In reply to Hilda (msg # 118):

OOC: Hmmm.  Actually, doesn't that mean that Hilda, Rajip & Jaffa Joe are also heading up to the pel'tak with Vasandra, Kaspar & Asherrra?  I mean, the pel'tak is where the big Jaffa fight happened, ain't it?

OOC: On a ramp up to the pel'tak, yes. Also, I named Jaffa Joe Bar'tok, so he doesn't have to be "Hey, you." any more. :)

Bar'tok seems suitably impressed at Angrboda's plan to use the staff weapons to refuel the ship, though he probably doesn't realize how little that's going to be. So he dutifully follows behind Angrboda and gathers up the staff weapons when they find them. All in all, there are probably two dozen staff weapons... some left from the slime, and those recovered from the battle.

Once you've taken all the staff weapons down to engineering, Bar'tok seems a bit disappointed that he can't keep one of the staff weapons so that he can defend his new god, but he understands that every staff weapon needs to be used.

He certainly has no liking for the would be hijackers, and really is still impressed than Angrboda slew the Slime God.

He pretty much thinks that Kaspar, Rajip, Hilda and Gavan are 'Jaffa', albeit from a strange world somewhere that he's never heard of, but he's very impressed that Freyda and Asherrra are under the sway of Angrboda.

Once they were done with the work, Hilda faced Bar'tok. 'Thank you. Now, where is the naquadah mine on this planet? The goddess wishes for this ha'tak to guard it against her enemies.'

"It is in the base of the Little Peak on the north side of the Blue Mountain," Bar'tok replies.

"I do not know where that is from here, as the ha'tak crashed off course. I did not see the Blue Mountain while I was outside, but then none of us had really been looking for it. We had more immediate concerns."

'How far off course?' Hilda asked, 'Kilometres or continents?'

"I do not know this thing you call 'kill o'meaters'," Bar'tok answers, "so I cannot answer in that manner. I am not a pilot or navigator. The others seemed to think we were on the right continent, and they were concerned that the proximity of the crash site to the First Ones might trigger a retaliation."

"I cannot say what that means, though."

So, Bar'tok knew next to nothing, if not nothing itself. 'Have you seen this Blue Mountain? Would you know it if you saw it again?' she asked, as she led him back up to the pel'tak. Maybe Vasandra could make something of it?

"Absolutely. Probably. I think so," Bar'tok replied.

"No one looked through windows as the ha'tak landed. It was only after it landed and we exited the starship that a view of the mountain was possible. Unless there is more than one blue mountain, it should be easily spotted."

Hilda hmmed at their mountain-spotting chances, and continued leading him to the pel'tak.

While Freyda could have installed the crystals herself, it went faster with Freyda telling him which crystal to put where. Soon, the crystals had all been replaced in the engineering level. They still had a few left over, but those had come from the pel'tak.

Emptying the naquadah from the staff weapons into the 'fuel tank' was another story. It wasn't really designed to do that from the inside. It required dismantling a section, disconnecting the fuel line, now pouring it in and then putting it all back together.

Finally, it was done.

With all the doors open now, Gavan was pretty sure he could communicate with the Major who should be up in the pel'tak by now.

"Gavan to Major Gorski. The controls are operational again. The ship has power. Freyda estimates you've got about an hour of flight time."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:30, Sun 08 Apr 2018.

In reply to Gavan (msg # 129):

"Roger that, Gavan, I'll inform the Captain." Kaspar responds, "Standby for flight engine activation. Over."

Kaspar turns to Vasandra, standing near the flight controls, "The Ha'tak is fueled and power is restored, O Great One." he says with a big grin,

"My recommendation would be to lift off slowly, but at the same time move away from the City of The First Ones. Hopefully we won't get shot at if we're not being threatening. Once we get up to a kilometer or so we can start looking for any geological features that resemble blue mountains.  With luck we shall see just such a feature and be able to get to it before we run out of naquada."

Kaspar grins again and makes a deep bow towards Vasandra, "At your pleasure, O Great One."

With Bar'tok in tow, Hilda had ascended to the pel'tak, where she dutifully reported what Bar'tok had told her about the location of the mine and the so-called blue mountains. That wasn't too helpful, but Hilda had the advantage of being an experienced woodsman and mountain traveller. Certain trees could make mountains seem blue. So could some kinds of stone, or a lot of ice.

She crossed to the computers, asking Vasandra and Kaspar 'Can I see maps and paintings of the land on these? I might be able to find these mountains.'


OOC: Can I use Survival (mountains) to navigate?
22:03, Today: Hilda rolled 15 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 6. survival - mountains.
Switch to 12 if a basic Survival check is preferred.

As Vasandra lifts the ha'tak off the ground, getting it airborne, she calls up the maps and 'paintings' for Hilda.

Hilda, of course, is already familiar with 'moving paintings', although she's probably more used to the story-telling version that involves scene shifts and fades.

Now, the paintings line up with the map, and the painting moves as the ship movies, showing a continuous image, even one that changes elevation.

Vasandra zooms out on the map to show three distinct mountain ranges in the area. She tried to call up the entry trajectory of the ship when it crashed, but it was already low enough on power that the flight log had shut down. All she was able to get was an initial vector.

