Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father, Harkonn. After side-quests, distractions, blue surges of strange auras, and beings definitely not from around Riverbend, they've finally arrived at an odd softrock (concreate) planform with the water of the the Black Reeds... and by accident and incompetence, Squiggles and Poppy have been sucked into a pipe leading under the platform. Lathar went in to rescue them, and it was Sonny accessing portions of the site beneath the platform, that capped the flow of water, and rescued them....
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Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend. He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters. Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does. Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust. Recently married to the now-pregnant Thunnelda Haycock. He had recently received a letter from his long-lost father, and has convinced the others to accompany him to the Wildlands.
Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and stealth take center stage in their mission, although he is apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"
Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable, but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places, and finding it often. He has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair. Recently attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group, looking for revenge. Also pregnant for the third time, and due to deliver badly out of season
Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest. And we have learned the Poppy... can't swim.
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Everyone below the platform, Sonny, Lathar, Squiggles, and his ward Poppy... were all in a state of shock. Sonny had successfully stopped the machines trying to push the others through a series of diabolical filters. The water finally drained, the wet trio were gasping for whatever air they could gather to fill their lungs.
Sonny stepped through the unsealed window into the chamber, quickly tossing a medkit to Squiggles.
Sonny: "I don't know who's worse."
Squiggles was wet, breathing heavily, and wincing often from his butchered left side, most of it shaved down a few layers of skin and blood missing. He just looked up at Sonny, not saying a word.
The sunflower dropped to a knew, applying the contents of the medkit onto the senior earthworm. The bleeding was curtailed, although everything was still quite raw.
Turning to the barely breathing Poppy, the medkit application made the younger worm cough up a lot of water... but alive and conscious.
Sonny checked on Lathar, who just waved him off for now.... so Sonny started exploring beyond the curtain-like filters that had trapped the worms, and a bright shiny spinning objects that could be a filter as well... or a blender.
Beyond that, the chamber kept going... another open chamber, another odd series of screens, leading to 3-foot wide pipe covered with some of the black reeds into a cross-weave. Sonny knew that the chambers were definitely not under the platform, rather somewhere under the open water. Adjacent to the pipe were a series of massive metal tubes to the side, similar to the ones he uncovered in the service room under the grate, as he tried saving the trio trapped underwater.
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Meanwhile, back on shore, Sneaky Pete was still standing there. The rope in his hand still had a lot slack, and no sign of anyone emerging from beneath the platform. Speedy, the other teen mutant worm, was still burrowed into the ground, still unaware of all the chaos that had ensued. Pete leaned over the hole, confirming the worm was still at the bottom and not missing like his brother had been earlier.
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Back under the platform, Sonny returned to the control room, to re-evaluate the control panels.
One of the smaller screens had orange characters on it:
Scrolling through the menu, and selecting "filtering," the sunflower pulled up large numbers attached to a number of categories:
- Aquatic Biomass
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Vegetation
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Radioactive Sediment
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Small Mammalian tissue
Then one horrifying category:
HUMANOID BIOLOGICAL MATTER
The number is not zero.
Sonny: "Wow, a lot more people have been killed by this thing than what you might think..."
Lathar, still recovering on the wet ground: "Fascinating....I guess... "
Sonny: "I'm not sure if this number counts you guys.... even if it doesn't, it's pretty high."
Squiggles: "Is that all it's purpose is? To make meat smoothies out of us?"
Sonny: "I think it's some sort of filtration system, but what it's filtering and where the clean water goes, I haven't a clue.
Sonny continued his search, finally finding a key for the cabinets beneath the control panels... There are three common plaques, meant to be mounted along a wall.
The first fancier one:
KIA WATER PURIFICATION FACILITY 12
Emergency Response Network
Deployment Year: 470
The second plaque, half the height:
PRIMARY FUNCTION:
Removal of radiological and industrial contaminants.
And a final one, matching the Primary Function.
SECONDARY FUNCTION:
Containment of Dimensional Biological Incursions
Sonny, staring down and the final plaque: "Oh... that's a troubling set of word strung together...."
Sonny filled the rest into the the info.
Squiggles: "What's a dimensional incursion?"
Sonny: "I can only speculate, but it handles monsters from beyond?"
