Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 2

Jack and Spider both fire flares into the black mass, as Ben chants the Deflect Harm spell and Thorne pulls out one of his Very pistols to add another flare, this one bright white, to the mix.  The mass of amoeboid monstrosity surges and snaps apart as the flares hit, allowing Bruno to get free, but the hellhound is not breaking off  his attack.  The doglike thing that pulled a sled is not the same thing as they're seeing now - a hulking monstrosity with huge teeth and claws, violently shredding the darkness attacking it, eyes flaming red.  "MORE FIRE !  You can't hurt Bruno with fire !"  Thorne shouted, reloading his flare gun.  Some stray grasping pseudopodia flapped up against Ben's shielding spell and slithered off.  From far behind the battle, there was a series of heavy grinding noises, as if stone was moving against stone.   Bruno roared as a pseudopod wrapped around him and fire gouted from the hellhound's jaws.

Then the flooring vibrated, with a deep grating sound behind the Agents; a quick glance behind them showed that there was a stone panel sliding across their escape route, back towards the main room with the five tunnel choices.  In a very short time they would apparently be trapped in the tunnel.

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GM:  Please respond with actions, etc, for the next few minutes of game time, by Saturday, 20 August, next post Sunday
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Spider cursed at the sight of the door closing.  He lobbed one last flare towards the roiling mass of shoggoths then dashed towards the door, frantically trying to think of something they had that might prevent the door from closing for a few moments.  "Thorne!  Get Bruno out of there!  NOW!"

Jack joins Spider in running towards the door, yelling, “Scotsman! Now would be a good time to help us!”
If no help seems to be forthcoming, Jack will attempt to use the wand to stop the moving stone wall while there’s still space to pass through. “Wise Athena, I beg your aid, as you aided the heroies of old. Keep us from being entombed!”

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 3
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Spider yells to Thorne, who slapped another flare into his Very pistol and aimed it at the amoeboid mass.  The green light from the glowstick illuminates the scene; Bruno snapping and tumbling, shredding pseudopods as new ones surge forward to wrap around him.  The hellhound again breathes fire, but the gout of flame is reduced - and where Spider's and Thorne's flares have hit the shoggoth-like creature is charred.   Bruno is again engulfed by a swath of darkness, though it snaps and tears as he battles with it.  "Dammit, Bruno, heel !"  Thorne yelled,  "Ben, we're leaving now !"

Jack shouted for the Shoggoth, hoping the creature would be intrigued enough to join in, and was right behind Spider as the heavy stone slab was at half way across the tunnel.  Thorne was behind him, still yelling, "Ben !  Bruno ! NOW !"  Spider cleared the slab and Jack brushed past it; both of them saw how thick the stone was - almost a foot thick - and that it was relentlessly closing the tunnel; and there was another one sliding shut past Bruno and the amoeboid.  Thorne cracked another glowstick by slamming it against the wall, stopping and looking back at Jack and Spider, dropping the glowstick to the floor.    Bruno was still fighting and Ben had not moved.
"I'll stay," Thorne said, with a half of a smile, seen in green-blazed shadow.  "To the End."  He slapped another flare into the Very and turned back towards the fight.   In a scant few seconds - (enough time for one person with a good dexterity to make a roll in order to rejoin the fray) -  the slab will be in place, solidly sealing them apart.  Jack invokes Athena, taking out the wand, seeking to stop the motion of the slab.

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GM: Please respond with actions, etc, for the next minute of game time, by Saturday, 27 August, next post Sunday.   Jack, roll vs. Power; Spider, roll Sanity check, please.  Hoping our new Nolan posts in as well !
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“We can’t leave them!” Jack shouts. If he can’t get the slab to stop moving via the wand, he will attempt to dash back through the gap (Keeper, please roll) and use the wand to protect his allies, especially Ben. If Ben is already casting a protective spell, Jack will try to use the wand to aid and amplify it. Otherwise, he will try to use the wand to repel the shoggoth.

