What's yours is mine.... (Dug too Deep: 2 Star MIssion)
Oct 17, 2019 18:35:08 GMT -8
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Post by Atalan on Oct 17, 2019 18:35:08 GMT -8
Atalan stood before a small metal building at the outskirts of the Oxcorp Mining facility eyeing the place. The drab beige building was decidedly shabby but most of the mining equipment visible looked high quality if used. He had heeded the call that the supervisor here, Baker Mayflower had put out. It had promised a truly unique and valuable reward and that might be just what he needed to start him a bit more smoothly down the road to power. Walking up to the door he scraped his boots off on the carpet and then opened the creaky door and strode in.
Atalan shifted in his seat, sighed and then cocked his head, trying to feign interest while listening to the corporate representative lay out his offer. Baker was a middle aged balding human, rotund to the point of grossness and smelled like a onion about to go rotten. Sweat ran down his face despite the fan running on full blast on his desk... which mainly seemed to serve the purpose of circulating his stench. Atalan felt something akin to pity for the chair under the bulk of the man... as well as morbid curiosity to see if it would collapse under its strenuous load. The chair creaked dangerously as the man leaned forward and his grating voice captured the demon's attention again, "So... like I'se saying, we're missing a whole team of minahs. They found some supah strange metal down there, and if you go down there and investigate, we'll give you a sizable piece. Depending on how it turns out, it could be worth quite a lot. All you needs to do is follow the main shaft all the way to the bottom. We hit a cavern there and that's where the crew should be."
Atalan began drumming his fingers against his thighs as he thought. He normally would't go out of his way to help some schmucks who got caught in a mine shaft... but if there was some sort of unique metal then it might be too lucrative to pass up. He might even be able to make something to help his arts out with it... Besides, if it is worth all that much, I can always come back and sack the mines for all they have later. If I have the time. He finally cleared his throat and said in his smooth voice, "Very well then, fat man; I'll look into it for you. Have my payment ready upon completion of the job or that chair won't be the only thing hating its existence."
Smirking, the demon stood leaving a confused looking Bacon... erm, Baker, in his wake. He slammed the door open and breathed deeply of the fresh mountain air. Ox Mountain was really quite nice at this time of year; the summer breeze was much cooler than down in the lowlands. Maybe he should look into getting a mountain getaway. Or stealing one. That was for later though; he had a task at hand that needed doing. He approached the mine entrance and snagged one of the workers milling about seemingly aimlessly, "You, go and fetch me a lantern. I have been contracted to explore and see what happened to the poor saps who haven't come back. Move quickly, I don't have patience for dallying."
The man got an indignant look on his face, "Hey pal, I don't work for yo..." a red light interrupted him and slammed into his chest. The peon flew into a pile of dross stone and lay motionless and groaning. Raising his voice, Atalan called out, "I suggest one of you fetch me a lantern. NOW." The peons scrambled much more satisfyingly this time and in short order he had a lit lantern in his hands. He waved a negligent hand towards the still groaning man, "I suggest you teach him how to treat his betters. He might not survive being chastised a second time."
He approached the entrance and stood in front of it a few moments. The dank earthy smell emanating from the maw of the mine was an odd counterpoint to the mountains freshness and the stale air was even colder than the breeze dancing around. He raised his left hand and concentrated his will for a moment before calling out, "Come forth, Beauregard." as he snapped his fingers. A cloud of smoke exploded into existence at his side, then sank back into itself revealing a hunched green skinned being with skinny limbs, a pot belly, and dead red eyes. In a grating baritone voice it asked, "How might I serve you, master?"
Atalan all but shoved the lantern in his servant's face, "Hold this so that I might see in the darkness, Beauregard. We are going down to find some schmucks who got lost or something. Try to keep up." The servant took his masters lantern with a subtle bow and shuffled along after him as Atalan sauntered towards the yawning maw. There were some tracks going down the main tunnel that seemed to lead down the middle of the passage. He flagged one of the nearest cringing wage slaves down and asked, "Do these tracks go down to where the new cavern was found?"
The man nodded and pointed a shaking hand down the shaft, "Y-y-yes... you can f-f-follow it all the way down to the end, them to get to the n-n-nuh-new c-c-c-c..." the man seemed to be unable to choke out the last words as his tongue stuttered and refused to obey. Boring. He raised his hand and issued a lesser blast to this peon that took him right in the gut. He had failed him but at least tried to be helpful; only a light punishment seemed to be warranted. The man groaned and fell to his knees, gasping in pain but not really harmed. He turned towards the watching workers and pointed to the ground beside him, "Someone come and tell me how to find the new cavern and so help me, you had better be able to speak coherently. I don't have the time or patience for you to take all day to tell me."
