Apocalypse Junction

[Earl of Purple]

Somewhere in the desert

"Apocalypse Junction. It's dangerous out here, but there's good rewards for the brave and hardy. Especially away from the roads. You need a ride?" The rifle's lowered, though the speaker is still cautious and could raise it quickly if they felt the need.

Desolate Desert - Portal Stone

"I don't believe anyone has seen a living dragon, besides Rand al'Thor. He cleansed saidin so I can touch the source without going mad. I can feel the difference. Can you lead me to somewhere I can stay, for a while at least? I... do not appear to have anything with me." Besides the clothes on his back and a literal dead shark, anyway.

Ruined Motorway- Rapid Robots

Both the rifle and the pistol are unloaded, which may prove an issue if TALBot tries to replicate them in the future. Unless he edits them, they won't come with bullets. They're modern NATO standard, however, so that might not be a problem. The engine doesn't respond to the key being turned- and it was already in the 'on' position. It might work with fuel and possibly a new battery, but without those... there's nothing.

Further ahead, there's three lanes of blocked traffic, all headed towards this impromptu road block. No cars beyond it, either. Most of them are burnt out wrecks, and the others show signs of long neglect. The closest to the armoured car is intact, the front door open, and looks as though it was stopped. It may still have fuel, if TASBot wants to try getting the armoured car working again. Otherwise, there's a metal object further ahead, gleaming as though it's new; a hemispherical object with three long, articulated legs and a small nozzle hanging below. It's open sided, with a metal roof over the top held up by flimsy-looking supports around the edge.

[Keeper]

Desolate Desert - Portal Stone

"Sure, I came from the city, that way. I'm afraid my wings don't have the strength to carry you. Um. You went to a magical stone with nothing in your pockets? If it helps, we accept all kinds of money in the city. Don't think about it."
No really don't think about it.

[Earl of Purple]

Desolate Desert- Portal Stone

"No, I had a rucksack, tent, and a bedroll. I wasn't expecting to get attacked, nor did I plan on using it. Not before I figured out how to return to it, anyway. I was working on mapping the symbols, but I dropped my book." He had a camp! Why'd he need to have anything in his pockets?

Regardless, he pats himself down, and empties his pockets. There's a bag of silver Tar Valon marks, a couple of copper coins with Queen Morgase on, a ball of string, a small knife, a sausage, and a tarnished steel ring set with a small amber bead. "I... don't remember this ring before. That's odd."

[Keeper]

Desolate Desert - Portal Stone

"Well, it looks like you have something to eat for the trip back." G'nichi says, though he doesn't know why you'd carry a sausage in your pocket. It would get full of lint and the pocket would be full of grease.
"And enough money for a few days' worth of food. That's better than lots of new people."
He frowns, leaning down to look at the ring.
"Does it look like it's the size of your finger? Maybe it was slipped into your pocket during the crossing?" he suggests.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere in the desert]

The swordsman spreads his arms and shrugs. "A ride wouldn't hurt", he says, giving the retrofitted snowmobile a good look, "if you just have room to spare. I can just walk alongside you." He is a big man, after all.

[Ironsmith]

[Abandoned Motorway - Camp]

Khannie bites her tongue.

If you like nice people then why the heck do you like Alice?

Alice has gotta be one of the least nice people she's met recently.

It's also worth noting that the shadows Khannie is projecting have no heat signature at all. Well, they're SLIGHTLY cooler than the surroundings. More or less as one would expect from regular shadows. The shade of a tree on a sunny day is, what, ten degrees cooler or so?

Anywho! The shadow tether dissipates once they've arrived at their destination. "Okay, I'm not gunna stay here long. I've still got work to do and stuff. I just wanted to make sure Alice and Harmony got somewhere safe before I split."

Abandoned Motorway- Camp

"Yeah, I'm the rando that got shot. Better'n being eaten by the dead that had been following me for five miles, though. Your, uh, truck. It works?" Harmony's amazed at that. Between the near-decade of neglect and conflict since the Event that collapsed society and the Event's own mysterious influence on electronics, there's nearly no working engines any more- and less fuel to power them with.

She glances occasionally at the moving chap with no apparent body heat, but for all she can tell at the moment he might be wrapped in a thermal blanket or have a mutation that stabilises his body temperature. Seems quite useless on the surface... But it might help deal with extreme temperatures, which is actually very handy.