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 3

Jack runs back towards the gap just before the stone slab closes, catching the tail of his shearling coat and ripping it (28%).  Spider had called to him briefly but he did not want to abandon Ben and Thorne.  Ahead of him, lit by the green glowsticks, Ben was holding on, maintaining the Deflect Harm spell, while Thorne stood beside him, firing off flares.  Bruno was snarling savagely as he battled the black ooze.    Jack's hand with the wand in it tingled; the end of the wand was shining bright white.  A flabby chunk of torn amoeboid splatted against Ben's spell and bounced off.   Thorne rummaged in his coat pocket, coming up with another flare, which he loaded into the Very.

Meanwhile, Spider's roll vs. Sanity as he suddenly finds himself face-to-face with a Shoggoth.  (the die roller gave a 66%, 8 sanity loss).  It is colossal, filling the entire corridor, and he almost ran into a blinking red eyespot extended from a black pseudopod - a shocking sight to see all of a sudden, in horrifying proximity.  The huge Shoggoth's form rippled and shivered as Spider yelled in shock.  The eyespots blinked, in an uncanny pattern, and a couple more pseudopods extruded on long stalks, peeking around the corner towards where Jack had disappeared; the stone slab had locked into place, so perfectly that it looked as if there had never been a tunnel there.
"Hmmph," the Shoggoth grunted, looming over Spider's head. "You have lost your herd, human."

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GM: Actions, etc, for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday, 3 September, next post Sunday.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 23:50, Sun 28 Aug 2022.

It takes Spider several moments to find his voice.  He finally speaks to the creature.  "Yes, I have.  Any chance you get help me get back to them?  They're facing down a whole herd of your kind."  He pauses, swallowing hard.  "Or at least tell me about a different route where I can find something to make this trip worthwhile?"

Jack ignores his torn coat and focuses all his energy on directing the wand to strengthen Ben’s protection spell and repel the shoggoth.

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 3

----Spider and a Shoggoth-------------

Spider gathered his wits, though he was certain to never be able to feel comfortable in the darkness again, looking at the shimmering obsidian substance of the Shoggoth, with its gleaming red eyespots, with the very real threat of being engulfed by its massive ooze.  "Most curious," It said, in a Scottish accent, sounding amused.  "The agreement did include my giving information to you humans, which I did, but perhaps it was not too clear to you.   Now that I have recovered from my injuries I can in some way explain. The creatures in the lower level are not like me, they are mere...animals.  Not intelligent.  Passages have changed here, but there will be ways to get to your other humans.  Your - companions - have found a trap, made by the Elder things.  It is not impossible to get to them - but easier for me than for you."  Abruptly it shifted its form, cramming a huge amount of protoplasm into the form of a man, the Scottish researcher that it had consumed, in an even better copy than before.
"You're very concerned about me devouring you," the Shoggoth said, attempting to show a smile on the human face; it was not too odd, apart from being far too big.  "So I will use this form to calm you down, a method I employ when hunting the food animals.  This is interesting to observe.   And, to use a construct of human behaviour, you will then owe me a favour."

It then walked past him, somewhat stilted in a gait that approximated a human stride, towards the less ornate tunnel that went downwards.  "This was the only tunnel available for me when I was able to move around, that led into the city," the Shoggoth said, making good progress in the dim light.   It did not seem to need light to move around.  "I perceive that the other tunnels are now open.   There will be a junction where I will be able to access the tunnel where your companions are trapped.   This tunnel leads into the city, to an area reserved for the servitors of the Elder Things.   Variations on design of my original form.  If they had no access to food, I imagine they will be quite hungry."

The decorations on these wall were much plainer, devoted to symbolized depictions of the Elder Things directing creatures around, apparently to reinforce the idea of serving.  There was a progression that showed the city being built in several stages.  It lacked the detail of the earlier pictures, much like a printed poster is not like an oil painting.



