GURPS Banestorm PBBB narrative thread

games
262

Ranar Bolijyr

While Thwip is dowsing, Ranar paces around within the outline of the foundation, looking intently at the dirt and grass. The combination of two hillocks and a depression on the eastern side might have been something once, stairs up and down, along with…something? He doesn’t see anything obvious though. After a moment of pondering, he decides to take a break and walks over to the rabbit burrow. Rabbits are often skittish, but some can be relaxed and easygoing. He kneels down at the burrow and tries to peek inside, hoping that some more dangerous animal hasn’t moved into the hole.

263

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM SCENE

While Thwip wanders around, Ranar investigates the burrow.

It appears to be unexceptional. No rabbit is immediately visible, but there are enough droppings scattered about to suggest that it’s still occupied.

264

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM SCENE

As Thwip surveys the scene, he notes a few things:

  • There are three depressions in the ground; one east, one central, one west. The eastern one is between two hillocks, and is well to the north of the centreline of the building. The centre depression is close to the centre of the building in all directions, directly south of a rabbit burrow which is against the north wall. The western depression is a tiny bit north of the centre line, hard against the western wall (which is closest to the hilltop).

  • The support pillars alongside the central hallway appear to have been where you’d expect them to be. It isn’t that big a building; those pillars should have been enough to support a reasonable roof.

  • The eastern depression is a couple of feet deeper than the other two. Scratching around in the bottom of the deepest part of it reveals a hint of a layer of stone underneath the dirt, possibly an old floor level.

  • The pendulum appears to swing a little strangely a few yards southwest of the rabbit burrow, just after you turned towards the hilltop. Just a momentary possible interruption in rhythm.

265

Thwip

Wishing he had a beard to stroke, Thwip rubs his chin instead. He calls to Ranar who seems to be the only one as interested in poking holes as he.

“I made notice off tese tings about tis spot and I wish t’ hear yir thoughts.”

He then goes over the layout of the rectangle they are standing in.

“T’ dip in t’ west wall intriggs me.”

266

Ranar Bolijyr

Ranar stands up and looks southwest toward Thwip, his gaze drifting the hill to the carriage. He nods and shrugs. “Seems a good a place alright.” Gesturing back down at the rabbit hole, “But somebody’s already been doin’ some diggin’ here. Can you tell if this goes through to a basement? If so, we might just need to widen it a bit, then toward that spot down below.”

267

Thwip

“It’s lookin’ like a stone floor under tis layer a eart’ here. Ifin teres a coney tat kin dig thru tat I wount stick m’ hand in tere.”

Thwip walks over to the hole and crouches down to peer into it.

“But tats not t’ say tere isint a collapse it kin dig in t’. I giss it depend ifin itsa warren ir a burrow. Y’ see any otter holes?”

268

Ranar Bolijyr

Otters? Otters live near water, they wouldn’t…ohh.

“I uh, I’ve not noticed any yet.” He steps up on one of the foundation stones and looks around, then gets back down by the hole with Thwip and pokes his pick in, feeling around. “But if I was an animal lookin’ for a place to hide and found a loose floorboard or stone to save me some diggin’, I might move in there.”

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269

Thwip

Thwip nods at the wisdom of Ranar about matters concerning the natural world. He should get him to write it all down when they’re back in the city.

He pats around his coat again until he finds the pocket he was looking for. He pulls out something that looks like a collection of short rods wrapped in a chain. After making sure none of the others are within accidental smacking range, he grabs one end of the chain and swings the bundle. The force causes the chain to whip out and the rods to stand on each other as a long tube before going slack again. He wraps the loose chain around his hand until the chain is tight and the pole is formed.

He shows his new pole to Ranar. “I call itta [salesman voice] ‘Collapsible Rod And Chain Device Fir Adventuresome Sentients’. I tried t’ sell t’ idea but t’ buyar wantid t’ change t’ name t’ ‘Pokey Man’ which is ri-dick-alus.”

Thwip begins to slowly push the opposite end into the hole. He stops and smirks at Ranar.

“Ifin tere IZ a stone-chewin’ coney in tere, run fast.”

270

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

Poking around in the rabbit burrow reveals what seems to be a stone surface underlying, at about the same level as the base of the eastern depression.

271

Ranar Bolijyr

Ranar and Thwip took turns stretching awkwardly and poking around, reaching in as far as possible while also being ready to jump back if a mad bunny came out. Failing to find a hole or loose stone, Ranar stood, turned to the southwest, and shrugged. “Eh, was worth a try. Let’s check your spot.”

272

Thwip

Attempting to hide his disappointment in both the lack of a hole in the stone and in the lack of a new species of stone-eating rabbit, Thwip refolds his rod & chain. He gestures to Ranar to walk with him to the depression with the two rises on either side of it.

“I’ve been tinkin about tat… it’d be logikal t’ have a door closer to t’ hill since itsa good ting t’ hide under. But! Since tey seem t’ not have a walk-in entrince, tey’d need a way t’ bring tings upan down like inna mine shaft. I’m wondrin’ ifin those two hillocks tere might be a base fir a hoist.”

Thwip points to the hillock on the north east side of the area.

“Y’ wanna take a whack tere an see whas under… ifin anyting? We finda support it mebbe it.”

273

Ranar Bolijyr

“Mm. Makes sense.” Ranar nods and digs in, looking for stones, wood, and dried clumps of dirt that can be pried out easily, and brushing away the looser scrabble by hand.