Squiggles: "Wait, wait.... we not only shut off KIA's only water supply, but we're letting in monsters from some other place?"
Sonny: "I don't think this is its only water supply... I think I can turn it back on...."
Lathar and Squiggles: "DON'T!!!!"
Sonny: "Okay, okay... but I don't think this is for KIA's water... we're like a week's travel south."
Poppy: "Is it cleaning up they're poop?"
Sonny: "I don't think so either, young worm.... it would dissipate in the water after this many miles...
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Back on shore, Speedy spoke from the hole to Pete.
Speedy: "Uncle Pete? What's going one? Is everything ok? It's very quiet..."
Pete: "Everything's ok, you're fine, we're safe."
Speedy: "What do you mean I'm safe? Where's everybody else?"
Pete: "Just sit back. We'll find out..."
Speedy: "What do you mean we gotta find out?"
The worm popped his head out. "Where is everybody else?"
Pete: "Aren't you a militiaman, Speedy? That means your a soldier, and good soldiers have patience."
Speedy: "I sit around the belltower and eat those speckled boiled eggs... I don't wait for people who might come back.... Wait.... There they are!!!!"
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The Explorers on the platform finally emerged topside. Pete immediately made a mental connection to Sonny.
It was decided that they should set up camp on the platform. Using the rope still around Lathar, Pete would spike his end into the ground while Lathar tied his end on the handrail. It would take a few trips, but Pete would use the rope to haul Speedy and one of many trips of the packs and materials. No-Name would be trusted to his own devices. Pete finally felt useful, with a water-fearing teenage earthworm around his neck, a small portion of No-Name's pack floating on a raft of reeds, tethered to the rope.
Sonny wandered back downstairs if there was any other access within the chambers, Lathar and Poppy prepping the roper for Pete.
It was Squiggles... at the far end of the platform, who sensed trouble....swimming in the water.
Swimming across from the far side of the Black Reeds were five mammals, moving towards the platform.
Squiggles: "Guys???? We've got company..."
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The worm's voice was blocked by the others, paying more attention to Pete freaking out in the water. The curry stains on the weasel's fur had been washed off, but the feel of water was replaced by something.. metallic.
The standing water was filling up with extremely tiny metal shavings with were getting into his fur... the weasel swam faster, but in a panic now, not to reassuring to the worm on his back...
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Squiggles: "Guys! I need some help over here..."
Lathar looked at the panicking weasel... then to all his weaponry on No-Name on the shore... then the sword and shield at his feet.
Lathar: "Squiggles, buddy, I think we got our hands full here."
Squiggles stared back at the swimming mammals, then down through the grate he was standing at, 3/4-filled with water, then back to the mammals. Realizing he was not getting assistance, he unslung his laser rifle and pointed it casually towards the water.
"Hey! That's a nice piece of hardware there!" one of the wet furry mammals spoke.
All five of the mutant animals stopped, treading water. Each one pulled out a handgun that looked huge in their tiny hands, some sort of protective plast-tech enveloping each weapon.
"Trespassers! Interlopers!"
Squiggles: "We didn't meant to be!"
"Then how to you wander off onto the platform. Why did you sabotage the machinery?"
Squiggles: "To save my life!"
"I told you we should put a screen on that... a little more maintenance... a little less death..."
Lathar heard traces of conversation and he help up Pete from the water... While the weasel shook the metal bits out of his fur, he and wandered over to the other side, seeing Squiggles was having a conversation with five otters with Uzis....
Lathar: "DO YOU KNOW BRACKEN!!!!!"
The Otters: "Who???"
Lathar stood there speechless, expecting his overconfidence to magically create his father.
The Otters: "You are in violation and trespass of an important research facility. You need to leave the Black Reeds immediately."
Pete: Lathar!
The human ignored his weasel friend, a lost look upon his face.
Pete: Lathar! Lathar!!!
Lathar: Yes?
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Lathar finally turned around from the otter threat. The worm adolescents, Speedy and Poppy were struggling with that first pack Pete had swum across the water. Pete, freshly shaken off of all the metal debris was just standing there at the opposite end of the platform, an arms halfway up from his side, a single clawed finger pointing back to their solid ground.
And a man standing next to No-Name....
Next: #136 -