----------Jack and the others------

"Yeah, I guess I should have been a little more specific in my journal that when the jig was up, call for help," Thorne muttered.  "Last flare."   He aimed at the flopping mass that was floundering against Ben's Deflect Harm, as Jack readied the wand.   For once, Jack didn't seem to feel the power drain, though it felt heavy in his hand.

 Bruno again surfaced from the hulking flow of amorphous black goop, ragged wounds in his thick hide, blood dripping from his muzzle, still with a lot of fight left in him.   The cold green light of the glowsticks and the faint yellow of the lichen patches made the scene nightmarish, unreal, cast in deadly shadows.   "Jack, cast Deflect Harm," Ben said, strain showing on his face.  "Thorne, when you shoot that last flare, get Bruno back here with us, and I'll cast a Light spell.   Maybe that will give us a chance."

Ben slipped to his knees, leaning on the wall, and flicked out his hand in a motion Jack had seen before, and intoned in harsh Akkadian.  Jack cast Deflect Harm as Ben's spell ended, the spell surging towards the amoeboid things with a great strength.  The tunnel flashed with light; Bruno yelped and the amoeboids recoiled, and then Ben was unconscious at Jack's feet.
"Hell !"  Thorne swore, then, "BRUNO, HEEL !"  The hellhound scrambled to his clawed feet and caroomed away from his attackers, bumping into the wall; he had lost an eye, a good deal of blood and hide, and looked exhausted.  Gobbets of black goo still clung to his body.  Thorne grabbed his flask of bourbon, poured it onto Bruno, then set it alight with his trench lighter; the goo sizzled as it burnt.

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GM: Actions, etc, for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday 10 September, next post Sunday
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Spider snorted.  "You want me to owe YOU a favor?   Well, if you help save my friends, and get us through all of our troubles here, I'll owe you a favor."  He paused, then said, "Now without my wizard friends I can't create the sort of pact they did with you on our first bargain.  But, if you hinder us, you get nothing.  So, either let's get going, or leave me to find my way on my own.  Your call."

Jack maintains Deflect Harm and maneuvers himself in front of his unconscious mentor as well. "Thorne, help him up!" he shouts. "Let's pull back as far as we can." If Jack can maintain the spell with one hand and help lift Ben with the other, he will do so, but he will maintain the spell first and foremost.

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 4

---Spider and a Shoggoth----

"That's the idea," the Shoggoth said over its shoulder as it marched stiffly into the dimly lit tunnel, past a long mural of weird amoeboid creatures bowing down to the Elder Things that floated above them.  "But since you can't fit your form into a narrow space, I'll go and see if I can unlock the mechanism.  Thus, a favour is owed.  That is almost better than a contract.  How long do humans live ?  I get the feeling it's about a hundred revolutions of the Star that powers this system, what this human whose form I wear calls 'years' in the order of 'a century'.  Not a long time.  I'd better start thinking about it."  The weird thing sounded almost cheerful - something that Doan always seemed to have plenty of, good cheer.   It even smiled again as it slammed a fist into the mural, putting a significant dent in the stone.

It walked along further, punching the wall now and then, and finally stopped by a mural of the city, with a string of odd-looking animals shown in the borders.  (Die roller Natural history roll, 87%, nope, no idea.)  "Behind this, I think," it said, and punched the wall, breaking stone loose, rubble tumbling to the floor with every strike.   In short order, a seam was visible in the stone, hidden behind the mural's panel.  "I'll go have a look around."  The form of the man shimmered, flowing into the narrow gap in a fluid motion, disappearing into the wall with great speed.

----Jack and the rest-------

Bruno scrambled to his heavily clawed feet, whining and nearly knocking Thorne down by seeking reassurance, rubbing his huge, scaly head against Thorne's coat.   The battered hellhound looked much less doglike now.   Thorne stepped forward to crouch beside Ben, using his own body as a shield; the hellhound followed.

