Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Feb 15, 2022 7:09:00 GMT -6
The gargoyle ended up circling a specific portion of the cave-in wall, feeling that earth-bound sense of his pick up on a way through just beyond it. Whether it would be stable enough to push through was a much higher science that he didn't understand, but his gut and instincts told him it was the way to go. Here. Dig here, he announced, once the decision had been made.
In the meantime, the sphinx had managed to recover most of their tools from beneath the rubble, although the cart still remained lodged for now. Getting that out would be an issue they can deal with once there was actually an exit from the cavern to push it through to begin with. A slight tremble ran through the sphinx's arm as she lifted the shovel to her shoulder, still belying that tension beneath. "A way out, Ras?"
Dig here, the gargoyle confirmed, and began to slowly claw at the loose rubble covering the harder stones beneath. Then out.
"I sure hope so.." the sphinx sighed, and moved over to help break up some of the larger rocks with a pickaxe.
(190) Darky: 190 - (added) Ras Dashen: 115 (0/5) / 115 (0/5)
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Post by Nadia on Feb 22, 2022 22:48:23 GMT -6
There's some stones waiting to be discovered.
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Mar 22, 2022 14:40:24 GMT -6
At the back of her mind she tried to keep the panic behind a series of equally distracting thoughts, such as the temperature of the room, the soreness of the shoulders, the prickling of shale pieces underneath her feet, and above all the cool detachment of the gargoyle's emotions. While they had never actually tested it as such, she inevitably had to wonder how far back those empathic lines could reach, and whether those back at the kennel were getting nervous about her sudden fear spike (particularly those who knew she had gone mining).
Ras claws away at the first few loose rocks, clearing up enough space to reveal the larger pieces behind them. Between the dust and the general destruction, it was hard to tell which was what way, but initial inspections looked to be promising. If nothing else, at least one of the slabs was lodged above another, making it a more stable roofing to dig under.
(191) Darky: 191 Ras Dashen: 115 (1/5) / 115 (1/5)
Ma5hncmv
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Mar 22, 2022 14:44:47 GMT -6
Keep trudging, keep trudging, she reminded herself. A mind with problems to solve is a mind that's unable to give into the panic that's just barely teetering on the edges of her brain. "This looks good," she breathed out, both from the tiredness of the effort as much as relief. "Let's try here, punch a way through." The cart can wait, first they need to make sure they can find a safe way out for themselves. Worst came to worst, the tat-lung could be called in to assist break out the cart later on.
The gargoyle's acknowledgement was usually a small clack of the beak, that tightening of the jaw just before he got to work. Raking the claws against the purple crystal and loose stone, he began to clear a way through the small hollow beneath the megalithic slab above them. It was still crystal, for the most part.. but they had to hope it held.
(192) Darky: 192 Ras Dashen: 115 (2/5) / 115 (2/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Mar 22, 2022 14:48:55 GMT -6
For her part, she kept an eye on the general structural stability of the rock above the hollow, while also lending a hand with the pry bar or pickaxe, depending on which type of blockage was encountered next. Some of the frailer stones could be cleared away with a couple of chips of the pickaxe, fracturing them enough to make the pieces easier to lift out and toss away. For pieces too big or just too tough for a pickaxe to cut through, the pry bar offered a necessary leverage to roll them away.
One such boulder, mostly located on the edge of the hollow, but blocking angles towards moving a few of the other stones, was easy enough to move away, but nearly caused a much bigger issue as it rolled down the rubble pile, bumped a divet in the ground, and only very narrowly missed rolling into the cart itself.
(193) Darky: 193 Ras Dashen: 115 (3/5) / 115 (3/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Mar 22, 2022 14:53:36 GMT -6
Her mind had been in better places, and the mistake wasn't so much an honest one as due to distraction, but by whatever spirits she survived the cave-in itself, they also looked to be guarding the cart as well. Still, it's a bit too closer for comfort (and you can only get lucky so many times). While the gargoyle worked deepening the hollow into a more proper tunnel they could crawl through, she stepped among the slope of rubble, loosening stone and debris here and there for a more stable path to roll things down across.
Whatever misfortune brought this on them, it wasn't entirely without some boons as well. When she lodges loose a bit of crystal, letting it drop off the side of the slope, there's something beneath it among all the dust and rubble - a single piece of green and red. Leaning down, she brushes away the dust and shines the flash light onto the hole.
(194) Darky: 194 Ras Dashen: 115 (4/5) / 115 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Mar 22, 2022 14:57:34 GMT -6
The red is distinct and quickly recognisable, for garnets hold a particular special place among the abiharim. Though it's still rough in form, she'd glad to find that it hasn't cracked in whatever force cause it to be dug up (or down, if it came from the ceiling) from the quake and cave-in. The other stone needs a bit more inspecting, but she's eventually able to recognise it as a heliotrope, another of the stones that is quite unusual but intriguing in its formation.