274

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

Although not specialised for moving soil, Ranar’s pick does fairly quick work on poking around in the hillocks. The ground of the hillocks is not as hard packed as in other places, and isn’t difficult to shift.

However, they are just dirt; no notable contents. It appears that the hillocks may have been created by whatever it was that dug out the eastern depression, from the dirt removed in doing so.

Poking around with his pick in the eastern depression between the hillocks, Ranar reveals a solid, unbroken stone floor. Thumping on the stone does not reveal any sort of echo or suggestion of hollowness; it sounds like solid dirt underneath the rock.

The western and central depressions are still unexplored; it may be that the stone floor does not block all of them.

275

Thwip

The goblin frowns a deeply gobliny frown. A frown that can only come from having a mouth filled with pointy teeth.

– No hoist foundations?! Was the hoist an unmounted structure? Did they just move the builders up and down by ladders? Who does something like that? No engineer worth their salt would sign off on a system so inefficient! Probably an elf. They’re always building things that will fall over and hurt people. Look at the Banestorm.–

“Tis vault was built by a min wit no sense off logick!”

Thwip rubs his head in thought again before addressing Ranar. “I’m worriet about yir pik. Hittin’ tat stone can’t be good fer it. And were jus startid t’ investygate. We got mor places t’ dig an I fergat t’ bring spades fir effrywon.”

Thwip squats down and stares at the two remaining depressions in this area. Unwittingly he slips into Goblinese as he steams, “Tisis distruktif arkyology ti wat tis. Te kiet sid bii eisrt’ fin yin yiss ifin te kenhid wat gut. Unt evwon in hiis woun ken yin yewsta sevrin hoist!” Thwip mutters a few more dark sentences about ancient engineers and the moral fiber of their mothers.

He stops, deflates with a sigh, and turns to Ranar once again, forgetting to switch back to Anglish.

“Ifin yin wans te kookin hawls yin, aye. Eyewon kent hed fir ta oori boing mae te hur sunds.”

276

Ranar Bolijyr

Ranar looks quizzically at Thwip, (not wanting to acknowledge that he has no idea what he just said) then off into the distance, then makes a guess and turns toward the foundations of the other building. “Yeh. Let’s try it.” Looking back toward the hill. “D’n’t know why, but they might’ve gone under here without access. Or maybe this was later…or earlier…” He shrugs. “Humans.”

277

Thwip

– Ach! I’ve been speaking Gobinaise! Did he understand? He’s acting like he understood. But what if he’s just trying to be polite? But me asking if he understood if he didn’t might be embarrassing. And assuming he didn’t when he did understand would be rude. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen. –

“Hem. Yeh. Goot. You spike the d’presshins. I’ll keep m’ ear to t’ ground andt lissen fir halla sounds.”

Thwip awkwardly goes over to the depression to the center and lays down, turning his head away from Ranar as he feels the blush rising up from his neck.

“Wack it hardt ass y’ can. Try not t’ spike m’ skull though.”

– Even though I somewhat wish you would right now.–

278

@nimelennar @Daaksyde @Mitchell @William_George @daneel

GM POST

An exploratory excavation of the central depression rapidly reveals that it too has a solid layer of stone underneath. Ranar clears a narrow hole, just wide enough to give the stone an investigatory thump. Again, it sounds solid.

Moving on to the western depression, Ranar again probes with his pick. This time, however, the stone layer seems to be missing. It appears that the soil continues below the floor layer of the other two holes, although the narrow hole dug by Ranar does not reveal the extent of the feature.

Excavating properly would take forever with just Ranar’s pick, however. The ground is fairly firmly packed here.

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279

Blue Hawk

Hawk watches the mine-man and the green-man work. In general, he thinks that building with stone is not worth the trouble: in the tribal lands, if one tribe’s land has drought, the homes can be moved to where the water is. Stone houses can’t reading be moved.

When Thwip and Ranar mention that they’ve found an area picked with dirt, Hawk gets up, stretching briefly. “I can help with dirt,” he says.

Laying his hand upon the ground, the shaman calls forth a swarm of burrowing creatures, and sends the critters to the packed-dirt area where the two are standing, with orders to dig and loosen the dirt.

As the tribesman walks in a circle around the fortification, he taps a rhythm on his drum with his left hand, and drags the other along the ground. As he passes the first yard, a swarm of worms, ants, beetles, and other digging insects rise out of the ground and make their way to the depression.

Hawk keeps walking, drinking, and dragging his hand for a second yard, and a second swarm comes forth and makes its way to the depression. A third and fourth swarm follows, but when the shaman lays his hand upon the fifth yard, his drum pattern falters, and he falls to a knee as his concentration can’t handle raising the fifth swarm.

With four cubic yards’ worth of insects, it’s the work of only a few minutes before the earth, previously packed until nearly stone-hard, is loosened to the point where it can really be scooped away by hand. He tells the swarms to keep digging until they hit actual stone, just in case the hole goes deeper.

That done, Hawk reclines. “While you dig, is there anything else you need bugs for?”

280

Thwip

“While you dig, is there anything else you need bugs for?”

“Oh?! Inny t’mites? I haven’t cookt mutter’s stew in ages.”

281

Ranar Bolijyr

“Hey! Over here!” Ranar yells, scooping at the now loose dirt. “Give a hand, unless you’re afraid of a few worms!” The way the bugs and worms are swarming is actually rather disconcerting, but he’s not about to let anyone see him cringe over it. At least they’re swarming away from him.