Watch Out for Gremlins - RPLOG

Participants

• Junes
• Narwen
• Pteryx
• Umeko
• Wolfwood
• Ysadora

Date

9/7/2023

Log

(Ysadora) Ysadora is waiting for you in the communications center, up to her invisible knees in loose wires and scrap metal. Her shoulders fall with relief as your group enters and she wades over to you. "Thank goodness you're here! I didn't expect so many people to respond to my request. Junes, Narwen, Umeko, and hey Wolfood, I'm guessing Syn brought up you up to speed already?" She greets each of you with a bob of her head and a smile. One of Ysadora's hands then gestures to the room at large. Frankly, it's a mess. One of the integrated monitors has been disemboweled, mechanical guts splayed outside it in a vain attempt to diagnose its failure. Similarly, a panel in the center of the floor has been pulled up and several large wires yanked through. From a glance, it's clear that whoever did this wasn't successful and may have even made things worse.

"It seems like the comms equipment is fine, but this room still doesn't have power. We haven't been able to figure out why," Ysadora explains, wiping some grease on her white robe absentmindedly. "The rest of the bunker's got it, and the main breaker's flipped for this place too, but in between, something's wrong. Smarter minds than mine have pointed out that the surrounding rooms are fine so the problem's likely localized. I can go and do something more useful, like standing by the breaker and flipping it for you, unless you've got a better idea." Parting her curtain of hair with her hands, Ysadora looks between the group expectantly.

(Pteryx) Pteryx looks around the room, rather dimly lit with some lamps hangin 'round. "Huey this there place looks like it needs to get ta be dragged ta an emergency room... but I ain't a mechanic." Absolutely nothing of them tech stuff made sense to Pteryx, but even they could tell the stuff here resembled a disembowled corpse!

(Junes) Junes gave a small wave to everybody here and shrugged "not my expertise either but i do have a way to remotely switch off or keep nanites from affecting stuff so hopefully that helps but ill do what i can otherwise" briefly going up to ysadora for a quick hug and letting her go to continue!

(Ysadora) Ysadora returns the hug, careful not to get grease on Junes.

(Narwen) Narwen approaches surprisingly lightly on all four paws, striped tail held high and looking unnecessarily pleased with himself. "Good morning, everyone! I heard there was a technical problem? Comms on the blink or something? Stuff needs hooking up? Well, don't worry, I'm here to help. I don't mean to brag, but this is not the most complicated system I've worked-- er." As the skunk beast squeezes into the room, actually getting a look at the sheer volume of cabling, his eyebrows go up and his strut falters a bit. "Though I was more on the software side than hardware. Also I had thumbs. Still, how hard can it be? Do we have a manual?" He stops to think a moment, and for once actually considers safety. "Also, where's the mains power running? Probably step one is not to fry anything. Or ourselves, I guess." His snout quests around, as though he could smell voltage.

(Umeko) Umeko gave a wave to everyone while looking like she just woke up not too long ago, letting out a little yawn while pouring herself a cup of hot coffee from a thermos and offering some to whoever else wanted some before sipping at it. "Hey there everyone, guess we've got our work cut out for us today... I don't expect much in the way of manuals for old secret cold war military projects, but who knows. Good news is that I have nanomagic to possibly help with repairs and getting things powered, or grounding us for safety purposes... Still, we're gonna have to figure out where exactly the problems are on our own most likely..." she said before giving a little 'hmmm' while staring at the mess of things in the room.

(Wolfwood) Wolfwood looks about with a frown. She loops her fingers over her tool belt as she takes in the task ahead of them. "Honestly, I'll take this old crud over nanites any day. Mmm..." The human purses her lips as she starts to consider the possibilities. "If you ask me, there's a burned out wire between here and the mains...ah! But where are my manners." She smirks at Ysadora and says, "Yeah, Syn brought me to speed. She originally asked me to come down to check if the trucks in the garage are salvageable but this is a pretty good use of my talents too. Luckily for you, I'm pretty sure I have a tool for testing voltage on me."

(Ysadora) For a moment, Ysadora's face is blank. "Uh... Yeah, I turned off the power to the room before I started rummaging around in here. I'm nearly certain of it. As for manuals, there's some documentation on the desks but I think it's all codes and encyrption stuff. Probably not going to help much with the actual machinery." With a nod to Wolfwood, Narwen, and Umeko, she continues, "It's nice to have some expertise on the scene. A burnt-out main wire is definitely probably likely. Then again, this is the Enigma Complex, so who knows what's really going on. If you start seeing any illusions, let me know." Ysadora taps Junes' head with a cheeky grin at this last. She then sidles toward the exit. "I'll leave it in the hands of these professionals then, shall I? And I'll go make absolutely sure the power is off for this room. Call me on the comms if you want me to turn it back on, or if there's something else I can do to help." With that, she slips out the door and is gone.

(Pteryx) Pteryx waves to Ysadora far too late, ghosted, so quickly too. Lookin 'round, he has... no idea what any of this stuff does. "Uh, y'all tech heads can handle this... but if any of y'all get injured in any way guess I've got sum tools hangin round fer that! Hmm, prob'ly electric groundin... might need some rubber..." This was way out of Pteryx's expertise, but he may as well tag along just in case they get stabbed by wires or somethin.

(Junes) Junes gave a wave to the newest arrivals and looked to narwen "ive got hands so you can guide me and, oh like umeko i can ground things too so ill be okay there or medical if someone gets a bad shock but we should be okay, and its good to see you all again!" taking their hoodie off to reveal a sweater with no sleeves and an interesting design "okay and if anyone sees something weird try not to worry about it by the way, id explain but it might be better to focus on this first for now"

(Narwen) Narwen nods to the Termite crew: Pteryx, Junes, and Umeko -- Pteryx looks a little different, but the shirt is a dead giveaway. He shuffles out of the way a bit to make room for Wolfwood as she approaches, looking quietly relieved when she displays signs of actual competence.

