2. Dark Spaces

Sensing Emmett’s apprehension Lyle winks at his friend. A loner by nature, he could get used to being looked after. "I can’t say I’m not a bit relieved your coming, Emmett. I’m good at skulking but… should things go south it’s good to know you have my back. Anyone else coming?"

Wait! Im coming too!

Lyle gets farther up, and his trained sneaking is for not as the side passage seems to be only exploratory mining tunnels, looking for some specific ores perhaps. There are small holes bored into the tunnel walls every ten paces or so. Around one toward the end is a red painted circle with an obscure symbol painted beside it.

Other than that, the side tunnels, about two hundred paces worth, are dead ends.

That leaves you just the tunnel that leads to the main Craadian mining cavern.

I dont think we have a plan to disable the portal, can I make a roll to examine and plan it out?

Emmett keeps his distance from Lyle, trying to trust in his friend's ability. He follows slowly, however, refusing to trust in their luck.

Lyle gets to the entrance in the roof of the mining cavern. Gravity is very weak so you could float "down" to the cavern floor easily even though it's fifteen meters or more. Looking around, he sees a pair of Craadians messing with a drilling platform. Repairs, perhaps.

With his roll and the effort, he can float down behind cover should he wish.

Cursing how clumsy he has been Lyle will float his way as quickly and quietly as he can behind cover to observe the activity in the mine.

Go ahead and make a roll, and consider yourself Trained for the roll.

Silently floating behind the others Turana takes a look at the tunnels, she wonders if those that end abruptly were made to remove ore until that are a got depleted or if they had another thing in mind, so far they look like peaceful workers .. she tries to see if that's the case or if something gives away a potential danger on them..

Lyle settles behind cover. He can see that the two Craadians are immersed in their repairs and didn't notice his infiltration

To the left, the cavern opens toward more machinery and stockpiled ore. From there, he guesses he would find a way toward the Craadian settlement. To Lyle's right, he can see what looks like tunnels leading to the working mine.

Turana doesn't see any illusions. She does pick up that small trickles of metallic ore have faded, and the tunnels stopped where the veins of ore ceased. The small boreholes in the rock look like instruments were mounted there (by the telltale scrapes on the surface around the holes). For whatever reasons their instruments revealed, they abandoned these mining tunnels for better hunting elsewhere.

Lyle can't believe his luck so far. He glances behind him to make sure his companions can spot him as he scouts ahead and then signals that he will continue scouting towards the working mine. He hopes his luck holds out as he creeps slowly and quietly forward, trying his best to remain behind cover and stick to the shadows.

Lyle gets moving, using cover and gets nearly to the mine entrance when he hears a shout. One of the two Craadian workers is staring at him and pointing. The other fumbles with a device on his wrist, panicking. They don't seem to be armed with those rod weapons.

What does Lyle and the rest of you do?

"Well- We're screwed now. Lyle you messed up again. Now's for damage control I guess..." Lyle mutters to himself, cursing his bad luck. He turns around towards the pair of Craadians, walking towards them slowly and raising both arms high up in the air. He speaks in a calm voice, knowing they can't understand him but hoping they understand his intent "Hello there, fellas. Didn't mean to surprise you- You're Craadians, right? CRAA-DEE-AHHNNS. I've done some work for your buddies on the asteroid and was just coming to see if I can be helping and friendly with you all as well... No harm intended." Lyle is tempted to smile but worries about how baring his teeth would look to these blobs.

The Craadians sense Lyle isn't immediately hostile, and they stop. They don't speak your Earther tongue, however, and babble at him in their odd way.

Emmett leaps up as Lyle gets caught, forcing himself to stop from rushing out with a weapon at the ready position.

As Lyle talks the pair down from....whatever they were going to do, he slowly approaches. He still carries his polearm, but low, and in one hand, hopefully a non-threatening gesture.

He does his best to draw a picture in some available dust of the tripod monsters they've been fighting so far. With luck the Cra'adians will recognize it and see what they're after. "I know y'all can't understand a word, but it would be dandy if you could help us...." Emmett speaks mostly to himself.

Lyle tries to help/assist Emmett as best he can- being careful not to alarm the gummy humanoids.