After a brief inspection, she pockets both and stands to look up the slope at where the gargoyle's tail is visible beyond its edge. Rubble and rock continues to fly out of the hollow, as he quickly burrows a path forward, though how much longer the blockage goes is an entirely different question. If they're lucky, the main part of the cave-in happened right on top of them.. If not, it could be a long, long tunnel.
(195) Darky: 195 Ras Dashen: 116 (0/5) / 116 (0/5)
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Yang
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Post by Yang on Mar 26, 2022 23:56:17 GMT -6
something peaks from a pile of rubble...
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Post by Ashe on Mar 31, 2022 15:16:21 GMT -6
Eggs aren't the only things being found.
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Apr 8, 2022 4:47:58 GMT -6
"How's it looking?" she asks with a slightly dust-hoarse voice still, more the habit to talk out loud than a necessity due to the ribbon between them. There's a stony grumbling deep in the hollow, as Ras continues to break apart rock and rubble, pushing it back out towards here. Close. Not yet. More. A description that wasn't exactly lengthy, but it got the point across and manages to alleviate some of her concern. Looks like they might be able to get out of here sooner rather than later, after all, the threat of a longer tunnel looking past.
Sitting back, the sphinx sighed, feeling a bit of the tension lifting. The problem with such states was more in trying to hold everything together, than often the state itself. At the moment they were safe (a condition that could certainly change at any moment, but as much as true everywhere, not just in the here and now).
(196) Darky: 196 Ras Dashen: 116 (1/5) / 116 (1/5) kKP7DP72
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Yang
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Post by Yang on Apr 8, 2022 21:23:06 GMT -6
Something can be seen in a crevice...
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Apr 9, 2022 7:09:36 GMT -6
Which wasn't a state the mind was so readily able to accept, considering the aftershocks of the cave-in event itself. But this small bit of hope came as a glimmer, as something to hold onto and anchor all other grounding hopes around. Leaning up against a boulder, she took a moment to decompress some of the burgeoning panic once more, took a breath, and got back to work.
While Ras was busy with their tunnel out, the sphinx removed some of the rubble and scree that he kept throwing out behind him, as to give the gargoyle more space to work with. Then, as that was slowly piling again, she moved her attentions down to the slope they were on. Much of it was uneven, though looked rather stable. There wasn't much she could do to help the gargoyle dig the tunnel, due to the constraints of space, but perhaps she can still manage to clear a path up the slope in the meantime, to better enable the cart to be pulled back up.
(197) Darky: 197 Ras Dashen: 116 (2/5) / 116 (2/5)
6ZwinZbO
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Apr 9, 2022 7:13:47 GMT -6
A task that could keep her mind occupied, with the various angles and points that could be cleared of smoothed, which rather worked well in keeping things together at the same time. Taking up the pickaxe, she decided to start from the top-down, so anything that was cleared would only have to fall or slide down, making it that less of a double work later to clear. A few points of rock jutted out sharply from the slope, so she slid down to them and began to pick at their bases, to sheer the sharp tops off. Where the tips were crystals it was easy enough, as they shattered at contact easily, but the points of the grey-brown rock were tougher, and needed more time and focus.
Though the work itself wasn't without unexpected surprises, even if the results themselves took time. The sphinx finished up with the last one one spike, when she pushed it off and down, finding something revealed just beneath its overhang.
(198) Darky: 198 Ras Dashen: 116 (3/5) / 116 (3/5) 1Anq6W1s
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Yang
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Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on Apr 9, 2022 22:35:50 GMT -6
Something can be seen in a crevice...
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Apr 10, 2022 7:07:21 GMT -6
The dust from the rock slowly cleared away, letting the light of the flashlight to push through into the crevice it was sheltering. And therein, three round shapes.. Not unlike stones, but the sphinx had seen pretty much every type of stone this mountain had to offer and yet the two pale forms and one mottled one weren't at all what she was expecting. They almost looked like they had been shaped by hand.. but when she ran a hand across their surface, the texture gave the final tell-tale clue.
These.. were eggs. Not rock, not fossil, nor any other form of mineral, but actual organic forms. Her immediate thought was one of panic, since the last time she and the gargoyle had encountered eggs down in the mines was when a rather specific sarane nest had been located. If there were any brooding sarane roaming the area the noise sure caught their attention and could well spell disaster if they encounter interlopers.
(199) Darky: 199 Ras Dashen: 116 (4/5) / 116 (4/5) GZ4jCMzF
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