Welcome to Hemlock Falls

[Craft]

Craft looks between the lumberjack and Aaron, taking in all that's been said, before turning back to the lumberjack and smiling, "Thank you for your help, we'll make sure Dave gets back safely."

Starting away from the lumberjack's room he waits till he's far enough away and the door closes, before looking between the others.

"Alright, I'm guessing the green lady's underground realm or whatever doesn't extend to the mine?"

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah follows Craft - and presumably the others. She's looking a bit pale and stressed, but is holding up - for now, anyway.

 

[Marcos Medeiros]

Iraq? Huh. That might explain that vision of sand and scrap he had in the church... Might. Marcos strokes his beard in thought.

"We should send a few people to look for him in the church," Marcos says. "If he had flashbacks, he might have gone there to calm down."

 

[Atrus]

Aaron checks that the lumberjacks' door is closed, then says: "No, actually, the mine... she's down there. You can get to her from there. And that's a problem..."
He seems to be thoughtful for a moment, his lips moving but no sound coming out of them, then he turns to the group again. "All right, she told me that I can tell you... she's broken. Kinda. Back when the mine first opened, they blew up a tunnel and... ugh, words, they don't make sense. I'll try to translate. She was in a... an inaccessible place. Here, but not quite here? And the explosion brought a part of her actually here. So she made a... pact? Trade? With some miners. Protection of the city, as much as she could give it, in exchange for them protecting her."

He nods at Marcos' plan to send some people at the church. "I'm going down at the mine. I mean, shit, I don't want to, but Dave might get to her. And I don't give a fig about this town, but a lot of people do."

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah frowns at Aaron's explanation, and eventually says "You sound like Dr Who, trying to explain time to a companion." She looks around at the others, then shrugs.
"Okay. So. Do you - or she - know if we need someone to go to the church? If so, probably should be me. The rest of this group has been on the Tardis already, so it seems."

She frowns for a moment. "Or ... maybe not. I'm probably least suited to handling things that go bump in the night."

 

[Marcos Medeiros]

Marcos quickly taps away at his phone before slipping it back into his coat pocket. And then taking out of his coat pocket and putting it into his bag, because his coat is still soaked and he’s still soaked in general and phones don’t get along with water.

”I asked the others if they can look into it,” Marcos says. “Let’s wait a few minutes for them to answer. If they don’t...” He shrugs. “We’ll split up.”

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah looks at Marcos, then nods. "That sounds sensible." She hesitates, then takes her backpack off. From it, she pulls a shotgun. "If we run into normal stuff - snakes, coyotes, whatever - I can handle it. Other stuff...." She looks at Aaron, and shrugs.

 

[Craft]

"Other stuff, I think we can handle." Craft offers, before shrugging, "What's a Tardis?"

 

[Atrus]

Aaron looks at Craft: "I was about to ask that."
Explanations are interrupted by a ping on Marcos' phone. Despite the terrible reception in the area, not only his message managed to get through, but Mathieu's reply as well: the motel team would check out the church, while the others would go down the mines.

The group bundled up again, Marcos trying to un-soak himself a little despite the futility of it, and then followed Aaron down the road that led from the barracks to the condemned mine. The eerie ghost lights provided guidance and illumination again, this time in the shape of lines and circles.
The main entrance, dug into the side of the mountain, was barred by a large gate with several links of chain keeping it shut. Wooden plaques and signs warned people to stay away, and alerted about the danger of collapsing tunnels.

Aaron only gave the signs a glance. "There are a few side tunnels that reconnect back to the mine. The nearest is a few minutes to the right, in a deposit of old stuff, hidden behind some corrugated metal sheets. That's how I usually squeeze inside. Or-", he looked at the three men from outside, "-you pop open the big gate here. That's a thing you can do, right?"

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah opens her mouth, about to explain the Tardis, then closes it again. She just takes a moment to absorb this then says "Never mind. It's fictional. It's bigger on the inside than the outside, and .... eh. It's like walking through the wardrobe into Narn.... No. Never mind. Not important."

She shrugs her backpack back on, makes sure her head torch, shotgun, and camelpack (water pack) are adjusted and placed correctly, and all her kit is in order. Then she's ready, and follows the group. A thin but tough nylon poncho protects her, her pack and her shotgun from the rain.