[Abandoned Motorway - Camp]

"You're not staying?" The catboy frowns, looking up at Khannie with large, slightly watery eyes. "...I guess if you have to go, you have to go. But I'm going to miss you."

"No, he 'on't." Alice mutters. "He'll 'orget all a'out you 'e'ore the day is o'er."

"But I'll miss her until then!" Yatos whines. "...Won't you please at least stay for dinner? You're hungry, too, right?"

Alice quietly rolls her eyes and makes her way back to the lean-to, kneeling next to the blanketed figure and giving them a gentle shake. Harmony will catch sight of a bony, frail hand poking out of the covers, which recoils back into the shadows almost immediately, visibly burning from where the sunlight touched it. Said hand doesn't show up as any warmer on Harmony's heat-vision... so probably not a thermal blanket, but that's about all that can be gleaned at this distance.

"...She's gotten 'orse." Alice notes. "Yatos, check the cart. See i' 'e got any 'ore 'lankets in there."

"On it, miss!"

Amidst all of this, Harmony's question about the working truck seems to have gone unanswered, but she can probably glean a few more things from its appearance. For one, its wheels are horribly misaligned; it looks like it was the casualty of a bad crash, and it's probably not going anywhere even if the engine works. The passenger-side door is missing, so it's not really much good for shelter, either. If the engine works it's probably the only thing that does, and even then, it's not likely it works well.

[Earl of Purple]

Desolate Desert- Portal Stone

"No, it's soggy. Full of sea water, I... really don't think it's going to be good eating." He tosses the damp sausage away, "Yeah, I reckon it fits." He slips it on, and then reaches for saidin, which G'nichi likely can't sense, and his eyes widen. "It's an angreal. That's useful, wasn't expecting that." He's not sure he really needs it, but it's a tool that will make his life a lot easier.

Somewhere in the Desert

"We got space aboard. We're headed back to our camp. We found a facility that was abandoned long ago, but it there weren't as much as we'd have liked. We're getting a supply drop tomorrow, they might be able to pick you up, take you to Skyside. Our camp's got space for one night. Not longer, one of the supplies is a new coworker. I'm Harry. The driver's Arkibald. Smart Bob's got medical knowledge if you're hurt. Thick Bob's probably sleeping. And Mog's getting her leg looked at, she slipped in the facility and cut herself on a bent screwdriver. We work for a company called Worthy's Wonder Manufacturing, so everything's gonna be a bit functional. Not much in the way of creature comforts, y'know?" Harry moves back so the swordsman can get aboard and potentially meet the others.

[bc56]

Jungle Ruins
"The Templars and I obviously don't see eyes to eyes," the slugman says. He slithers along the path leading towards the arcology.
"What do you think we'll find? A bunch of implants we can't use?" It's a common thing to find in the remains of Eater structures.

[Keeper]

Desolate Desert - Portal Stone

"Aw, a shame." G'nichi hates wasting food. "What's that mean? It sounds like something good. But as I said, matters of magic are beyond my ken."
And it definitely sounds like this is some sort of magical ring.

[Earl of Purple]

Desolate Desert- Portal Stone

"It is good. Nobody's made one of these since the Breaking, three thousand years ago. It's an object that boosts my ability to channel. Male ones are really rare, since the taint on saidin means that any which were found were destroyed or sealed away to try and keep the world safe. I don't think this one's very big, but... I don't think that matters, it's a boost if I need it." He's very glad he's not going to go mad just because he can channel, now. That's a great relief when he felt the effort at Shadar Logoth.

[Keeper]

Desolate Desert - Portal Stone

G'nichi smiles. "I didn't understand any of that, but I'm glad it's helpful. Shall we get going?" he asks cheerily.
For someone who looks like a humanoid version of the Dragon's flag, he doesn't seem to have any knowledge of the Source at all.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere in the Desert]

When Harry gets to the introductions, the swordsman figures it's only polite to respond in kind. "You can call me Senshi Hoshiki. A pleasure to meet you", he says and bows before getting into the vehicle. "You said something about Skyside? I've been there. Good to know I'm not hopelessly lost", he notes with a smile. "Worthy's Wonder Manufacturing, I don't think I've been to. You mentioned rewards are good if you stay away from the roads? Why is that? Is it because the easy-to-reach places have already been plundered?"