A slight dark skinned man approached and took his helmet off and pointed with a shaking hand down the shaft like the last man had, "Like Michael was saying, follow the tracks to the end, then keep going for about another mile or so. There's a rough opening blown out in the wall, can't miss it."
Atalan nodded and waved Beauregard on behind him. The chill seemed to embrace him as he entered the mine, making it seem more like a winter day than a summer one. His boots scraped and flapped against the stone, sending faint echoes that mixed with the soft smack, smack of his servants bare feat flapping against the stone. The yellow glow of the lantern was nearly indistinguishable at first, but as they got deeper into the true darkness of the mine the golden bubble of the lantern seemed to hold the darkness back from crushing them in its embrace. It was actually quite peaceful to walk through the passage. Except for the faint echoes of their footfalls it was almost completely silent. Every once in a while an almost idle zephyr would cross the track, marking the presence of side passages and whispering into his ear.
It was peaceful at first... but after about half an hour it was getting kind of boring. He took his grimoire out, worn black leather with an embossed clover inset into it; the clover had once been a brilliant vermilion but the years and handling had worn it to a less brilliant shade of mundane green. Raising his hand, he concentrated and used his ki to wrestle the arcane energy of the world into doing his bidding, creating a globe of sift white light hovering over his head. He cracked the book open, treasuring the feel of it's parchment pages. He called back to Beauregard, "Don't worry, old boy, you are still useful. I just need some different light to read by. Watch for anything creeping up on us while I'm not paying attention." The servant grunted loudly then slowly said, "Yesss. Master."
Atalan paid only enough attention to keep walking by the side of the railway as his eyes mostly stayed glued to the pages before him. He had unlocked some of the tome's secrets... but many more still lay in wait for him to, he smirked as he thought mine their secrets. The next spell in the book seemed to have something to do with lightning or wind... something weather related anyway. He channeled ki into his right hand and traced one of the runes into the air, watching it flash brilliant electric yellow tinged with purple at the edge. I am going to guess something to do with lightning. He was content as they continued for the next hour, trying to unlock more of the mysteries in his book but finally his stomach began to growl. He snapped the book shut and tucked it into his belt pouch as he announced, "I'm hungry."
Beauregard shuffled nervously a few steps away and gave him a sidelong glance, his concern quite evident. "I'm not THAT hungry Beauregard. I will summon myself some lunch presently, let's pause here for a moment." He snapped his fingers and a pad of stationary with a pen tucked into it appeared in his hand. He quickly wrote a note for his cook in his looping elegant hand:
Saava,
Lunch shall be prepared and ready to consume on the travel table in no more than 35 minutes and ready to eat, or else their will be repercussions when I get home.
Regards,
Baron Atalan
P.S. please include some of your excellent chocolate cake if any is made.
Saava always cooked better if he paid her a compliment, and he was too famished to eat the rubbish she was likely to cook if he got too harsh. He snapped his fingers and sent the pas back to the kitchen in his manor home and then continued walking. His lantern bearing servant looked at him quizzically and Atalan decided to answer the unspoken question, "I'll stop and eat when my lunch is ready. We'll walk until then." He looked at his watch and set a timer for 30 minutes then kept walking. It seemed much longer that 30 minutes, but soon enough his watch emitted a soft beeping that gave a faint tinny echo down the tunnels. Ahead, he could just make out a hand cart left off to the side of the track. He walked to it and dusted it off and say down upon it. He waved a negligent hand towards his summoned servant, "That will do Beauregard, take a load off or whatever. Rest and leave me be while I eat." He checked his watch... and Saava's time was up. He held out both hands and concentrated... then snapped the fingers on both hands.
A small mahogany table draped with a pristine white cloth appeared before him topped with a platter covered with a silver cloche with a silver bucket full of ice with a wine bottle emerging from it. The bottle had a wine glass over the top of the bottle like some kind of avant garde hat. He gently grasped the glass by it's stem and removed it from the bottle, carefully setting it on the table before he removed the bottle from it's icy surroundings and flicked his finger to popped the cork. The wine that gurgled forth to splash into the wine glass was a deep and rich red. He placed the bottle back in the bucket and finally raised the cloche; a heavenly scent of roasted meat and something buttery assaulted his nose. The cloud of steam quickly roiled away to reveal a nice medium rare prime rib accompanied by a dish of horseradish and a baked potato loaded with butter. To the right side of the plate a knife and fork lay on a silk napkin, on the left and slight behind was a large piece of chocolate cake. Atalan allowed himself a small smile and began tucking into his repast.
