Although extensively overgrown, the area still has no trees in it, and it's easy to see now that it was circular.

"Now that I see the area, I realize that it was probably an underground facility. That would make sense to protect it from the Goa'uld," Sarnak says.

"It would have been built like a bunker. There might, however, be an emergency entrance... or exit. It would have been far away from the main entrance, though. We could search the perimeter to try and find it."

"Barring that, we would have to try to dig out the main entrance. It doesn't look like it was attacked--it was just abandoned."

In reply to Sarnak (msg # 574):

Fox casts around, as he does so he asks in a curious tone, "Sarank  friend you say that the battles fought were of the mind, yet we found your remains in a chair, and the feel is of a population and instillation using bodies"
"We seem to have a duality of effort here".

"I said that?" Sarnak responds. "Was I still in the machine then?"

"We still had bodies, but much of our culture was mind-based."

"I must have meant that it was a battle of wits, or perhaps wills. The Goa'uld wanted to conquer us, steal our technology and then destroy us. Once we were gone, they must have realized that all of our technology went with us. Destroying what was left of our cities would have destroyed any possibility of them learning our technology."

"We did not have the ability to fight the Goa'uld just with our minds, and for all of our technology, it was still mostly inferior to what the Goa'uld had. Our main advantage was that we were resourceful, inventive. We could adjust. It just wasn't enough to keep from being overwhelmed."

"That is my recollection, at any rate. I was not one of our society's great thinkers or strategists, so I was not privy to the plans. We were always apprised mentally of what was going on... whether a plan succeeded or failed, but that didn't we were told about the plans in advance."

"I think this facility was one of those researching a way to stop the Goa'uld. I do not know what that means, though. Perhaps some great weapon that could destroy a Goa'uld ship from the planet..."

 Travis nods.
" Okay as I remember yes that is so." "Okay so we need to find a way in with out anything going bang on us".
"Okay lets see what we can find," Travis starts checking around to see what he can find

Kyle starts searching the area methodically.

"Presumably this emergency exit will have been built like the entrance to the library... concealed and extremely durable," the Major says.

"Well, two search patterns come to mind... either we all form a line and sweep around the perimeter of this clearing... or else we split up and each group takes a quadrant... well, a third... whatever that would be called."

"The line would take longer, but more likely to produce results. On the other hand, split groups would make better use of our talents."

"Travis, you take Sarnak and Hatfield... take the 12 o'clock position and move counter-clockwise."

"Carter, since you and Kyle found the library entrance, I'll split you up to gain that experience in two teams. You take Jason and the 4 o'clock position. I'll go with Kyle at the 8 o'clock position."

"Keep alert for any Jaffa, but also keep an eye out for any place to make camp. We won't make it back before nightfall anyway."

He heads after Kyle and steers him in the right direction.


"I was thinking we should start at least 500 yards out," he says to Kyle. "What worries me is that it could be as far out as a mile, maybe more. We didn't pass any significant terrain features that could be used as an exit point. Hell, for that matter, there could be more than one exit. If it'd been me, I'd have made at least four!"

"What's your insight?"

Kyle visualised what he'd seen in the library.

"I don't think it was that large... it was quite difficult to tell scale, though. I would guess either one exit or a symmetrical pattern," he said, adjusting his course to the one indicated by Coleman.

In reply to Kyle McGuinness (msg # 580):

" Sounds about right, professor. "

Jackie moves over to Jason.

" Suggestions? "

Travis nods and signals the other two to follow him. "Sarnak let your old memories surface as we walk and lets see what you can remember as we search"
Travis and his two people start to search

"I can't say as I've ever been all that lucky at anything," Jason replies to Carter, "unless you count getting sent through the stargate. I think the verdict is still out on that one, though."

"We're actually looking for an exit, not an entrance, though I suppose it could be used as one. That means it's not going to have any convenient marker stones."

"On the other hand, it has to be something that can be opened from the inside yet isn't obviously visible from the outside. I'm thinking that means a stone, rather than a metal hatch. The stone would keep it from getting overgrown and covered in dirt."

"I'd make it a small rock, hollowed out on the inside to reduce the weight, probably hinged. Don't know that much about stone, but I'd be concerned that the stone might not support the hinge. I'd make it out of concrete, disguised to look like rock."

"If we actually find some kind of rock like that, you got any doohickeys in your bag of tricks that might be able to tell if the rock was hollow?"

Kyle began to quarter the ground methodically, looking for a likely entrance/exit.

The three groups move out into the surrounding area looking for an entrance in the form of an emergency exit. In theory, it wouldn't be openable from the outside, but that's a problem to worry about once you find the exit.

Everyone needs to make 6 Spot checks to find the exit.

Is that all?

19:47, Today: Jason Bjorn rolled 21,20,20,19,9,12 using 1d20+3,1d20+3,1d20+3,1d20+3,1d20+3,1d20+3 ((18,17,17,16,6,9)). 6 Search rolls.

Some good rolls, but no natural 20. I'm guessing that there will be some negative modifiers, so maybe no winners for Jason.

Sigh except for two dices rolls crapy rolling
20:08, Today: Travis Fox rolled 21 using 1d20+2.
20:08, Today: Travis Fox rolled 19 using 1d20+2.
20:08, Today: Travis Fox rolled 5 using 1d20+2.
20:08, Today: Travis Fox rolled 8 using 1d20+2.
20:08, Today: Travis Fox rolled 14 using 1d20+2.
20:07, Today: Travis Fox rolled 7 using 1d20+2.  spot.

