Walking up to the edge of the Rift Vasandra retrieves a small flashlight likely intended to stick on the barrel of a gun she does not carry and points it down the rift, just on the off chance that the DHD is still visible.

”Well I think we can just about confirm that the rifts in the ground are being made by some kind of weapon, in which case we may want to find whomever is aiming the thing before we make any attempt to use the gate, as we would not want to push them so far as to bury the whole gate.”

Last out of the temple, Hilda stumbled as the Oz-quake grew more violent, and she grew increasingly worried about what all this meant. Once they'd jogged back to the Ring of Stars, she knew why. The crack in the road had widened to a gaping rift, and the runestone of the Ring of Stars was missing. We need that, right?

The Cimmerian walked to the edge of the rift, staring across at the Ring of Stars. It might as well be miles away across a chasm, with the DHD lost. Hilda came to a terrible realisation, her heart plummeting and growing as cold as winter snows. 'We've angered Thor. Those beasts are sacred to him, fierce fighters. We slew one and he struck this world in his rage, took away the runestone to punish us. Now we're doomed.' The warrior dropped to her knees, staring into the pit, whispering  'We didn't know. We defended ourselves as you would have us.' But the gods were fickle.

Upon reaching the stargate, Gavin saw the disaster that had befallen them. The quake had opened a rift near, if not right under, the DHD and it was gone. While he was as concerned as they others, he had to smile at the instant reactions from Vasandra and Hilda.

Unfortunately, he couldn't just as instantly refute Vasandra's hypothesis. The stargate builders would never have put the stargate on a fault line, for just this reason. That didn't mean that someone else couldn't have moved the stargate like the Tau'ri had done. Whoever had moved it, though, either had no knowledge of seismology and tectonics, or disregarded that knowledge for convenience.

In either case, sG-X1 was now paying for it.

Until they confirmed it, there was no guarantee that the DHD was down in the chasm. Even if it was and they could retrieve it, it was highly likely that the crystals that powered it were probably damaged. It was the only part of the DHDs that were vulnerable.

"You may be right, Vasandra," Gavin said to the Netjerian pilot. "I'm not sure any weapon could generate such a chasm if there wasn't a fault line here. It's certainly not where I would have placed the stargate. If there is a fault line, then it could just be coincidence that the latest fracturing took out the DHD."

He then turned to Hilda.

"Those beasts are vermin; they are not sacred to Thor, but if he did send them, then it was as a challenge for us. This is not the work of Thor; he would not punish us in such a manner. He know we have warrior hearts, and even if we made a mistake, he would give us a chance to redeem ourselves. No, this smacks of the work of Loki."

"We certainly would do disservice to Thor if we were to give up at every obstacle, no matter how great they are. This isn't that great... yet. We can still manually rotate the gate, and there should be sufficient power left in it for one more dialing."

"Besides, the gate is still there, so General Hammond will check on us if we don't report back. We can then inform him of the situation and he will send a rescue team."

At that point, Gavin began searching around the area. He called up images of the area that they'd taken and attempted to determine just where the DHD had been. Then he looked for any indications that the DHD might have been taken, and any signs of where it had been. There should have been some sort of foundation that made it hard to just pick up and walk away with. It wasn't connected by wire to the stargate; power was beamed to it, but there might be some other indication... a hole, partial indentation.

After that, he went over to the chasm and examined it. How far across did it go? Would it be possible to cut down some trees to form a bridge? He looked left and right, seeing how far it went in both directions. Even if it was several miles, they'd be able to walk around it. Climbing down one side and up the other, however, was probably not feasible.

The rift was not really large. In fact, it was just its end that swallowed the DHD. It was about 15 feet large and was running for something like 50 feet after the gate so it would be easy to get around it. It was more a matter of bad luck than anything else that it hit the DHD.

When Vasandra used her flashlight to try to find the DHD, she was able to see a red reflection. It could have been the DHD but someone would have to go down the rift to be sure. She could estimate that the red reflection came from around 65 feet in the rift and the gap was large enough so someone could climb down to check.

As he stood there alongside the others, Rajip couldn't help but shake his head with a mix of disbelief and irritation on his face.

"Of all the space round here, it had to happen exactly here. Why not just several feet farther to the east, ah? Damn it! Are we now to just keep waiting for the Command Center to call upon us? Manual operation that you suggested isn't probably something any of us should actually attempt, even less so if it still stores the amount of power necessary for one dialing."