Before long, he was looking regretfully down at the last scraps of his lunch. It had been quite good and he was pleased as he washed down the last of it with the last bit of his wine. He stood and dismissed his table, once again snapping his fingers just as Beauregard called out in his harsh grating voice, "Something comes master!"
Atalan spun to look towards where his servant pointed. At first he didn't see anything but he could hear the faint scratching of claws perhaps? Also something that sounded a lot like snakes scales moving over rock... He raised his right hand and began gathering his power. Whatever it was it wasn't one of those weak peons. A few moments later, the lantern light danced off of the opalescent scales of some kind of huge cave lizard. It moved sinuously on all fours in an almost hypnotic walk; its head came almost up to Atalan's shoulder. Atalan fired a streak of red power that slammed into its broad chest. The lizard hissed and staggered for a moment, then continued towards him, malice in it's dead black eyes. His eyes widened; he had hardly even left a mark where he had hit the creature. He summoned yet more power and let loose with two blasts, one from each hand. One hit it's chest and staggered it again, the second smacked into its head. It actually stopped for a moment to shake its head and the demon took the chance to retreat back to gain some room.
He began gathering more power as the lizard started forward again, waiting on his chance to strike and looking for weaknesses. He.. didn't see any obvious weak spot, the lizard was armored like a tank. The lizard bunched it's shoulders and leaped at him. He barely managed to dodge to the side and sent a blast into it's side as he dance away, drawing an unsatisfying grunt from the lizard. The lizard spun quickly as it landed and snapped its neck towards him, mouth open seeking to rend his flesh. Atalan panicked for a moment and just let loose with a huge blast into its face... into its mouth and down its throat. The lizard staggered back and roared in great pain for a few moments before collapsing. A pool of blood trickled from its open mouth as it lay twitching in its death throws. He waited until it stilled and looked around for his servant, only to find Beauregard standing on the ceiling, helpfully extending the lamp down so he could see. He waved at the servant to come down and studied the dead creature. The scales seemed to either be made of or infused with some kind of metal; and it was super hard because he had always been able to pierce steel with his power without too much effort. He moved to the mouth and pried the jaws open so he could examine the razor sharp teeth. The teeth shone metallic in the light of the lamp, Very odd indeed are they born with metal teeth? He was about to drop his examination when he saw something stuck between its side teeth. "Beauregard, come and pull whatever this is from between this thing's teeth."
The light shifted as his servant shuffled closer and then knelt beside him to reach his shaking green hand into the dead beasts mouth. He wrapped his spindly fingers around the stone and yanked it once, twice, then a third time with a grunt got it to finally come free. Atalan relinquished his grip on the beasts jaws and held out his hand for the object. The green hand eagerly placed it in his palm and he examined it carefully; it appeared to be a chunk of some sort of raw ore. Were the lizards eating it? Maybe that would explain the metal fusing with their body in this odd fashion. "Thank you, Beauregard, we should continue now. Listen for any more of these beasts; I'd hate for one to catch us unaware as they are troublesome to put down." As I am sure those weakling miners have found out. This might have just become a corpse extraction instead of a "rescue".
They continued striding down the tunnel and only a few moments later came to the end of the tracks. Well, looks like we are nearly to the new excavation at least. Time to see what has caused all this fuss and get out of here. The footing became rougher and more uneven as they left the more finished part of the tunnel. Occasionally their feet would strike a loose stone and send it careening into the darkness to bounce about and foretell their passage through the darkness. Atalan pursed his lips, wondering if they should try to be more stealthy... but really, it probably doesn't matter. We are a floating light in the darkness anyhow.
Finally a wall came into view at the edge of the lantern's radiance; Atalan perked up and smiled. At last this miserable affair could come to a close. As they came closer, the light illuminated the wall a bit more thoroughly and the opening that had been blasted into the newly revealed cavern. He slowed his steps, listening for any sign of furtive claw scratching on stone or scales moving... but there was nothing so far. He waved his faithful servant on and stepped through the ragged opening in the wall. As he entered the cavern he stepped to the right to let the light of the lantern filter into the cave. Almost immediately he saw the dark stains of blood on the cavern floor; something had been having at the helpless cretins then. He stepped forward to investigate further and saw a pinprick of light off to his right. He started cautiously towards it, deciding against announcing his presence until he knew more about what was going on.
He began hearing low whispers of conversation as he neared, "Telling you we should...."
"No way, you saw.... Harry..."