Sarnak doesn't really know what he's looking for, but he searches the terrain for anything that looks like an entrance. At the back of his mind, there's a vague notion that he may have seen something like this once before, but he can't quite bring it to the fore.

20:06, Today: Sarnak rolled 19,12,22,22,17,5 using 1d20+4,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d20+4 ((15,8,18,18,13,1)). Spot checks.

He may have fumbled his mind on that last one... or at least got a bad case of eye-strain!

OOC: I think we were just waiting for the GM to tell us what we needed to roll, or even if we needed to roll at all.


He and Kyle were spread out as they searched, about 50 feet apart, but never out of sight of each other, which wasn't hard in the flat scrubland they were walk through. Trees were rather sparsely situated, so that wasn't an issue. While none of them were all that large, he couldn't help but wonder if there might be an artificial tree out here that was the secret exit. Would he be able to tell the difference?

20:35, Today: Coleman Hendricks rolled 24,17,11,14,20,11 using 1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7 ((17,10,4,7,13,4)). Spot checks.

So-so. It occurs to me that we'll have better luck the farther out we go, which means high rolls at the end might be better. Unfortunately, none of us seem to get them!

The search for a secret or hidden exit was necessary, he realized that, but it was not really what he was good at.

"Dammit, Major, I'm a doctor, not a scout!" he groused humorously as he searched.

He and Sarnak and Travis were also spread out a bit, but he didn't want to get too far away from Sarnak in case there was a problem... although, out here in the wilderness, he wasn't sure what he'd be able to do.


20:52, Today: Christopher Hatfield rolled 7,10,11,19,5,6 using 1d20+2,1d20+2,1d20+2,1d20+2,1d20+2,1d20+2 ((5,8,9,17,3,4)). 6 Spot rolls.

*sigh* Another failure, if the Major is correct. It's all up to Carter and Kyle now.

In reply to Christopher Hatfield (msg # 590):

Jackie looks around and smiles.
I am usually much better then this.

Spot: 12
04:34, Today: StarMaster, on behalf of Jackie Carter, rolled 14,18,20,14,24 using 1d20+8,1d20+8,1d20+8,1d20+8,1d20+8 ((6,10,12,6,16)).
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:36, Sun 30 Oct 2016.

Kyle continued to quarter the ground methodically, tuning out all the chatter, indeed everything else except the search he was engaged in.

---

OOC: Here you go:

15:22, Today: Kyle McGuinness rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  Spot check requested.
15:22, Today: Kyle McGuinness rolled 23 using 1d20+7.  Spot check requested.
15:22, Today: Kyle McGuinness rolled 8 using 1d20+7.  Spot check requested.
15:22, Today: Kyle McGuinness rolled 19 using 1d20+7.  Spot check requested.
15:22, Today: Kyle McGuinness rolled 11 using 1d20+7.  Spot check requested.
15:22, Today: Kyle McGuinness rolled 13 using 1d20+7.  Spot check requested.

OOC: Well, that was a strange set of rolls...

I didn't want to post it ahead of time so as not to discourage anyone, but the Spot DCs were 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, and 20... to represent the likelihood of the exit being that close to the site. If no one had found anything, another six rolls would have had reduced DCs of 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, and 8! Someone was bound to have found one then!

As it turns out, only one person actually found anything!


I was thinking Search was more appropriate for searching a room or dungeon, looking for secret traps and such. It didn't seem right for searching a wilderness area. I'll have to read the skill descriptions again and re-think it in any case.


As the teams search outward in an ever-widening circle, it's starting to look like their guess about an emergency exit was wrong. Being able to keep in touch via radio was very helpful, though, as one team could encourage another. The farther out, the more area there was to search, and the more time it took. Focusing on the task, essentially exploring an alien planet, and a bit of determination carried everyone through the ten hours of searching. It was about time to regroup before darkness, make camp, and reconsider their next move, when Carter found it.

At first, 'it' was just a rock. It was only about 2 feet high, 4 feet in diameter, and rough and irregular like a real rock would be. It was in an area where there were a number of similar stones scattered across the area. What triggered her suspicion was that there didn't seem to be a source for the stones. The only explanation she could think of was that they'd been deposited by a glacier at some time in the distant past. Wind and rain erosion would keep them uncovered.

From there, she'd examined the stone a bit more closely. It actually didn't quite look like the others. Not that the others were all the same, but the coloration seemed to be off.

She used the old tried-and-true tapping method. If she hadn't actually been listening for it, she might not have realized it sounded slightly hollow, somewhat like a geode.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 593):

" Hmmm, interesting. Been awhile since my geology class, but this is hollow . . . Like a geode?
She seems almost excited.

Jason uses his radio to contact the other two teams.

"We think we've found something," he says over the radio. "Sounds like a hollow rock. Seems big enough to hide an exit."

"On your way here, you can give some thought to how we're going to open it. I'd rather not use explosives--it just seems... wrong."

Although they've been moving in a rather irregular pattern (is that an oxymoron?), he's done his best to estimate where they were.

"I think we're about a mile out, about halfway around the circle... 6 o'clock position."

"On my way," said Kyle, loping in that direction.

Coleman keeps his eyes up as he follows Kyle towards the suspected exit; it certainly would not do to be surprised just as they seemed to be making progress.

Once everyone arrives, Hendricks addresses the group; "Ok, McGuinness, Carter, Hatfield, any ideas on how to get this sucker open? Preferably in such a way that it can be secured closed once again after we use it."