Going on like this, he approached Vasandra and peeked down the rift following her gaze.



OOC: Just curious if I can see the refection.

As Rajip approached the rift, he also saw the red reflection when Vasandra moved her flashlight. There was definitively something here and it was probably the DHD.

Taking a few steps back from the edge Vasandra finds herself some more stable footing on which to think and plan, not wanting to join the DHD in it's unfortunate fate.

”I would not suggest trying to operate the Gate manually unless all other efforts fail, and power supply should not be a problem as we did not travel here without a backup plan.  The DHDs are however quite resilient and in all likelihood the one down there will work just fine, should someone be inclined to hop down and test it, the gravity is however a bit high for me to be able to do so myself with any reliable chance of success let alone returning.”

Gavin's words reassured Hilda, and once she got over her shock, she rose to her feet again, brushing dirt off the knees of her uniform. 'You're right. The beasts came into the temple as a challenge, or were its guardians. It was some other god then. The Goa'uld maybe.' she muttered, still holding to her theory of divine wrath. For the quake to start as soon as the badger-boar breathed its last, and to swallow the DHD so specifically, was too much of a coincidence for her to ignore.

Hilda peered down into the gaping fissure, seeing the red glimmer of the central orb. She crumbled the side of the rift with the toe of boot, testing the sturdiness of the dirt wall. 'I could climb down there... And maybe we could use the FRED to pull it out! We should find rope and a shovel at the village.'

If one of you want to climb down, a rope will be necessary (There are some in your survival kits). You will have to make 3 climbing check during the descent (One every 20 feet). The DC will be 10, 15 and 20 as they scale with the difficulty. Each failed check will inflict a loss of 2 vitality points as you fall a bit and hurt yourself on the rift wall.

Once you will be down, I will give you more instruction.

"I believe I have some rope in my survival kit," Rajip staightened on hearing the Cimmerian's words. "Let me check that."

He hastened back to the FRED behind them and began shuffling through his backpack.

"Ahh, here it is," the man announced after a while, lifting a coil of rope triumphantly into the air. Then, checking the legth printed out on the tag, nodded satisfied with what he had read. After that, he began acting methodically as he had had many times over in the past. He freed the end of the rope and fastened it securely to the construction of the vehicle, then trotted back up to the brink of the fissure, peered down to make sure if th the rope was likely to catch onto any obstacle above the desired location and tossed it in, watching it unfold on the way down.

"Your ride is ready, ma'am," he said with a grin, handing it over to Hilda, then turned towards the others. "Now, people! Go get me more ropes. We're gonna need at least two of them to pull the thing up and an additional one for Hilda to make certain it comes back up in one piece. Go on, move it!"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:26, Wed 12 Feb 2014.

Kaspar is carefully leaning over the edge of the rift and looking down into the Stygian darkness, when he hears Gavin mention Loki.

"Back when I was at university," Kaspar mumbles distractedly, "I always held the opinion that God Loki was the victim of bad press by the Christian Missionaries.  In the original Sagas he just wasn't that evil.  Treacherous, maybe even a little malevolent, but not actively evil."

Kaspar shook himself, and turned to listen to the discussion of his team mates.

"While I would rather send down Gavin, to make an assessment of the damage, if any, done to the DHD; to determine if it's even worth the effort to drag it back up here.  I have to admit that Miss Hilda is more...limber...and thus stands a better chance of success in recovering the device."

"Okay, Sargeant, I'm going to assume you have more climbing experience than me, so this is your show.  Tell us what you want, and how you want it done."

Retrieving the rope from each of the survival kits packed into the FRED's storage space as well as an extra fifty foot long coil from her own selection of gear Vasandra brings them back to the staging ground at the top of the cleft in the ground to make them available to those more comfortable with the use of such things.

”By my count we should have well over two hundred feet of rope in total, and given any sort of leverage advantage the FRED should be able to haul the DHD up easily once it is properly secured.  Even if the device is not fully operational it's component parts should make any effort to rig another dialing mechanism into place significantly easier, but that will not make for easy travel back and forth should later missions decide to come here for a more in depth investigation of the temple's ring device.”