[Earl of Purple]

Desolate Desert- Portal Stone

Santal didn't realise G'nichi wasn't an Ogier, when first they met. He has no real idea of what to expect, so G'nichi's apparent ignorance goes completely unremarked. "Yes, let's go."

Somewhere in the Desert

"You probably wouldn't have been. It's a factory conglomerate. We're out here getting some raw materials and stuff, techno gubbins they can reverse engineer. It's hard, dangerous, and the pay we take home's shit, but our families are fed and housed at the company's expense and we're not labouring in a forge or what have you. You've probably used or seen some Worthy products, though. And yeah, stuff near the roads get visitors regularly. Tend to be more residential or commercial, too; what we're after are industrial sites, y'know?" The rear part of the bandvagn is mostly storage, and sure enough there's some stuff in here that's clearly looted from industrial sites. There's a pair of rather small solar panels propped against the side, with a dusty rug thrown over them as limited protection. Several robust plastic power-tool cases. Two wooden cable reels, one for electric cable and the other steel wire. A plastic crate filled with flourescent lightbulbs. There's a battered metal crate with some cushions on it, which Harry returns to sitting on with the rifle over his knees.

"More dangerous away from the roads, though. Less monsters in the desert than some other parts of Ay Jay, but food and water's harder to come by too. And the monsters there are tend to be pretty dangerous. Deathclaws, sandworms, eyeless dogs, Creepers, warbots, krayt dragons." Not that the roads are entirely safe, either.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere in the desert]

Hoshiki does his best to fit in with the junk. "I have seen a lot of things - there a pawn shop near my residence that has quite a collection for sale - but I admit I haven't paid much attention to who produced them", he notes. Maybe next time he gets his hands on something, he can check who made it.

"In any case, sounds like a living. But do tell, what is a krayt dragon?"

[Earl of Purple]

Somewhere in the Desert

"Giant reptiles with lots of legs and the ability to spit acidic venom at anything they want to eat. Which is everything that moves and is smaller'n they are, or in other words us, including our little tractor here. Worth killing, though. The acid turns the rocks they eat to help grind stuff up into crystals, known as a pearl. Get one of those and the company'll wipe all your debts and give you a chunk of money to retire on, or at least set yourself up proper somewhere. Native to a place called Tatooine, I don't think it actually had an apocalypse it's just a desert shithole." And a krayt dragon finding its way to anywhere else would probably be pretty close to an apocalypse, too.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere in the desert]

"I've fought a dragon", Hoshiki notes like it's the most normal thing to do. "it spat lightning rather than acid, though. Wait, no, that's not really descriptive of what it did. And it was more of a moth, while this krayt thing sounds more like a centipede", he continues, "but I think I could kill one. A krayt dragon, I mean. You wouldn't happen to know where one dwells? I'm in bit of a debt myself, so if the stuff in its stomach is valuable..."

[Gold]

[Ruined Motorway- Rapid Robots]

Assuming the two guns have markings to show it, TALBot would be able to tell from examining them that they fire a standard caliber. As for the car's engine, it had as much as life in it as TALBot was expecting, so his only reaction was to shrug lightly as he thought to himself that it was worth a shot.

Looking ahead, TALBot notices the strange, shiny tripod standing in the distance. Its newness compared to its surroundings is noted, and the irregularity of its state and design only heightens his curiosity. Before moving to investigate anything, though, TALBot produces an unassuming remote car key from the front pocket of his jeans and turns towards his own car, pointing the remote in the same direction. He clicks the largest button on the remote, at which point his hypercar is briefly & tightly enclosed by a neon green cuboid hologram before both shapes disappear entirely.

TALBot won't be able to retrieve his car for the next hour or so after putting it in digital storage like that, so now he really has no choice but to go and check out that structure. He takes a passing glance at the interior of the car with the open door as he passes by it, walking between two lanes of cars to get closer to the hemisphere. Once he's past the cars, he'll give the structure's frontmost leg three sharp taps - almost like knocking on a door - to see if there's any reaction.