Atalan could see that the light was emitting from an extremely narrow crack in the rock as he got closer and the voices started to become more distinct, "If we stay here they'll get all... wait do you see a light?"
Atalan called out in a low voice, "Hail the... camp I guess? Are you the Ox Corp miners? I am getting paid to find out what happened to you. Soooo..... what the in the hells have you gotten tangled up with? Was it those metal lizard-things?"
One of the voices called back softly, "Yeah, some kind of living tanks or somethin'. We hit them with pick axes and it just pissed 'em off. Ate one of my best blast men. Rest of us managed to squeeze in here, it opens up into a fair sized room. We might have room for one more if you need to come in."
Atalan ran his fingers through his hair as he considered and asked, "How many of them are there?"
A whispered conference ensued before the voice called back, "We only ever saw two of them. One of them is a LOT bigga then they other one. It's almost the size of two men standing..."
Out of the darkness a giant shape charged into the bubble of light, hissing with anticipation. It was indeed a large beast, Atalan thought idly as he started moving to the side. He wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the beast altogether as its thick tail slammed into his gut, sending him smashing into the wall where the miners had escaped. He started stumbling to his feet immediately, trying to summon up his power. Once again the tail whipped into his side, sending him bouncing into a stalagmite. He was pretty sure he had felt a rib crack that time... it was time to end this. He spit blood from his mouth and let his anger suffuse him as he got to his feet. The lizard was already coming in for the kill... and Beauregard dropped the lamp to the floor and leaped in front of the creature. It paused and casually swatted him away into the darkness and then hesitated as if unsure of which target to attack first. It was enough for Atalan to get himself together. He reached into a different part of himself, towards something that was a part of his demon heritage. His bones began to creak and elongate, his muscles swelled into massive proportions and his skin took on a faint red sheen. The angles of his face sharpened and elongated, leaving his eyes practically burning with golden light of their own from the cavernous space of his new eye socket as he was now practically able to look the creature eye to eye. The lizard evidently decided he was the greater threat... Obviously. and charged him. He started tapping into the wellspring of his ki in his gut and braced himself, sneering at the brutish creature as it neared. He snapped his arms out and grabbed the top and bottom of the lizard's jaws in his much larger hands and began forcing them open. He muscles swelled and bunched together as he made his might effort; finally the jaws began to give way, creaking and protesting the whole way. Atalan roared and heaved, finally pulling the jaws all the way open as the lizard flailed and tried to escape his grasp. He took in a deep breath and infused it with his ki and his anger and then opened his mouth and unleashed a vicious red torrent of energy careening into the lizards mouth, burning and destroying as it bounced around inside of the armor plating covering the beast.
Atalan dropped the beast, which seemed to shrink in on itself as smoke roiled from it's mouth and its flesh continued to crackle and pop form the heat of the beam he had unleashed into it. He released the hold on the power that had granted him his giant form and gritted his teeth as his bones and muscles shrank down to their normal sizes. Soon he stood, in tattered clothes, shredded from his transformation. He sighed and dug some replacement garments from his pack and quickly re-dressed himself in a clean white satin shirt and a pair of black pants. He sighed as he looked at his boots and pulled his last pair out of the backpack. That pair had been his favorite. At least the beast had died an extremely painful death; it made some of his irritation lessen slightly. Decent once more, he strode to the hole where the cowards had hidden themselves away and called out, "It's safe now. Get your hind ends out here so we can get you back to the surface and I can get my payment. Move it, I have better things to do than babysit miners."
The men cautiously crawled out, their eyes widening at the sight of the smoking beast laying on the floor of the cavern. One of them approached it and with some effort pried one of the scales off of the beast. He examined it and said, "This looks to be pure star-silver. I'm going to harvest some of this for analysis."
Atalan let annoyance creep into his tone, "You have until my servant is ready to go. He's around here somewhere, then we are going."
The miners quickly started harvesting scales from the corpse of the beast as Atalan walked back to where Beauregard had dropped the lantern. "Beauregard, get over here this instant. I know you aren't dead, I would be able to tell." A few moments later, the green skinned form came into view, distinctly limping. "You can rest for 10 minutes before we leave. Here, eat this." He handed the servant a wrapped candy bar from his belt pouch, it was as close as he could get to telling him thank you.