"This range here probably wasn't the one the ship was headed for. Unfortunately, the course appears to bisect the other two," she explained.

She kept the ship low over the ground just in case power failed and they crashed again.

"I can find no coordinates for the mine in the ship's logs. Apparently, the Dragonlord wanted to keep it secret and didn't trust his own computer or Jaffa."

"Bar'tok. Do any of these mountains appear familiar?"

As the image zoomed in on the distant mountains, making the appear to grow larger, Bar'tok steps forward to get a 'closer' look.

"There! That one!" he says excitedly. "And that one. And that one..."

The three that he points out do, indeed, have blue appearance. The range to the north has a blue tinge to all the peaks, which gets stronger to the eastern end, strongest on the last peak which has a clear separation from the rest of the range.

The southeastern range is rockier, and the leftmost peak has the blue of the other range. The other mountain has a definitely blue coloring to the rock face.

It's not hard to imagine the blue being more pronounced at certain times of the day or from certain angles.

'The mine is at the base of the Little Peak on the north side of the Blue Mountain, you said.' Hilda confirmed with Bar'tok. Peering over the displays, she tried to find a blue mountain with a small peak north of it that might fit the description...

There's only one blue mountain that has a small peak to the north of it; the other two have larger peaks near them.

As the ship flies over to the little peak and starts to circle around it, Bar'tok says:

"There! That's it! That pile of rocks! The rocks are hollow and can be moved aside easily. Does not look like anyone else has been here."

As the ship sets down, you note that the flight only took about 15 minutes. It could have been faster if you'd known where you were going. Still, that gives you about 45 minutes of reserve power for the ship.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 135):

"Well, if we can't land right on top of the mine, then land in the best, closest location." Kaspar say's looking out (thru?) the great window in the pel'tak to view the landscape, below, "Then use whatever naquada we have left to charge up any and all secondary and tertiary power supplies - back-up batteries or whatever will give us some stored power for the longest time.  You'd know better, Cap--uh, I mean O Great One!"

"Once we're settled in, we can check the mine and see if refining any more naquada for our own use is even possible. Otherwise, we secure the site and settle in to wait for General Hammond to send support and relief."

Throughout the flight, Hilda had surveyed the lay of the land, from where they had been near the First's city to the Blue Mountain. Although the journey had been short, by air, she knew well that the return journey, a trek through the wilderness on foot, would be much, much longer. It might be hard for Asherrra to return home once she was done visiting Earl Hammond, or for another SG team to visit the First.

'Ugh. I have no wish to see a boring mine.' she groaned.


OOC: How far away is it by ground?

If you tried to go back to the crash site overland, it'd be about 30 miles, with maybe a third of it over rough terrain or a bit of mountain climbing.

As it turns out, however, the mine is on the other side of the First One's city. Apparently, the crash was a result of over-shooting the mine. When the ship ran out of power, it no longer had control to alter course.

From the mine to the First One's city is probably only 5 miles... perhaps a bit longer circling around the mountain. But it's over slightly rolling hills and through the forest.
This message was last updated by the GM at 17:54, Fri 13 Apr 2018.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 138):

Kaspar turns a melodramatic look of shock upon Hilda and places his hand over his heart as if to calm it.

"Guð minn góður!" Kaspar exclaims, "Is Hilda the Cimmerian actually complaining about having to do some honest travel by foot?!  Has she become so corrupted by Tau'ri ways that she now only travels by - dare I say it? - automobile?!  Call forth the Skalds! This dark day the Gods in Asgard are weeping!  Freyda! O my dear Freyda, do you not weep?"

Kaspar finally stops and giggles for a few moments at his own wit.

"Eh-heh ... Not to worry, Hilda ... heh ... That is why Americans invented the Jeep."

Hilda scowled thunderously at Kaspar. 'I just don't want to have to carry your ass, old man.' she returned, in similar but less merry humour. She pointed at the screen and map. 'I'm planning our journey by foot for when we return to the First city. It is easier to do up here than under the trees. I also have no wish to crawl underground like a worm, unless there are dwarves with a magic sword for me.' she explained, and approached threateningly 'And don't you dare make me ride in a Jeep.'
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Sat 14 Apr 2018.

"Really, Hilda? Do you know what a jeep is?" Rajip asked. "Have you ridden in one before? I'd think it'd be a bit like riding a horse. At least, I always thought of it that way. Well, I think of riding a jeep across rough terrain. That part's fun."

In reply to Rajip Mojdar (msg # 141):

Kaspar turns to Bar'tok - though the warrior's been cooperative so far, the Jaffa's loyalties must still be considered in question - so, in a hopefully respectful-enough tone he asks,

"Jaffa Bar'tok, if I may ask a question," Kaspar says, bowing his head to the warrior, "How was the naquada to be collected? Were there slaves aboard this vessel who were to do the mining?  Or are their miners already at the mine, just waiting for this vessel to show up and gather the mined ore?  Or is the mine automated - that is, are there no people in there, but machines doing all the work with no or little supervision by people?"

Hilda grumbled an answer 'I rode in a Jeep around Cheyenne Mountain. No roof, no sides, I almost thought I was going to fall out.' She'd had a happier time riding in a car on their trip to Colorado Springs, so it seemed she felt safer in a contained automobile.