[Earl of Purple]

Somewhere in the Desert

"Nope, and that's the way I like it. We're only putting you up for the night, anyway. We're getting a supply drop tomorrow, including a new body. Brian died yesterday, a door handle wired to a power plant, so we got some spare food. You can ride out when the chopper leaves with all the gear we're shipping out. You want to stick around and hunt a krayt dragon, you can't do it from our base unless you got your own food, water, and vehicle." Which Harry thinks is pretty unlikely, given where and how they stumbled upon Hoshiki. Although he also doesn't want to antagonise Hoshiki much, either, since Hoshiki scares Harry a little.

Ruined Motorway- Rapid Robots

The markings are there, but painted on and faded, a bit hard to make out. Though not as hard as a captcha, so there's that going for TALBot.

Inside the open-door car, the seats are disintegrating from exposure to weather. The car's keys are visible in the footwell, however, alongside a battered old rucksack and a metal jerry can. Whoever was driving it isn't present any more, however.

The metal tripod is very tall, and this close TALBot can see the legs have some telescoping ability- the cab is five metres up, and could be both higher and lower. There's no response to the knocking, and no clear way up- presumably the pilot (if it has one) could lower the vehicle to make egress easier. For now, though, there's a window cleaner's van not too far away; the driver had tried to escape the jam by driving off the road and through a crash barrier that proved sturdier than expected. That has an aluminium ladder on its roof rack.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere in the Desert]

Don't be ashamed, Harry. Being a little scared is perfectly normal when you stumble upon a Grim Reaper in a desert. Even if you aren't fully aware that is what you did. "Well, I suppose I'll take the flight back to the city and come back some other time", the swordsman notes, "it would be embarrassing to kill a dragon but not know where to take its corpse."

[Rebonack]

[Jungle Ruins]

"Implants we can't use," Solahart agrees as she carefully picks her way around the slumped forms of frozen corpses. "But perhaps something more valuable. I need to find a zetachrome weapon for an... important project. And perhaps the best place to find such a thing is among the precious artifacts of the Eaters."

As our heroes pass one of the frozen corpses there comes a sound of grinding, shifting ice as the mound moves quite suddenly in reaction to their presence.

[Earl of Purple]

Somewhere in the Desert

"Don't need the whole corpse. Just what sells. Meat don't, too bitter. Organs don't, unless you know somebody that wants 'em. Hide does, if it's intact enough and unspoilt. Skull sells, teeth and horns too if you can't get the whole thing. Most of the bones are valuable only to scrimshanders, to turn into art or what not. All of it together's not half as valuable as the pearl, if it's got one. And much harder to transport; bulky and awkward." Krayt dragon pearls are khyber crystal, which is useful for jedi and sith, amongst other Force users. And they can be used as focussing crystals in more mundane energy weapons, too.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere in the Desert]

"I hope I'll remember all that if I come across one", Hoshiki notes with a smile, "I apologize for not having anything useful to tell in exchange. These parts are still alien to me."

[bc56]

Jungle Ruins
"Good luck with that. They're exceedingly rare," Mashimir suddenly turns at the noise. The ice is moving, something inside might be breaking out. He puts a hand to his slug head's temple and focuses, and a whirlwind of icy cold surrounds the shifting ice, hopefully refreezing it in place. "Hostile! Get back!"

[Earl of Purple]

Somewhere in the Desert

The engine noises slow down and so does the Bv206, as a little voice emerges from a radio nearby. "Harald? Harald you hear me turn me up Harald this is important." The radio is found and turned up as the voice on the other end speaks.
"Yes, Arkibald, what's up? Oh, we got a passenger. Hoshiki. He caught up with us whilst we goin' along a while back and I let him in because he's on foot. And he caught up with us." Which is generally impossible, even though they aren't going full-speed.
"Oh? Ah. Right, gotcha. You trust him?"
"Not exactly, but I didn't want to piss him off. He caught up with us on foot, and has fought a dragon before."
"That's useful. Look ahead, to the right. There's someone waving at us, calling for help, but... I don't know if I like the look of it." Harry turns around and brushes the curtain aside to look. If Hoshiki joins in, there is indeed something ahead that looks like a person, waving both arms. They're wearing dark colours, are reasonably short even with their arms raised, waving them from side to side. It's hard to make out details, and they don't approach, just stay put in a shallow pit of sand, with the occasional white stone sticking out.

If Hoshiki can sense life, it's not a human one- and quite a powerful life, as well. Whoever this figure is, they are healthy and long-lived, with plenty of time yet before they die naturally.

