Time of Day: Dead of Night
B'aughb is Saved
Through prayer, righteous fury, shiftiness, and a bit of cold B'aughb drops into the loose dirt just as the rift closes. He smiles at each of you in thanks before needing to sit down from his ordeal. His arms are marked with nasty welts, and a layer of skin has been torn off... The mark on both arms looks a little bit like a brand, the same symbol of Ixzotz, that the soldier slaves wear. While healing may make the marks heal over, nothing short of the destruction of the intelligence will make the brand fade completely. The fresh water elementals summoned go into the Spire searching for vampires, after 5 minutes you can still feel they are alive and well. Either nothing is impeding them or they are having no luck finding their commanded quarry. If summoned to return they come back out the Spire rather quickly as if they had not made much progress into whatever underground system lies below.
Last moments of the Soldiers
Blood curdling screams echo through the night as the soldier slaves are killed without mercy by two hunters bent of seeking their repentance and putting their ink into the sandy earth. However one hunter steps forward and uses her faith to dominate the mind of one of the soldier slaves.
He snarls at Ashlyn,
" Damio will not b-b-betray!"
There are a few bodies lying on the ground near the Spire. Two soldier slaves and one survey team member. The survey team member seems dressed in mechanic's coveralls, and has a pair of driving gloves on, the keys to the MkV are on his person. Most likely the survey team member is August Cooper, the technical support specialist and driver. All three bodies have a variety of puncture wounds and seem drained of blood.
Back of the MarkV
Devek awakes to the sounds of men crying out as if hell iself was consuming them. It is a bit muffled, and diluted with a slight rhythmic beeping noise. He is inside some kind of vehicular storage area, probably the mkV, the air is stale smelling of sweat and he is not alone.
A CS private drenched in said sweat is looking at a medical monitor whispering to himself,
" No... No... I got to keep him under, captain Zack said keep him under. Frak, which button is it!" The private hits a few buttons on the monitor and turns a dial, button the screen flashes red. He is pretty anxious and laments,
" Common Harris, remember you training. Frak! I wasn't trained for this. We take the survey team, part of some Legion easy enough. Ambush alpha target just fine, then the world erupts with a shit ton of mist, just came from nowhere. Then poof, the mist turns into a billion vampires. Shit, the captain stuck me in here and said don't come out, and if you want to live keep alpha under control. Frak, Frak Frak!"
Bowels of the Laughlin ruins, or smoke from the city
The city of new del rio shines about 8 miles away. A plume of smoke or ash rises above it, visible even at night.
The large doors to the ruins await in a valley to the North West of the local. At the top of the doors the word
Laughlin seems stamped into them. The doors seem old, as if fashioned from some kind of metal from the time before Rifts. They are also closed and do not budge on first inspection. Besides the doors the ruins itself have been caked and covered over the centuries with earth essentially becoming the ground you are walking on. Even at night the sandy ground near the sealed huge doors seems glassy and singe marks are everywhere. Only the rocky spire with its metallic protrusions here and there stands taller than the ground ( about 60ft above ground). While the group is deciding which direction to go the two psi-stalkers nod their heads in thanks.
The older of the two smiles half hardheartedly,
" I am Zek, and this is my pledge Joe. Thank you rangers, we only wish you could have come sooner before our kin were slaughtered. I am afraid the war has begun, this is only the first stone. So many vampires and so far north does not bode well." If nothing else is asked of them, they head off in the direction of New Del Rio.
So what do you folks want to do next?
Combat is over this is open roleplay. But please try and come to some kind of consensus on where you guys want to go/do next.