Soon he was rounding up the miners and set an easy pace on the way back out. Despite the annoyance, it had been satisfying to pit his powers against wild monsters and come out on top. Soon enough, lost in though as he was, the group reached the opening of the mine and emerged into the fresh air of the mountainside. He ignored the happy cries of the miners and took the inquisitive one to the trailer where Baker Mayflower waited. "Here's one of your miners. The rest are outside. Pay me." A few hours later, Atalan strode down the road leaving the mountain mining site. A bag of metal scales, pure star-silver, lay in the bag in his backpack. enough to make a sword, maybe. He would have to see if anyone could smith it. For now, it was time to continue on his journey.
Atalan shifted in his seat, sighed and then cocked his head, trying to feign interest while listening to the corporate representative lay out his offer. Baker was a middle aged balding human, rotund to the point of grossness and smelled like a onion about to go rotten. Sweat ran down his face despite the fan running on full blast on his desk... which mainly seemed to serve the purpose of circulating his stench. Atalan felt something akin to pity for the chair under the bulk of the man... as well as morbid curiosity to see if it would collapse under its strenuous load. The chair creaked dangerously as the man leaned forward and his grating voice captured the demon's attention again, "So... like I'se saying, we're missing a whole team of minahs. They found some supah strange metal down there, and if you go down there and investigate, we'll give you a sizable piece. Depending on how it turns out, it could be worth quite a lot. All you needs to do is follow the main shaft all the way to the bottom. We hit a cavern there and that's where the crew should be."
Atalan began drumming his fingers against his thighs as he thought. He normally would't go out of his way to help some schmucks who got caught in a mine shaft... but if there was some sort of unique metal then it might be too lucrative to pass up. He might even be able to make something to help his arts out with it... Besides, if it is worth all that much, I can always come back and sack the mines for all they have later. If I have the time. He finally cleared his throat and said in his smooth voice, "Very well then, fat man; I'll look into it for you. Have my payment ready upon completion of the job or that chair won't be the only thing hating its existence."
Smirking, the demon stood leaving a confused looking Bacon... erm, Baker, in his wake. He slammed the door open and breathed deeply of the fresh mountain air. Ox Mountain was really quite nice at this time of year; the summer breeze was much cooler than down in the lowlands. Maybe he should look into getting a mountain getaway. Or stealing one. That was for later though; he had a task at hand that needed doing. He approached the mine entrance and snagged one of the workers milling about seemingly aimlessly, "You, go and fetch me a lantern. I have been contracted to explore and see what happened to the poor saps who haven't come back. Move quickly, I don't have patience for dallying."
The man got an indignant look on his face, "Hey pal, I don't work for yo..." a red light interrupted him and slammed into his chest. The peon flew into a pile of dross stone and lay motionless and groaning. Raising his voice, Atalan called out, "I suggest one of you fetch me a lantern. NOW." The peons scrambled much more satisfyingly this time and in short order he had a lit lantern in his hands. He waved a negligent hand towards the still groaning man, "I suggest you teach him how to treat his betters. He might not survive being chastised a second time."
He approached the entrance and stood in front of it a few moments. The dank earthy smell emanating from the maw of the mine was an odd counterpoint to the mountains freshness and the stale air was even colder than the breeze dancing around. He raised his left hand and concentrated his will for a moment before calling out, "Come forth, Beauregard." as he snapped his fingers. A cloud of smoke exploded into existence at his side, then sank back into itself revealing a hunched green skinned being with skinny limbs, a pot belly, and dead red eyes. In a grating baritone voice it asked, "How might I serve you, master?"
Atalan all but shoved the lantern in his servant's face, "Hold this so that I might see in the darkness, Beauregard. We are going down to find some schmucks who got lost or something. Try to keep up." The servant took his masters lantern with a subtle bow and shuffled along after him as Atalan sauntered towards the yawning maw. There were some tracks going down the main tunnel that seemed to lead down the middle of the passage. He flagged one of the nearest cringing wage slaves down and asked, "Do these tracks go down to where the new cavern was found?"
The man nodded and pointed a shaking hand down the shaft, "Y-y-yes... you can f-f-follow it all the way down to the end, them to get to the n-n-nuh-new c-c-c-c..." the man seemed to be unable to choke out the last words as his tongue stuttered and refused to obey. Boring. He raised his hand and issued a lesser blast to this peon that took him right in the gut. He had failed him but at least tried to be helpful; only a light punishment seemed to be warranted. The man groaned and fell to his knees, gasping in pain but not really harmed. He turned towards the watching workers and pointed to the ground beside him, "Someone come and tell me how to find the new cavern and so help me, you had better be able to speak coherently. I don't have the time or patience for you to take all day to tell me."
A slight dark skinned man approached and took his helmet off and pointed with a shaking hand down the shaft like the last man had, "Like Michael was saying, follow the tracks to the end, then keep going for about another mile or so. There's a rough opening blown out in the wall, can't miss it."