"Good boy," Thorne said, tossing the empty flask aside to pat at the still-smouldering hellhound's hide.  "That's a good boy.  Now HEEL."  The Southerner stowed the Very pistol and wrapped Ben's arm around his shoulders, preparing to lift the unconscious man up.  "He's heavier than he looks," Thorne declared, staggering, but managed to drag Ben back towards the way they'd gone into the tunnel, heading towards the sled.   Jack put his full effort into the spell and the chaotic mess of amoeboids surged forward, seeking a way past the barrier.  Jack's spell held, the wand in his hand shining with pure white light, such that the mass retreated back towards the shadows.   How long this would last, it was hard to tell.

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GM:  Actions, etc, for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday, 17 September, next post Sunday

Jack maintains the spell, slowly retreating after Thorne and the rest, bringing up the rear while focused on keeping the shoggoth(s) at bay.
"See if there's some way to open the door," he says to Thorne, trying his best to stay calm.

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 4


-------Spider, suddenly by himself in a dimly lit tunnel--------
It was bad enough being stuck with a weirdo Shoggoth, but there was a rushing sound coming from far off in the darkness, like a flurry of bats or some other horror even worse....

GM: Actions, etc., for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday 24 September, next post Sunday
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--Jack, stuck in a trap-----

Jack retreated cautiously, the spell holding steady.   Seething, hungry darkness lurked behind the barrier, but the bright light was keeping it back for now.    A cold chill ran along Jack's spine, a premonition of trouble.  Thorne set Ben down onto the sled with a few more curses and Bruno whined, staying close by.  "Eh, the door," the Southerner grumbled, and limped towards it, pulling out his trench lighter to look at it.   The lighter chose this moment to flare up and break, prompting some unprintable curses and patting of burning clothes.   "Damnation !"  Thorne cursed.  (GM: I rolled 100%).  Then, "Jack, something's moving over here -"  followed by Bruno's sudden howl of terror.

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GM: Actions, etc., for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday 24 September, next post Sunday
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:45, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

Spider scowled.  "Bloody hell.  It just gets better and better."  He grabbed a flare and made ready to ignite it, but held off until he had a better sense of what was approaching.  He involuntarily began to shuffle his feet away from the sound of the nearing creatures...

Jack is focused on maintaining the spell at all costs, but at Thorne’s alert, Jack pivots several degrees to at least bring the direction of the new potential threat into his field of view, without taking his eyes off the roiling chaos beyond his barrier.

Expedition Stage 3:  Deep Underground Pt 5

Jack's hand was numb and shaking now, though the light pouring from the wand had not diminished.  The spell was still holding, with the darkness at bay beyond its perimeter.

As Jack turned his head, now aware of a second threat, he saw it out of the corner of his eye.  A swath of viscous black slime rising up like a tidal wave, and crashing down over Thorne and the hellhound.   In an instant they were engulfed in the massive wave.   And it was only a scant few steps away from Ben, laying across the sled, senseless.

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Spider clutched the flare, ready to pull the igniter.  The dim glow of the fungus above cast a vague glow, making shadows shift in unpleasant ways.

The rushing sound got closer, with a thudding series of impacts that vibrated in the stone flooring.  From the gently sloping tunnel, Things were tumbling, hopping, and scampering towards him - a stampede of misbegotten shapes.  Flippers, tentacles, spindly limbs, flapping bat wings, eyeballs on stalks - it was a collection of horrible parts, and it was rushing towards him in an unstoppable tide, filling the tunnel top to bottom.

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GM:  Actions, etc, for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday, 1 October, next post Sunday
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Jack moves as quickly as he can next to Ben, turning so that Ben is behind him and both the threats are within the spread of the wand’s protective light. If he can’t protect against both threats, he will protect against the closer one that engulfed Thorne and Bruno. (“Maybe the light will free them, if they’re not already dead,” he thinks.)
“Mistress Athena,” he calls out in a loud voice, “Your protection is mighty, but Your servants are trapped. Deliver us from this fate, if You will it so in Your divine wisdom, that we may carry on our fight against this alien chaos!”

