderness.
warnings: Uhh. Spooky cave stuff?

Hiccup originally found the caverns on a solo jaunt into the jungle with Toothless. Well, he found the entrance - they didn't go much deeper inside than a handful of yards, to be safe. Now that they have a full party, complete with some actual fighters, they should be able to go quite a bit deeper.

The group takes a truck as far out into the jungle as possible, loaded with equipment, and between the dragon and the lion, manage to get most of it up into the cave entrance itself. The first 'chamber' they come across is large, oval-shaped, branching off in several directions. It's dimly lit with bioluminescent algae (or clusters of worms, maybe?) and small clusters of softly glowing crystal dotted across the ground and walls, protruding from stalagmites and stalactites. There are a few shallow pools of clear water, filled with blind, pale fish. At points, the scurrying of small creatures in the distance can be heard echoing through the room.

It's set up as a base camp, of sorts. A place to go back to, to keep from getting too lost in the maze of tunnels and caverns. Some pop up tents and some electric lanterns provide light and make it a little more comfortable for rest periods. At one point, some firewood is brought in, and a nice fire started in the middle of camp for heat and light.

It doesn't take more than a day to get out there and get the place set up, and then the real exploration can begin. Team members are encouraged to always go down the branching tunnels in at least pairs, if not more, and to mark the cave walls as they go to keep from getting too lost. The only goals are to discover and to learn, and, of course, to stay safe.

[ooc: Feel free to use this post like a 7 person mingle log! Post top levels, tag around, thread hop to your heart's desire, find cool shit, etc.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah...

[Keith nodded, and then looked over at Red. She stepped forward, her eyes illuminating the area as well, and reached out with her scanners.]

We're not alone...

[He summoned his bayard, the blade flashing into existence in his hand.]

It's big... and it's alive.

[Frowning at the response from his party, Hiccup draws his own sword (if you can really call it a sword), sliding out the folding blade and clicking the button on the hilt to light it up. It's a little better than a lantern, and while it won't be much use in a real fight, he's had practice using it as a distraction.

Toothless hunches a little, lips pulling back in a snarl, and he releases another pulse of purple light that travels down the length of the tunnel. The size of the thing at the end makes him huddle a little closer to Hiccup - for protection of his rider, more than fear.]

Maybe it isn't hostile, though. Big doesn't necessarily mean predator.

Around here, it seems to. [Keith wasn't quite as trusting as Hiccup, and he kept his guard up. Red reacted to Keith's wariness, growling softly and staying close. They'd both seen the big and hostile variety of creature around outside the fence a few times already.] Stay alert.

[Keith moved forward cautiously. The lighting elements on his Paladin armor made it hard to sneak up on something at this point, but that didn't really matter. Red wasn't exactly quiet when she moved, and she had quite a few lighting elements of her own. Between the two of them, Red having brightened the light from her eyes like headlights, and Hiccup's sword lantern, they were pretty obvious. So, since they didn't have the element of surprise, Keith didn't bother trying to hide.

He tapped a spot on the red area of his wrist armor, and a light came up there as well. He directed it in the general direction of the creature, but kept it low so it was aimed at the floor.]

Might as well see if it understands language... [Keith paused.]

Hello?

[Hiccup nods, one hand resting gently on the dragon's black scales, the other holding his flaming sword aloft. He lets Keith and Red take point, just slightly, and his eyes constantly flicker from Toothless' body language, to the creature ahead. It's- it's big, but not that much larger than Toothless; that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous, though. The tight spaces and size of the creature reminds him of a Cavern Crasher, in a way. Sort of squat, and compact.

When he calls out 'Hello?', the thing doesn't answer, scrabbling back a few yards, letting out a high-pitched hiss of displeasure.]

I don't think it understands you. [Hiccup remarks dryly, and Toothless steps forward a couple steps, posture low and crouched, lips pulling back to bare his teeth.] Easy, bud. We're tromping all over his house.

Yeah... I get that impression, too. [It definitely didn't understand language... or at least, not the one he was using. So, hey... now to make sure it didn't attack them. He noted it moving backwards.]

I wonder how far back this corridor goes. If we inadvertently corner it, it's likely to try to attack us in order to escape.

[Hiccup looks down at Toothless again, posing a wordless question, and the dragon shakes his head once before he's staring back down the length of the corridor, a low rumbling growl in his chest.] It's likely we'd corner it if we kept going. We should back down and try another path-

[He starts to take slow steps backward, but they can't get that lucky. The creature lets out an ear-piercing shriek and rushes, intent on dealing with the intruders.]

Ooohhh that's not good-!

[Keith clenched his jaw.]

Definitely not! Run!

[Red put herself at the back of the group as they headed back the way they came.]

Don't hit it directly, Red... just a few warning shots!

[The robot lion growled a bit, almost frustrating at having to hold back, and then used her tail weapon to fire a few laser shots into the ground at the creature's feet, hoping to get it to stop charging forward.]

[It reels back at the light, and heat, hissing and spitting globs of something sticky and clear. It sizzles on contact with the rock, and starts to smoke. Hiccup grabs for Keith's arm and points, eyes gone wide.] It's spitting acid, don't let Red get too close to it!

[Toothless can't get too close either, for fear of how the stuff will burn his dragon, but that doesn't keep him from snarling, letting out a piercing, warning roar and firing off a shot.]

Toothless, come on!

[Keith initial thought was to panic, but the Lions were actually almost indestructible. He was momentarily curious if acid could even damage her armor because of that weird comet material...

But that was something Hunk or Pidge would have to figure out if they ever ended up in this place. Keith wasn't really willing to find out. And he knew the harness Cisco made that Red was wearing wouldn't last against it.]

Red!

[She growled, raising her particle barrier for a moment. It looked like a bunch of glowing red hexagons and would be a full sphere if she was hovering off the floor. As it was, it covered enough space that the creature couldn't get around. She backed up, keeping most of the power for the barrier towards the front to deflect attacks, and letting the others hide behind it with her.

Keith turned and glanced back in the direction they had originally come from, using the light from his wrist gauntlet.]

There's a branch in the corridor about 100 feet back. We can make it. If we give it a choice, maybe it'll take a different path.

[Hiccup certainly doesn't know they're indestructible; he's seen plenty of metal objects (iron, mostly) being melted into scrap by Changewing acid, so his initial thought is definitely a tiny bit of panic. He also doesn't want to see what it would do to dragon hide.

The barrier goes up, and soon the creature crashes against it, snarling - until it starts to back off, six eyes squinting hard from the glow.

Hiccup glances back that way and motions Toothless closer with a hand signal, swinging into the saddle and tugging at Keith to slide on behind him.] Toothless is faster, we can be gone down the tunnel before it has a chance to hear which way we went. Can Red keep up?

What-? Oh... [Keith wasn't used to riding passenger on anything, so he fumbled a bit in the execution.] Yeah... no problem. She's really fast. [The idea of a flying robot lion was definitely a new one to a lot of people here, so Keith had a tendency to forget that others might not know just how fast Red was. She was the speedster of Team Voltron, really, so he wasn't worried about her holding up the barrier long enough for them to get back to the branch in the corridor and still being able to keep up once she dropped it to run.] Go ahead... she'll catch up. [Thankfully, the bond between them made it so Keith could be separated from her, even by sight, and not be too worried. She'd find him.]

[closed] to dungeons deep

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