Atalan nodded and waved Beauregard on behind him. The chill seemed to embrace him as he entered the mine, making it seem more like a winter day than a summer one. His boots scraped and flapped against the stone, sending faint echoes that mixed with the soft smack, smack of his servants bare feat flapping against the stone. The yellow glow of the lantern was nearly indistinguishable at first, but as they got deeper into the true darkness of the mine the golden bubble of the lantern seemed to hold the darkness back from crushing them in its embrace. It was actually quite peaceful to walk through the passage. Except for the faint echoes of their footfalls it was almost completely silent. Every once in a while an almost idle zephyr would cross the track, marking the presence of side passages and whispering into his ear.
It was peaceful at first... but after about half an hour it was getting kind of boring. He took his grimoire out, worn black leather with an embossed clover inset into it; the clover had once been a brilliant vermilion but the years and handling had worn it to a less brilliant shade of mundane green. Raising his hand, he concentrated and used his ki to wrestle the arcane energy of the world into doing his bidding, creating a globe of sift white light hovering over his head. He cracked the book open, treasuring the feel of it's parchment pages. He called back to Beauregard, "Don't worry, old boy, you are still useful. I just need some different light to read by. Watch for anything creeping up on us while I'm not paying attention." The servant grunted loudly then slowly said, "Yesss. Master."
Atalan paid only enough attention to keep walking by the side of the railway as his eyes mostly stayed glued to the pages before him. He had unlocked some of the tome's secrets... but many more still lay in wait for him to, he smirked as he thought mine their secrets. The next spell in the book seemed to have something to do with lightning or wind... something weather related anyway. He channeled ki into his right hand and traced one of the runes into the air, watching it flash brilliant electric yellow tinged with purple at the edge. I am going to guess something to do with lightning. He was content as they continued for the next hour, trying to unlock more of the mysteries in his book but finally his stomach began to growl. He snapped the book shut and tucked it into his belt pouch as he announced, "I'm hungry."
Beauregard shuffled nervously a few steps away and gave him a sidelong glance, his concern quite evident. "I'm not THAT hungry Beauregard. I will summon myself some lunch presently, let's pause here for a moment." He snapped his fingers and a pad of stationary with a pen tucked into it appeared in his hand. He quickly wrote a note for his cook in his looping elegant hand:
Saava,
Lunch shall be prepared and ready to consume on the travel table in no more than 35 minutes and ready to eat, or else their will be repercussions when I get home.
Regards,
Baron Atalan
P.S. please include some of your excellent chocolate cake if any is made.
Saava always cooked better if he paid her a compliment, and he was too famished to eat the rubbish she was likely to cook if he got too harsh. He snapped his fingers and sent the pas back to the kitchen in his manor home and then continued walking. His lantern bearing servant looked at him quizzically and Atalan decided to answer the unspoken question, "I'll stop and eat when my lunch is ready. We'll walk until then." He looked at his watch and set a timer for 30 minutes then kept walking. It seemed much longer that 30 minutes, but soon enough his watch emitted a soft beeping that gave a faint tinny echo down the tunnels. Ahead, he could just make out a hand cart left off to the side of the track. He walked to it and dusted it off and say down upon it. He waved a negligent hand towards his summoned servant, "That will do Beauregard, take a load off or whatever. Rest and leave me be while I eat." He checked his watch... and Saava's time was up. He held out both hands and concentrated... then snapped the fingers on both hands.
A small mahogany table draped with a pristine white cloth appeared before him topped with a platter covered with a silver cloche with a silver bucket full of ice with a wine bottle emerging from it. The bottle had a wine glass over the top of the bottle like some kind of avant garde hat. He gently grasped the glass by it's stem and removed it from the bottle, carefully setting it on the table before he removed the bottle from it's icy surroundings and flicked his finger to popped the cork. The wine that gurgled forth to splash into the wine glass was a deep and rich red. He placed the bottle back in the bucket and finally raised the cloche; a heavenly scent of roasted meat and something buttery assaulted his nose. The cloud of steam quickly roiled away to reveal a nice medium rare prime rib accompanied by a dish of horseradish and a baked potato loaded with butter. To the right side of the plate a knife and fork lay on a silk napkin, on the left and slight behind was a large piece of chocolate cake. Atalan allowed himself a small smile and began tucking into his repast.
Before long, he was looking regretfully down at the last scraps of his lunch. It had been quite good and he was pleased as he washed down the last of it with the last bit of his wine. He stood and dismissed his table, once again snapping his fingers just as Beauregard called out in his harsh grating voice, "Something comes master!"