"Oh -- hello there," he rumbles, offering a forepaw. "I'm Narwen. If you can get the power back -- safely -- I'll start looking over the electronics. In fact, lemme start seeing what looks like it should be networked to what. Probably there's a small, innocuous-looking server that runs the whole show; if we can get a terminal up for that, we'll be halfway there." The skunk beast starts following cables, peering around. "Oh, nice idea, Junes. Say, if you look for network cables, like this..."

(Ysadora) Narwen can tell at a glance that this tech is a solid few decades out of date. Fortunately, whoever designed this room seemed to know what they were doing. Ysadora's invasive exploration doesn't look to have damaged anything critical, and the lines pulled up out of the ground are all clearly coded by color and size to their purpose. That one, the thick yellow cable, is likely a power line. He can concisely explain all this to those present as well, if he so wishes.

(Narwen) Narwen explains this information, using too may words but eventually getting his point across.

(Wolfwood) Wolfwood listens to Narwen intently and goes over the cabling herself. As she makes mental notes of the various colors on the cables, she pulls a multimeter out of a pouch on her belt and uses its probes to start checking if the fault was somewhere between the wall and the computers or if it was somewhere between the mains and the junction into the room.

(Ysadora) Using her tools, Wolfwood is able to determine the fault is somewhere between the this part of the cable and the junction into the room. The connection leading to the computers appears to be functioning, with the interruption is somewhere on the other end. Fortunately, that doesn't leave a lot of area to cover. They'll either need to pull up more floor panels toward the entrance, though, or send someone or something small enough into the hole that already exists to check things out.

(Pteryx) Looks like everything's takin care of! With them tech heads fiddlin round... whatever they're fiddlin with and them nano spell magicky stuff looked like smooth sailin! Overhearin them... short wearin skunk, looks like a funny feller! He... actually seems to understand some stuff... in his own way. "So... them cable's like them heart and brain? Split em apart and it's deadzo!" Pteryx says as he does a slash motion over his neck. "Don't think ya can stich them two back tagether and expect a livin mutant though, not without them magic stuff. Ya just get taxidermy, may as well harvest them parts from the body for other uses!" Making a loud guffaw in what he perceived as a joke, he does a stabbing and slashing motion.

(Narwen) Narwen follows Wolfwod's reading, keeping an eye on the checks she runs and nodding to himself. He thwaps a paw against the ground. "False floor, okay. Hah, should've noticed. Guess we could get that all up to get at the cable runs? But it'll take a while to shift the furniture." He cocks his head a moment. "Think you can squeeze in there, Junes? It'll be a bit tight, but worth a try. Don't poke anything exposed, in case something chewed through cables. You're looking for something like this..." he explains, scratching a crude diagram into the laminate with a claw.

(Junes) Junes took their bag off before stepping closer to double check the wires as they listened, looked at the diagram and once memorized they looked at the hole and nodded "all ears so just tell me where to go and I'll say what im seeing on my comm!" shrinking down to an immensely small size "here goes!" hopping inside they looked around and relay the sights while looking for what was on the diagram...

(Umeko) Umeko nodded over to Narwen and looked over to Junes, "You're probably the best choice to head down yeah, I'll use nanomagic to ground you for now so you can focus on other things while you're down there. Can take turns using it if I need to work on fixing stuff later or something..." she said before focusing on casting the nanomagic, preparing for any potential accidents.

(Wolfwood) Wolfwood goes off to another desk to grab a chair she can drag back over to the others. "Might as well get comfortable while we wait for Junes."

(Ysadora) Junes is able to slip easily into the hole, slipping between wires until they're within what seems like a long gutter in the foundation. It runs from one wall to the other. For now, the insulation around the wires seems to hold, but Umeko's nanomagic provides an extra layer of security. The far side, with the computers, is dark. On the other end, though, almost directly beneath the entrance to the room, is a light? Its source is obscured, but it flickers like a flame and sends shadows dancing back through the cramped space to cavort around Junes' tiny form. The smolbold faithfully relays this to those above.

(Pteryx) Pteryx just shrugs at all the shenanigans, grounding magic, shrinking magic? Magic doodledads and such. Not needing to do anything so far, he also takes a seat on one of them chairs. Or tries to, with his current serpentine lower body.

(Junes) Junes looked around and kept a careful step to make sure they didn't step on anything like wires or anything delicate but seeing the unusual light they added "seeing a weird light so may be a little quiet as i check this out" crouching low and nearly crawling as they use their tails to get lower while moving almost like a spider delicately using the fur to dampen any noise further and watching curiously before coming closer

(Ysadora) Ysadora Junes comes across an opening in the gutter. This looks almost like a little square room, carved into the foundation beneath the cluster of wires. A small candle sits in the center on a dais, its firelight illuminating walls plastered with bizarre posters. Each appears to be a World War II-era propaganda piece. "

(Ysadora) "Gremlins are floor greasers!" one poster declares. Another says, "Gremlins LOVE to pitch things at your EYES!" Little impish men leer at Junes from every angle, engaged in tripping hapless-looking men or shooting slingshots at an innocent woman's eyes. The only surface not covered in this strange collage is a foot-wide tunnel hewn into the concrete foundation on Junes' right. The smolbold's silent approach gives them time to see a pointed tail vanish into the tunnel's darkness as something flees the voices above.