Spider ignited the flare, braced himself and held it out.in front.  There was no way out he could see.  His usual emergency escape method of climbing somewhere was clearly not an option, and he could not fit into the crack through which the rogue Shoggoth had gone.  He mentally said farewell to Cressida and the kids, and even to some of his assorted colleagues, even those he had not seen in years.  But he decided he would go down swinging.  Once the wave of creatures were within 50 feet he'd toss the flare, then begin shooting as fast as he could.

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 3

----Jack-------
Jack beseeches Athena for help and turns towards Ben, sprawled on the sled where Thorne had left him, and faced the swell of darkness that had engulfed Thorne and Bruno.  Behind him he could hear the thuds of the amoeboids impacting on the spell - the one he was no longer feeding power to.  Jack himself was exhausted, each step slow and laborious.  The white light of the wand did not waver.  Finally, he reached Ben's side, sliding into a heap next to the sled.

Jack looked from one danger to the other, holding the wand in a numb hand.  The blob of oily black goo that had taken Bruno and Thorne suddenly burst asunder, splattering Jack, Ben and the sled with viscous tendrils of dark greasy goop.  Thorne rolled over onto his back, coughing and hacking, while Bruno scrambled to his feet and snorted tarry junk from his scaly snout.  "What the hell..." Ben said, blinking at the splatter of black gunk across his face.  "Circulus praesidio !"  He used Jack's shoulder to steady himself as he sat up, then pulled the chain around his neck to draw out his badge.  Then he drew a complicated glyph on the stone floor, with swift slashes of the metal badge.  A soft blue light shone in the air, radiating outwards in a perfect circle; the badge stayed where he left it, standing upright on the stone paving.  Beyond the light, darkness continued to pulse and roil, now on both sides.  They were still trapped.  "Jack ? We're still in the tunnel ?  Thorne ?  What happened ?"
"M'outta bourbon," Thorne coughed.

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-----Spider------

The flare went off and Spider fired wildly into the wave of Things, running back the way he'd come in; the flare barely slowed them.  It was the green-eyed shadow in the tunnel he was running towards that next gave him concern, until it said, "Hi Dad!" in a gruff voice, and opened up a flamethrower onto the wave of horror crashing towards them.  High keening wails and a collapse of forward momentum as the Things tried to stop, reverse, dodge and generally get in each other's way, as well as a horrific burnt smell, was the result.  The rescuer was a man about Spider's height and weight, dressed in some kind of smooth white and yellow fabric, clothes that did not look like they belonged to 1925.  The man also carried a flamethrower that was much smaller, but no less deadlier, than the ones Spider had seen in use.   The bright flames illuminated the scene pretty well; Spider was looking at a young man of about 25, that he instantly recognised as Davey.

"You all right, Dad ?" his son asked, still eyeing the scorched and burning Things as they sagged, melting onto the stone floor.  He eased off on the flamethrower but watched the Things carefully, the light from the fire reflecting in his eyes.

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GM: Actions, etc, for the next minute of game time, please respond by Saturday, 8 October, next post Sunday
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Jack is enormously relieved to see Thorne and Bruno reappear, and Ben regain consciousness, even if the Director’s a bit disoriented.
     “Still in the tunnel,” he replies levelly to Ben, as if giving an everyday report. “Monsters on both sides. Athena’s power is flowing through the wand. My arm’s getting numb, though.” He adds his other hand to the wand, holding it in both to ensure he keeps a grip on it.
“Is there any way we can get through this wall?”

Spider's face cycled between confusion, and relief.  He finally chuckled and shook his head.  "So did I die, and you're coming to change that?  Or did I tell you we need help?  I'm assuming you sent all the nice equipment from the future.  Which I hope you can take back with you when you return, right?"  He took a deep breath.  "And do we need to save the others?"

Expedition Stage 3: Deep Underground pt 7

----Spider-----

Spider took in the sight of his son, probably 25 years old to look at, calmly standing ready with a flamethrower.  "No, didn't need to, you need help according to Thorne's journal, I picked out the climbing gear, I'll take it back if you want, and we have to save the others."  Dave's voice was rough, no doubt from an earlier incident in the service.  "And I might have to go suddenly if we have Timeline Instability.  There's only a small percentile of continuity."