'Hmm? Oh, me too.' Hilda added to Rajip, having not yet looked in her survival kit. Returning to the FRED, she took her own kit out and hauled out the rope, adding it the collection. They had a lot of rope, but little else one might use for climbing or excavation. 'I still want a shovel to dig the DHD out with. And I almost ordered a folding shovel from Fred. We'll have to go to the village, look for some things.'

Hilda tried to work out how to do this, and started thinking of the problems. It could be a dangerous expedition. Thor appreciated bravery, not foolishness. 'I've climbed trees and big rocks back home, but this is different. There are few good places to grab but roots and stones, the rocks are sharp, and the earth is still loose. The sides could fall down... You should be ready to pull me out fast if they do, so I'm not buried.' Being buried alive would be a terrible fate, and her companions would not be able to dig her out.

Then she remembered something. 'Gavin, you have a "Tollani phase device", to walk through walls? Could you walk through earth and stone, to see the DHD.'

"Yes, I have such a device," Gavin replies to Hilda, "but, alas, it does not work that way. There is no way to vary its altitude, and if I tried to walk through that much stone, I would have no way of seeing where I was going."

Rajip nodded to once, seemingly in response to every bit of information that could had been said, yet his eyes were fixed at those of Hilda's. Once she concentrated on him again, he began in a quiet, reasurring tone:

"Look, you wanted to go down," he reminded, "but if you want to stay here, I'll go. Besides, as long as the DHD isn't at the very bottom, you should be all right if only you manage keep keep hold of the rope should the walls indeed crumble. And don't worry about emergency lift, we'll provide that."

While the ropes are prepared for use as a climbing harness Vasanrda returns to the FRED parked well back from the presumably fragile cliff edge and digs around a little more to retrieve a pair of unused cargo nets that unfold to be twenty feet on a side and square.

”Securing the DHD should not be a problem assuming you know a few simple and effective knots to secure rope to a net and have access to the underside of the DHD, if it is indeed on the bottom you may need to be a bit more creative to get it onto one of the nets, but they will still provide a significant advantage in security once we begin lifting the DHD out.  While you are down there we will work on a pulley system of some sort.”

'I'm not afraid.' Hilda answered Rajip defensively. 'I only think we should take care, be ready, if I should risk my neck. Now, I'm going to find a shovel.' The Cimmerian would not be denied her shovel.

With that she walked off, following the widened crevice through the trees to the ruined village. After all, it was only a few minutes walk away. Once there, she hunted around in barns and sheds for tools: a shovel, a pick, even a trowel. She also found an old skin, so the rope wouldn't rub through the dirt. Hermod had taught her to think things through, to be prepared, and she felt this was quite reasonable.

OOC: Search 14, or Take 20 for 24. I'm going to assume success, since they're common items for the age.
16:18, Today: Hilda rolled 14 using 1d20+3. search.

Hilda returned to the Stargate site with a collection of digging tools and a rolled animal skin. She laid the skin over the edge of the crevice, under the rope Rajip had already hung down, and secured it with loose gold bricks. Laying on the furry side of the skin, the ropes would not rub or wear against the gold brick of the broken road. She pulled the rope up to tie a shovel and pick on the end, then lowered it again; the tools would weigh it down and keep it from swaying too much.

Next, Hilda stripped off much of her gear, to reduce weight and bulkiness as she climbed; much of it wasn't needed down in the pit anyway. She only made sure she took her radio, flares and flashlight, as well as a borrowed trowel. She kept on her BDU, vest, boots, gloves, and her Viking helm.

Taking a second rope, she looped it around her body in a crude harness, hoping it wouldn't cut into her anywhere uncomfortable.

She listened to Vasandra outline the means of hauling the DHD up. 'Okay, you work on that while I climb down. Be ready to pull me back up.'

Thus prepared, as much as she could be, Hilda ventured back to the edge of the crevice, peering down into the dark. It was a long way down. Being buried alive was no fate for a warrior, but doing so bravely was. It still seemed no place for people. Would she encounter dwarves down there? The dark elf, at least, was already here. 'By Thor, this isn't how I want to go down on a crevice.' With those potential last words, she clambered over the edge and climbed down, holding and lowering herself down on the first rope and bracing her boots against the sides of the crevice. So far, so safe.


OOC: First check, Climb 19 vs DC 10, looks like a success.
17:04, Today: Hilda rolled 19 using 1d20+5. climb.

