Skyscrapers & ... Groundscrapers? (RP)

After a pause, Arthur adds: "Reports are uncertain as to how many or what fraction of people got out of the building. It's very quiet in here except for the distant dripping of water. Power is out. The upper interior rooms may be dark, depending whether the lights are wired to a battery back up that's still attached to the building."

Distantly, Sid the intern's voice crackles in our earpieces: "Got it."

- Fiona and Arthur =

The gloves can make the tile floor relatively easy to traverse —though it is still an arm workout— but they have a limited charge, and unless you can get the power working, you might not be able to recharge them.

Wherever you are going you, probably need to get to the center shaft where the stairs or elevator (not that they will ever move again, not in controlled manner, anyway) are. How do you get there?

What do you do?

- Fiona -

If you go down to the basement, you will find that there are generators, but it will take some work to get them operational at these angles for which they were not designed. It has been a while since the tower fell (I don't know how long it takes you to get here), and the battery backups might not have much, if any, juice to power the inverters.

What do you do?

"What do your scans tell you about the basement?" Arthur asked as he shined his flashlight around the awkwardly tilted generator room. The whole place smelled of spilled diesel fuel … "I know diesel's not flammable as a liquid, and the fumes probably aren't thick enough to ignite, either, but the whole idea of starting things up in a room where the lower corner has a few inches deep of diesel fuel is making me queasy. Or maybe that's the fumes. It looks like the reserve tank overflowed when the building tilted. Probably wasn't designed for this angle, you know, it's not really a foreseeable circumstance."

Arthur leads "up" the stairwell to the tilted lobby. "This building is eerily quiet," he mentions to Fiona. "I keep thinking that something will happen or someone will appear, but nothing. I'm surprised there was no one in the lobby."

There were no signs of people in the lobby, like everyone fled, possible during the rumblings before the tower fell?

Climbing the stairwell is tiring, though you are getting the knack of both types of inverted stairs. The central stairwell does not open onto the perimeter mezzanine, so it is a double-height climb to the second floor (depending on how you count) where you can get out of the stuffy confines and catch your breath.

The seconds floor looks much the same and the one below, sky above the roof-windows and darkness below the floor-windows, and no sign of any people.

Next floor up and things are starting to change. There is still sky above you, but the darkness below extends up the side windows... almost as thought the side of the building has sunk into the earth? Yes, that speculation is born out by the much stronger 'earthy' smell.

You find the first sign of the broken windows that strewed glass all over the street outside. A large hole in the side of the building appears to drop down into a... well you can only describe it a 'cave' —though you will have to get closer before you really make this determination.

There are muddy shoe-prints leading to (and from?) the hole, and, what looks like, a rope made from coats and jackets tied to a window fixture, as though people went down. They look like 'office worker' coats and jackets, not those of 'explorers'. So why they would have gone down is anyone's guess.

What do you do?

- Fiona -

Maybe the word 'secure' is a bit optimistic, but there are muddy hand-prints on the coat-rope so it probably supported a person in the past... but they were probably not carrying all your gear.

In your estimation the coat-rope will get you both down.

What do you do?

"I'll take point," Arthur says. He takes hold of the coat-rope and begins to hand-over-hand downward, gripping with knees as well. He expects that the rope might let go, and if it does, he has no real plan for "what next". But that's in the nature of the job.

- Arthur ... and Fiona, too? -

It was only really a small drop in open air before you find ground. The main need for the rope, it appears, is as a handhold as you make your way down the steep slope of soft earth.

Many feet below, the coat-rope ends, and you slide a few feet to the floor of the cave. Not much thought was given to getting back out, but a little effort should be able to boost one of you up to get a grip on the rope again.

The cave is massive, at least equal in size to the floors of the building above, but you are judging that based on acoustics, your torchlight does not reach the walls. It is mainly earthen —no stalactites or stalagmites in this one— with some columns/pillars at the far reaches of your torchlight. You are partway down one of the rolling hills of dirt.

You see footprints —from expensive-looking shoes— leading down the hill. A little ways along you see a pair of grey, high-heeled shoes —with cute yellow soles— lying, discarded, at the side of the trail.

All sounds are deadened, no echoes coming back to you, and no sound of water dripping nor of people breathing or talking.

What do you do?

Arthur unholsters his .30 and holds the gun and flashlight in that weird way that cop show fans would recognize. He scans around the big chamber. And he waits for Fiona.

- Fiona and Arthur -

The pillars of stone are covered with shelves of fungus, and tiny little, brightly colored frogs ... which are probably bad to touch.

As you come round a particularly large pillar that was cutting off your view your light falls on a woman, who cowers and whimpers. A group of little men... no... those are goblins! Step between you and the woman and holler at you in ... well, probably in gobbledygook? right? It sure sounds like it.

The goblins are all holding long sticks with leaf-shaped metal tips.

What do you do?