Atalan spun to look towards where his servant pointed. At first he didn't see anything but he could hear the faint scratching of claws perhaps? Also something that sounded a lot like snakes scales moving over rock... He raised his right hand and began gathering his power. Whatever it was it wasn't one of those weak peons. A few moments later, the lantern light danced off of the opalescent scales of some kind of huge cave lizard. It moved sinuously on all fours in an almost hypnotic walk; its head came almost up to Atalan's shoulder. Atalan fired a streak of red power that slammed into its broad chest. The lizard hissed and staggered for a moment, then continued towards him, malice in it's dead black eyes. His eyes widened; he had hardly even left a mark where he had hit the creature. He summoned yet more power and let loose with two blasts, one from each hand. One hit it's chest and staggered it again, the second smacked into its head. It actually stopped for a moment to shake its head and the demon took the chance to retreat back to gain some room.
He began gathering more power as the lizard started forward again, waiting on his chance to strike and looking for weaknesses. He.. didn't see any obvious weak spot, the lizard was armored like a tank. The lizard bunched it's shoulders and leaped at him. He barely managed to dodge to the side and sent a blast into it's side as he dance away, drawing an unsatisfying grunt from the lizard. The lizard spun quickly as it landed and snapped its neck towards him, mouth open seeking to rend his flesh. Atalan panicked for a moment and just let loose with a huge blast into its face... into its mouth and down its throat. The lizard staggered back and roared in great pain for a few moments before collapsing. A pool of blood trickled from its open mouth as it lay twitching in its death throws. He waited until it stilled and looked around for his servant, only to find Beauregard standing on the ceiling, helpfully extending the lamp down so he could see. He waved at the servant to come down and studied the dead creature. The scales seemed to either be made of or infused with some kind of metal; and it was super hard because he had always been able to pierce steel with his power without too much effort. He moved to the mouth and pried the jaws open so he could examine the razor sharp teeth. The teeth shone metallic in the light of the lamp, Very odd indeed are they born with metal teeth? He was about to drop his examination when he saw something stuck between its side teeth. "Beauregard, come and pull whatever this is from between this thing's teeth."
The light shifted as his servant shuffled closer and then knelt beside him to reach his shaking green hand into the dead beasts mouth. He wrapped his spindly fingers around the stone and yanked it once, twice, then a third time with a grunt got it to finally come free. Atalan relinquished his grip on the beasts jaws and held out his hand for the object. The green hand eagerly placed it in his palm and he examined it carefully; it appeared to be a chunk of some sort of raw ore. Were the lizards eating it? Maybe that would explain the metal fusing with their body in this odd fashion. "Thank you, Beauregard, we should continue now. Listen for any more of these beasts; I'd hate for one to catch us unaware as they are troublesome to put down." As I am sure those weakling miners have found out. This might have just become a corpse extraction instead of a "rescue".
They continued striding down the tunnel and only a few moments later came to the end of the tracks. Well, looks like we are nearly to the new excavation at least. Time to see what has caused all this fuss and get out of here. The footing became rougher and more uneven as they left the more finished part of the tunnel. Occasionally their feet would strike a loose stone and send it careening into the darkness to bounce about and foretell their passage through the darkness. Atalan pursed his lips, wondering if they should try to be more stealthy... but really, it probably doesn't matter. We are a floating light in the darkness anyhow.
Finally a wall came into view at the edge of the lantern's radiance; Atalan perked up and smiled. At last this miserable affair could come to a close. As they came closer, the light illuminated the wall a bit more thoroughly and the opening that had been blasted into the newly revealed cavern. He slowed his steps, listening for any sign of furtive claw scratching on stone or scales moving... but there was nothing so far. He waved his faithful servant on and stepped through the ragged opening in the wall. As he entered the cavern he stepped to the right to let the light of the lantern filter into the cave. Almost immediately he saw the dark stains of blood on the cavern floor; something had been having at the helpless cretins then. He stepped forward to investigate further and saw a pinprick of light off to his right. He started cautiously towards it, deciding against announcing his presence until he knew more about what was going on.
He began hearing low whispers of conversation as he neared, "Telling you we should...."
"No way, you saw.... Harry..."
Atalan could see that the light was emitting from an extremely narrow crack in the rock as he got closer and the voices started to become more distinct, "If we stay here they'll get all... wait do you see a light?"
Atalan called out in a low voice, "Hail the... camp I guess? Are you the Ox Corp miners? I am getting paid to find out what happened to you. Soooo..... what the in the hells have you gotten tangled up with? Was it those metal lizard-things?"