Just leaving it here in case anything comes up. Can I Take 10?

After successfully retrieving some tools in the village, Hilda joined her group back and prepared herself to climb down the rift.

Once she was ready, she started the descent and she reached the first 20 feet without any problems. Already, the light started to fade a bit and it will soon be impossible to see Hilda for someone that don't get a bit over the cliff.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:21, Fri 14 Feb 2014.

"You're doing good so far, Hilda. Keep it this way," Rajip anonouced while peering over the edge of the fissure, watchful for anything that coulld endanger the Cimmerian teammate. Once in a while, he checked out the condition of the rope working directly on the edge. He didn't expect any problems but that couldn't hurt either.



OCC: 16:02, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 13 using 1d20+5. Climbing - Just in case Rajip could foresee any problems with the climb. Seems pretty useless with the result, though.

As much as Rajip could see, everything was fine with the ropes installation.

'Alright.' Hilda called to Rajip. Hilda dug her boot into the rough soil wall, forming a ledge to support herself against as she continued scaling down the rope. Hand over hand, foot by foot. So far, so good, by Thor. The crevice hadn't collapsed, and rocks weren't falling on her head, though the steady trickle of dirt on her head was a worry. Fortunately, her bronze and leather helm was more than just for show. And her strong arms and legs were more than able to support her weight.

But now she was getting close to the bottom, past the soil layer and into the freshly rent stone. It was getting harder to find a toehold here, and the rocks were loose and jagged. She pushed her boot firmly against the side, tried to lower herself down — only for a sheet of broken rock to slip loose beneath her foot. Hilda was suddenly left dangling, swinging on her rope. She collided hard with the rough stone wall, pain shooting up her side. Fortunately, her vest and the thick cloth of her BDU muffled it; she might find some bruises later. 'I'm fine!' she shouted back up the crack at the sky above.

Hilda lowered herself the rest of the way to the bottom of the crevice, touching down carefully on the loose rubble.


OOC:
Climb #2 vs DC 15: 19 - success
Climb #3 vs DC 20: 18 - fail
12:57, Today: Hilda rolled 19 using 1d20+5. climb.
13:14, Today: Hilda rolled 18 using 1d20+5. climb #3.
Take 2 vitality points in damage, but this is negated by DR 3 from the vest.

Hilda had now climb down all the way to the DHD, but not without little hurts. When she reached the DHD, she had to use her flashlight to be able to see something. The place was dark as the rift had shrank as Hilda was getting deeper.

The good point was that the DHD was here, resting upon a larger piece of rock that was looking more stable than its surrounding. There was even enough place for Hilda to place her tools here.

She lit a flare and planted it on the rocky wall only to see that the globe on top of the DHD was broken. Fortunately, all the control crystal seems to be in place and they all looked in perfect condition.

Now, she would have to strap the DHD with the nets and ropes that she had at her disposal but this should be fairly easy as it was lying on this rocky platform.

OOC : these damages could not be reduced. Two of your vitality points are now gone Hilda. :p

As she touched down, Hilda shined her flashlight up and down the crevice, wary of dwarves or kobolds or worse things emerging from the walls to grab her. But all was clear. She lit a flare and wedged it in the rock to make a more stable light source, like a wall-mounted torch.

With the area secure, Hilda radioed her findings to her teammates. 'I've got down safely and and found the DHD. It's not even buried. But the red orb is broken. I'll look closer.' She picked her way over the rocks to the DHD, then peered inside the rune-carved altar at the magical treasures within. 'The other crystals and gems and sir-cut-tree do not look broken... Should I get it ready to pull up, or should I try using it? We can tell Earl Hammond about this, get him to send help.'
This message was last edited by the player at 11:55, Sat 15 Feb 2014.

"Roger that," Rajip acknowledged the report, then turned to the others. "So we've got the offer of trying to activating the gate from down below. Would that be safe to our Cimmerian friend and more importantly, would that work?" he asked looking specifically at Gavin.

While not having been much use for the physical part of the rope climbing Vasandra now pipes up as things bend a little closer to her area of expertize.

”Even a minor amount of damage can cause serious problems without running any diagnostics to determine the nature of the problem, with a broken orb it is very likely that something is wrong internally which would make dialing now unwise.  As we are not particularly pressed for time I would suggest at least making an attempt at retrieval so we can repair the DHD before we use it.”