[Rebonack]

[Abandoned Motorway - Camp]

One of the most important things about being a pretty purple unicorn is that it renders you naturally immune to cute animal eye pleading. Sort of like how red dragons are immune to fire breath.

"Sorry, I gotta get going. I wanna finish up my work and get back home before it gets too dark to see," Khannie informs the catboy. Of course she soaks up darkness around herself so for Khannie it's NEVER to dark to see but still! Being out after dark in Apocalypse Junction is rarely ideal. Frankly being out in Apocalypse Junction is never ideal but the place is a pretty cool Action! Archeology site source.

Unless something pretty dramatic happens she's going to start heading off.


[Jungle Ruins]

Solahart wrinkles her nose in consternation. "I'm aware. It's how I ended up deep in underground ruins being chased by a killer robot."

Killer robots are just terrible things.

But then excitement!

Skittish hindren that she is, Solahart leaps away, narrowly avoiding the graceless act of banging her head on the ceiling. Bitter cold swirls around the frozen mass, but that doesn't seem to have any effect on it. The shape unfurls into a hunched, bipedal creature with a carapace apparently made of ice and sporting more than it's fair share of teeth. Ignorant of the cold, it lunges at the slugman and aims to chomp with with a lethal heat-sapping bite.

[Hraithre]

[Somewhere on the desert]

Hoshiki furrows his brow as he listens to the radio. He doesn't have full context, but something about it doesn't add up. When Harry, or Harald, moves to peek outside, the swordsman moves to see what's going on.

Hoshiki can, indeed, sense life - that is, after all, how he spotted this bunch of scavengers. Who or whatever is waving at them, stands in stark contrast to the desert around. "Did your contact say they're calling for help?", Hoshiki asks with narrowed eyes, "I'm not sure they're in need of any."

Curious of what is going on, Hoshiki focuses on another aspect of his second sight: the ability to predict the future. Grim Reapers are often especially sensitive to approaching tragedies and cataclysms. If there is something threatening this odd figure, he might be able to foretell it. Or, alternatively, he might be able to foretell if this figure is a threat to those in the bandvagn...

[bc56]

Jungle Ruins
Normally freezing things works wonders, especially if they're already cold. But this creature doesn't seem to mind. Mashimir's crysteel daggers are in his hands immediately, and he lunges at the ice beast in a flurry of four-armed stabbing.
Psychic powers are completely unnecessary when you have lots of knives and know how to use them.

[Rebonack]

[Jungle Ruins]

The real problem is when you encounter creatures that are completely immune to cold. Suddenly freezing becomes far less effective. Solahart for her part lobs a luminous projectile at the creature, taking advantage of her angle an unerring accuracy!

She immediately has to flinch to the side and still gets a nasty burn when the light bolt is bounced by the monster's reflective icy shell. That's exactly what they need today. More monsters countering their abilities.

The flurry of stabs works better, causing the beast to weep freezing cold luminous fluid from its wounds. Fluid that causes it to begin healing quickly and, somewhat amusingly, will cause the slugman to heal more quickly as well while also sapping the heat from his body. Since he went all out aggressive, the beast bites down into his rubbery flesh and begins rapidly draining heat away from him. That by itself shouldn't be enough to freeze him-

-but then those leaking vents blast freezing mist all over the hallway again.


[Green Goo]

The story of this area is pretty simple. A mad wizard decided to try making green slime, a mindless ooze famous for melting organic matter into MORE green slime and being destroyed by natural sunlight, photosynthetic. This resulted in some... problems. Mostly in the form of green slime spreading wildly through the walled city-state of Vnaldsreach and devouring everything it touched that wasn't made of silver, gold, or stone. Thankfully the slime's vulnerability to cold remains and the yearly freezes during the winter prevent the ravenous slime from spread too far beyond the ruined shelter the city provides.

Of course, this means there's a dead city full of discarded gold, tarnished silver, and magical trinkets just laying around for the taking.

Also full of slime zombies and other worse things but hey! They're mostly hibernating during the winter, right? So how bad could it be.

Turns out really bad. Especially in the vaults under the city where all the GOOD loot is.

But he had come prepared! A ring of acid resistance to ward off the bite. An enchanted sword of wildfire to burn off any slime that got on him. Plenty of healing potions. An emergency teleport scroll to bail in case things got really bad. And if all else fails the legendary amulet of resurrection just in case he REALLY messed up.