One of the voices called back softly, "Yeah, some kind of living tanks or somethin'. We hit them with pick axes and it just pissed 'em off. Ate one of my best blast men. Rest of us managed to squeeze in here, it opens up into a fair sized room. We might have room for one more if you need to come in."
Atalan ran his fingers through his hair as he considered and asked, "How many of them are there?"
A whispered conference ensued before the voice called back, "We only ever saw two of them. One of them is a LOT bigga then they other one. It's almost the size of two men standing..."
Out of the darkness a giant shape charged into the bubble of light, hissing with anticipation. It was indeed a large beast, Atalan thought idly as he started moving to the side. He wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the beast altogether as its thick tail slammed into his gut, sending him smashing into the wall where the miners had escaped. He started stumbling to his feet immediately, trying to summon up his power. Once again the tail whipped into his side, sending him bouncing into a stalagmite. He was pretty sure he had felt a rib crack that time... it was time to end this. He spit blood from his mouth and let his anger suffuse him as he got to his feet. The lizard was already coming in for the kill... and Beauregard dropped the lamp to the floor and leaped in front of the creature. It paused and casually swatted him away into the darkness and then hesitated as if unsure of which target to attack first. It was enough for Atalan to get himself together. He reached into a different part of himself, towards something that was a part of his demon heritage. His bones began to creak and elongate, his muscles swelled into massive proportions and his skin took on a faint red sheen. The angles of his face sharpened and elongated, leaving his eyes practically burning with golden light of their own from the cavernous space of his new eye socket as he was now practically able to look the creature eye to eye. The lizard evidently decided he was the greater threat... Obviously. and charged him. He started tapping into the wellspring of his ki in his gut and braced himself, sneering at the brutish creature as it neared. He snapped his arms out and grabbed the top and bottom of the lizard's jaws in his much larger hands and began forcing them open. He muscles swelled and bunched together as he made his might effort; finally the jaws began to give way, creaking and protesting the whole way. Atalan roared and heaved, finally pulling the jaws all the way open as the lizard flailed and tried to escape his grasp. He took in a deep breath and infused it with his ki and his anger and then opened his mouth and unleashed a vicious red torrent of energy careening into the lizards mouth, burning and destroying as it bounced around inside of the armor plating covering the beast.
Atalan dropped the beast, which seemed to shrink in on itself as smoke roiled from it's mouth and its flesh continued to crackle and pop form the heat of the beam he had unleashed into it. He released the hold on the power that had granted him his giant form and gritted his teeth as his bones and muscles shrank down to their normal sizes. Soon he stood, in tattered clothes, shredded from his transformation. He sighed and dug some replacement garments from his pack and quickly re-dressed himself in a clean white satin shirt and a pair of black pants. He sighed as he looked at his boots and pulled his last pair out of the backpack. That pair had been his favorite. At least the beast had died an extremely painful death; it made some of his irritation lessen slightly. Decent once more, he strode to the hole where the cowards had hidden themselves away and called out, "It's safe now. Get your hind ends out here so we can get you back to the surface and I can get my payment. Move it, I have better things to do than babysit miners."
The men cautiously crawled out, their eyes widening at the sight of the smoking beast laying on the floor of the cavern. One of them approached it and with some effort pried one of the scales off of the beast. He examined it and said, "This looks to be pure star-silver. I'm going to harvest some of this for analysis."
Atalan let annoyance creep into his tone, "You have until my servant is ready to go. He's around here somewhere, then we are going."
The miners quickly started harvesting scales from the corpse of the beast as Atalan walked back to where Beauregard had dropped the lantern. "Beauregard, get over here this instant. I know you aren't dead, I would be able to tell." A few moments later, the green skinned form came into view, distinctly limping. "You can rest for 10 minutes before we leave. Here, eat this." He handed the servant a wrapped candy bar from his belt pouch, it was as close as he could get to telling him thank you.
Soon he was rounding up the miners and set an easy pace on the way back out. Despite the annoyance, it had been satisfying to pit his powers against wild monsters and come out on top. Soon enough, lost in though as he was, the group reached the opening of the mine and emerged into the fresh air of the mountainside. He ignored the happy cries of the miners and took the inquisitive one to the trailer where Baker Mayflower waited. "Here's one of your miners. The rest are outside. Pay me." A few hours later, Atalan strode down the road leaving the mountain mining site. A bag of metal scales, pure star-silver, lay in the bag in his backpack. enough to make a sword, maybe. He would have to see if anyone could smith it. For now, it was time to continue on his journey.