 

[Marcos Medeiros]

Marcos look at the gate, at Craft, at the gate again, then shrugs. Sarah’s in the know now, and from the sounds of it, so is the kid. No need to hide his superpowers.

He steps towards the gate and, with all of the strength that Gaia saw fit to give him, aims a kick against the gate in the hopes of knocking it off its hinges, if not snap the chains.

 

[Atrus]

Marcos' kick is more than enough to make the chains snap and break one rusty hinge. The gate, leaning over its remaining fulcrum, opens towards the interior of the mine, groaning as its bottom side drags upon the ground.
Even Aaron shrugs off the cool teenager act and manages to be suitable impressed. "Dude. That's like, awesome."

The interior is just like one would expect a twice-abandoned mine to be: damp, cold, dark. But at least it's not raining inside, so, improvement?
The group lights their torches, providing enough illumination to navigate the mine, provided that they pay attention. In fact, Aaron's guidance here gets less supernatural (no ghost lights) and more practical: "Don't step over there", "Keep on the left side", "That beam is rotting."
He still keeps his sunglasses on.

After a few minutes, someone voices their doubts that Dave might actually be down there - but that's when it starts. Just at the edge of hearing, a metallic sound, repeating every few seconds. Like a pickaxe hitting rock.

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah is impressed, looks at Marcos a few times as they start down the mine. Eventually she murmurs softly "Jack Harkness. He has to be."


Sarah is not the first to hear the pickaxe sound: she's busy following Aaron's instructions.

 

[Craft]

Craft chuckles at the opening of the gate, it was slightly quicker than picking the lock.

Following Aaron's instructions as they enter the mines, it seems obvious the kid had spent some time here and was familiar with moving through some of the tunnels at least. Either that or he was getting supernatural guidance. Perhaps akin to buzzing in his head? That would be a question for later. For a town with no history of supernatural incidents, there certainly were a lot of supernatural happenings in Hemlock Falls.

As the ringing of metal against stone began to echo from the depths of the mine, Craft paused.

"We're all hearing that, right?"

There were more than a few spirits that were sometimes said to haunt mines, and in Craft's experience they rarely were friendly things.


He definitely hoped the noise was from a more mundane sort.

"Down here often Aaron?"

 

[Atrus]

"I come here when the parents get too much. Or people get too much. So yeah, often." Aaron's eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "And yeah, I hear that too. Might be Dave?"

 

[Craft]

"Might be."

Craft doesn't mention what else could possibly be haunting a mine. He aims his flashlight down the tunnel, towards where the noise appears to be coming from.

"Guess we know which way to go first... You can guide us out, right Aaron? I left my breadcrumbs at home..."

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah pauses when the others mention hearing something. She listens, then nods to herself. That causes her headlamp to move, and thus the light beam of her headlamp nods as well. Sarah winces - not saying anything - when Craft asks Aaron if he can guide the group out.

Sarah ponders, then says "If it's necessary, we can cut up the gauze bandage from my first aid kit, and use it to mark each intersection - mark which way we went."

 

[Marcos Medeiros]

Marcos picks up a rock from the ground and uses it to draw a crude waymark into the wall. It... isn’t very clear, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Hopefully.

“There haven’t been any... ah, deaths in this mine, no?” If Sarah told him earlier, he’s probably forgotten; he’s had little sleep since he’s stepped foot in this town, after all, and it’s starting to get to him. Like that metallic sound is starting to get to him. “I am hoping that we’ll find Dave and not another angry ghost. We have had enough of those.” Marcos laughs nervously.

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah shakes her head (and headlamp). "Never heard of any."

 

[Atrus]

"Me neither," says Aaron, "I mean, I guess someone died because of the mine, you know, coal lung and all that. But if they died in the mine, it didn't get turned into any of the stupid legends that get told around heaaagh-"

Aaron suddenly cuts off, squeezing his eyes closed and clutching his temple. If someone can see in the dark, or shines a light on him, they'll see he's losing a drop of blood from the nose.

Those shining their lights down the tunnel will, at first, see nothing. Then they'll notice that the metallic sound has stopped. And then they'll see a half-dozen blue lights appear at the end of the tunnel, dancing in the air and slowly approaching. As they come closer, the lights start dancing around one another, leaving blue trails that slowly seem to coalesce into... limbs?