That should be plenty for a would-be grave robber, right?

Did you know that some madman decided to station young dragons in the treasure vaults to guard them? Did you also know that green slime dragons are a giant pain in the butt to kill? Doable, but a pain in the butt. As it turns out, though, having all that magical gear doesn't help one iota if a dead slime dragon falls off the ceiling onto you and pins you to the ground, slowly melting into a heap of dragon-slime while doing to you what green slime does best.

Making more green slime.

But that was what the amulet was for, right?

RIGHT!?

It worked perfectly.

Mostly.

Mostly perfectly.

With a few notable drawbacks. He's thinking of writing a bad review for the amulet. The god that made the thing would probably be really embarrassed that her fancy artifact glitched out in an edge case. Maybe she'll give him a free refund.

Probably not.

"This was such a terrible idea," the wolf-sized green slime wyrmling grouses through a mouthful of sack. A slime stained sack he's currently pulling up a flight of stairs toward the secret door that opens out into the palace courtyard. The bulging bag tinkles with each lurching bump, full of all the shinnies he had managed to gather. And there was still more stuff down there, too! He had brought plenty of sacks with him. The expedition had been successful! Just... with some unforeseen consequences.

Slick and green, just like the monsters down in the vault, with darker forest green patches reminiscent of scales. Club-shaped porous fruiting bodies protrude from his head like horns and down his spine, ready to shed green slime spores at a moment's notice. A dark brown-black orb sits inside his head, the nucleus of his form. Under his 'skin' runs a wire-frame of lime green microtubules to give him some measure of coherence while a thicker latticework deeper inside serves as a skeleton of sorts. Where a dragon would normally have wings he's instead endowed with a pair of tendrils which are currently wrapped around the sack to give him more leverage.

His adventuring gear was almost all enchanted. Magical equipment is immune to green slime, so even minor magical enhancements are enough to protect it. And magical gear resizes itself to fit the wearer! Which... wasn't a feature he was planning on taking advantage of today but sure. On the off chance another pillager shows up they'll probably at least ask before blowing up a juvenile dragon decked out in cute little cloak and tunic.

He glances back behind himself. The secret door is just right up there. Five more steps to go.

Ugh.

He shouldn't have packed this sack so full. But he wasn't expecting to have to drag it up a flight of stairs with his mouth either so hindsight and all.

This is, of course, the moment when the slime staining the sack finally manages to eat through it, resulting in a cascade of coins and trinkets bouncing back down the stairs into the darkness.

"Oh COME ON!"

[Earl of Purple]

Somewhere in the Desert

The 'contact' is the driver of the bandvagn, sitting in the cab with larger windows and keeping an eye out for threats and dangers.

"Said they're callin' for it. But it could be a trap. What's your thinkin'?" Harry's grabbed his rifle and is staring down the barrel at the figure, which continues to wave.

The figure is not currently being threatened, and nor is it threatening the travellers directly. It is a threat, but a passive one; if they ignore it and continue on their way, it isn't going to chase them. If Hoshiki's predictions take himself into account, in that situation he's a bigger threat to the figure than any of the others sharing this ride.

Abandoned Motorway- Camp

"They don't have body heat. They like the things what were chasing me? Dead but still moving? Is... Is they sane?" Harmony's a little worried about that; she's met some who refused to die before, before the zombies that chased her down the road. Most are OK, so long as they aren't too badly off. The ones that don't heal and are in constant pain from permanent injuries and gruesome tend to go a little mad, and that's not always pleasant.

[bc56]

Jungle Ruins
Ugh. Cold is not great for someone coated in slime. Mashimir is forcing himself not to curl up instinctively to protect his vital parts from the icy temperatures. The spray of convalesscence helps, healing up the wounds from the bite in conjunction with his natural regeneration. "Don't... You... Have fire? Burn this thing!" he snaps at Solahart, but he has his own plans. He swings around and smashes into the ice beast with the hammerlike toxic gland on the end of his tail (calling it a "bilge sphincter" is kinda gross, even if that's what it is).

Green Goo
A sound comes from above. Footsteps.
Probably nothing. Until the little green slime dragon starts shouting.
"Hello? Is someone down there?" That's a girl's voice. Then the footsteps come closer to the entrance. "Hello?"