"Not to interrupt, but I shall," said another voice, with a Scottish burr.  "Your herd has put up a blocking spell I can't get through.  I can eat the prototype creatures if that's useful ?"  An obsidian tentacle had oozed through a crack in the wall and formed a mouth.

"Yes, please, thank you," Dave said, pointing the flamethrower he'd levelled at it safely away.

"You're welcome," the Shoggoth replied, and the tentacle retracted into the wall.
"Let's go, Dad," Dave said, shifting his grip on the flamethrower.  He unclipped what looked like a tank from the underside and clipped a new one in.  "Trigger is here; make sure your hands are on the grips, point and shoot.  In case I have to keylock out of here."

The explosion came, an echoing BOOM of sound that rocked the stone floor, from somewhere beyond the main room they were heading towards.  Two murals broke free of the pentagram room and shattered on the floor and a gout of dust blew out of the tunnel that Jack, Ben and Thorne had been trapped inside.  Shards of stone embedded in the wall all too close to Spider and Dave.

----Jack-------

Jack gave Ben the update.  "Okay," Ben said, after a short pause.  "Thorne, do you have any more explosives ?"
"Not enough to get through that stone." Thorne said, patting Bruno, who was whining and sprawled over his lap.  Thorne was also jotting some notes in a small leather-bound journal with a pencil stub.
"If you knew where the mechanism is, could you break it ?"
"Depends on the where, and what, which I don't know.  It may be a one-way trap."
As they looked back and forth, the darkness that had enveloped Thorne and the hellhound began to retract and move away, leaving an empty space between the limit of the protection spell and the stone wall that had slid into place behind them.
"OK.  We can cross the circle without breaking it, but I have to help Jack," Ben said. "Jack, I'm going to try to transfer mana to you through the wand, and I hope it doesn't backfire."  He fished in his inside coat pockets, finally coming up with a small box with a blue crystal in it. He bit his palm, cutting it open with his teeth, and whispered an incantation, then clasped the bloody crystal to the wand, wrapping his hand around it, still whispering.  Jack's breathing suddenly eased, the exhaustion fading away to mere tiredness.  The light of the wand did not waver, but now both hands were numb.

Thorne laboriously shoved Bruno off his lap and got to his feet, cracking and shaking up another glow stick, picking up his empty flask.  "Damnation," the Southerner grunted, and tapped on the stone with the flask.
Something tapped back.  Thorne blinked, then began tapping a pattern on the stone, in Morse Code.  HELP WE ARE TRAPPED
More taps came back.
"Get Behind Circle."  Thorne said.  Some more taps came.  "Explosives.  Take Cover OM.  The hell, who is calling me old ?"
More taps. "Trip get back"
"Bruno, you soppy mess, get out of it," Thorne said, dragging himself and the hellhound back towards Ben and Jack.  "Fritzi's here."  he shoved the journal into a pocket and sprawled onto the floor as Bruno tripped him.

Then the explosion came, a deafening roar of sound and pressure, blasting stone dust and debris at them in a wash of wind.  The only light was the wand, and the badge, glowing on the floor, the rest was a choking cloud of dust.

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GM:  Actions, please, for the next minute of game time, by Saturday, 15 October, next post Sunday.
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Spider opened his mouth to say something when the wall exploded.  After reassuring himself that he and the future version of his son were relatively unscathed he shrugged and said, "Fine.  Thanks for all the help, equipment included.  Lead the way, since you seem to know more about this place than I do."

Jack was just about to try standing, if Ben was ready, when the wall exploded. He closes his eyes involuntarily but tries very hard to maintain his composure. “It’s the cavalry,” he say out loud, to reassure himself as much as anything else. He focuses entirely on keeping hold of the wand and maintaining the shield, and opens his eyes cautiously to see where the monsters are, and who or what is coming through the blown-open wall.