At The Gates
A Bamf PBeM Game
Updated 11/4/98

"There I was in the back yard, looking up at the stars twinkling in the clear summer sky, when I hear this strange, rumbling sound. It sounded like an earthquake, I swear! I just about dropped my coffee, thinking the walls were gonna cave in on me. Well, next thing I know, I'm staring into..."

Are you prepared to journey into the unknown? Can you survive by your wits? "At the Gates" is a Bamf play-by-e-mail adventure. This is the story of that adventure.

For those of you who have been waiting for something more on this game, there unfortunately won't be a whole lot. The nature of the game has changed such that I can't really post what is happening without risking spoiling the story for the participants.

You can peruse the map that the players have. It is a .ZIP file containing a bitmap of the caves they are in.

This page is currently under construction... then again, aren't they all?

Introducing the Characters

This is the beginning of the story. At first, I will tell you about Charles, and later, I will describe the entrance of the others (Mark, Bill, James, Gabe, Shepard, and David [David left the game]) and how they came to be in this strange underground world. Their entrances are similar but initially left them in different places within the caverns. Once they meet up together, the story will not be quite so choppy.

Charles wrote: It is about noon and hot for the Northwest (Washington-around 78 degrees). Luckily it the sun is not shining due to the cloud cover and , thank god no rain in the forecast. The squad goes through the lane in fire team wedges(movement formation) with Alpha team up front. I am off just to the right of the acting team leader, walking with my weapon at the ready. Suddenly a target pops up, instinctively I shoot and go prone, all the while yelling "ONE O'CLOCK 75 METERS!". Others repeat my call, and the squad begins to move on the target. Keeping my rate of fire down to conserve ammunition, I continue to fire at the target until lift fire is called. Finally "LIFT FIRE!", I stop shooting insure that my weapon is on safe. Getting up with the rest of the team I run past where the target was drop to the prone and await for the team leader to come around.....

The GM wrote: While you are waiting by the target, you hear one of your teammembers scream in pain, as though he had been shot. You did not hear any shots being fired at the time, and you look to see what happened. You look over to see his leg on fire. He is rolling in the dirt, trying to put it out. You get up to see what caused the fire, and you see a pit of molten rock on the ground where he was laying. As you watch, the unmistakable smell of burning flesh hits your nostrils.

As you are standing there, the patch of molten rock expands quickly outwards. Your team members are moving back, trying to stay away from it. Suddenly, it erupts forth, spewing molten lava in many directions at once. It is expanding towards you, and as you try to move, you feel the ground beneath your feet turn soft.

The molten rock creates an arch-like formation in front of you, and downward from that, a tunnel forms that leads quickly downward into the earth. You are held in place by the softness of the ground, even though you try to get away. As you are standing there, the ground begins to tremble. A tremor knocks you off balance, and into the hole formed by the molten rock.

You roll downward into the hole, and finally stop on a ledge that is approximately fifty feet down from the surface. Looking around, you see a corridor leading east that descends into darkness. To make matters worse, the light from above is disappearing quickly.

You wander down the 10' diameter channel of rock that was laid out before you for about half a mile. It is hot and humid, and you begin to sweat as you move along in the red glow that is radiating from cracks in the walls. The walls are like cooling lava, with broken dark patches separated by red, glowing, molten rock, and are definitely giving off heat. The tunnel seems to be going downward the whole time, winding around upon itself until you are completely disoriented as to which way you are facing. As you are rounding a particularly sharp bend in the tunnel, you see a glow coming from ahead. It is a reddish glow, similar to what the walls are giving off but definitely brighter, and fluctuating.

Once you round the bend, you see exactly what is giving off this light. You see ahead in the tunnel where it looks like a wall of water blocking from the top of the tunnel to the bottom. It is giving off a great deal of the reddish light. You can't make out anything beyond the wall of water, which to you appears to be a mere couple inches thick.

[Imagine looking at a bucket of water at night. On the surface of the water plays a red light from somewhere behind you. The water is not calm, entirely, but rather rippling in no particular pattern. Now enlarge that image until it fills the entire 10' diameter corridor you have been walking down, and make it vertical rather than horizontal. That is about what you see before you. A wall of reddish, rippling water.]

Beyond the watery wall, you cannot see anything, It is completely darkened.

Charles wrote: When I arrive at the water fall I will first place my hand near it to see if it is giving of any heat and also see if I can guess the approximate width of the water. I will also examine it as closely as possible, trying to look around it.

The GM wrote: The water wall reaches to the edge of the passageway in all directions. You can't tell exactly how thick it is, perhaps a couple inches. It is not giving off any heat.

Charles wrote: I also believe that I might toss a rock through the water or use a stick if there is one handy. If it is not to hot and if I can determine the thickness of the obstacle is not that bad then I might just go ahead and step on through.

The GM wrote: Looking around, you don't notice any stray sticks or rocks. You do, however, dislodge one from the wall. For a moment, the heat given off from the red-hot stone behind it is searing, but, grabbing your newfound rock, you are able to move away from the area of heat. You watch as lava slowly seeps down the wall, making a long, red teardrop that dulls and darkens as it cools.

You throw your rock through the wall of water. It enters the vertical pool without a splash, and no sound is heard from the other side.

Charles wrote: If it is not to hot and if I can determine the thickness of the obstacle is not that bad then I might just go ahead and step on through. Note: With the extreme heat I would have removed my Kevlar and put my PC on, but if I step through the water I will place my Kevlar back on.

The GM wrote: Placing your Kevlar on your head again, you prepare to go through the wall of water. Stepping through, your clothing and equipment is soaked. Once through the 3" thick wall of water, you find yourself in a completely darkened, narrow chamber. Your chest hits against a wall after you emerge from the pool portal. Turning your head, you realize that you are in a very narrow passageway. There is no light, and the passageway seems to continue in both directions. Looking for the pool portal, you find nothing but a stone wall.

In the narrowness of the passage, you are only able to turn around with great effort. [I hope you aren't too claustrophobic.] The passage leads off to your left and right. Moving to your left, you reach a dead end quickly (assuming that you are facing away from the side that held the pool portal). Reversing your direction of travel, you begin looking to your right, and see a faint glow coming from that direction that you didn't notice before. You move in that direction, hoping that there will be enough light to see by (unless you have a light source of your own that you want to make use of, but I know you know about saving your night vision).

You continue moving cautiously and quietly towards the light. As the passage rounds a short bend, the glowing light gets somewhat brighter. You pass the turn in the corridor, and see a room full of green, dimly glowing moss. Looking closely around the room, you do not see any living creatures, so you move into the room. You seem to blend into the background well. From this room, there are passages leading to the southeast (the one you entered the room through), to the northwest and to the southwest (which leads downward). You feel a faint movement in the air in the corridor to the southwest.

Charles wrote: First; Using the senses (sight, smell and hearing) what kind of info can I get from the area.

The GM wrote: At first, you begin to smell mint. As you near the room of moss, the smell gets stronger. As you enter the chamber of moss, you realize that the moss itself smells like spearmint.

Charles wrote: I am moving slowly being careful not to disturb anything and watching where I place my feet, weapon at an almost ready position using a modified sling carry so that the weapon is in front muzzle down. (It only takes about a second to pull it up to my shoulder to shoot). 2; The movement in the air, is it a breeze or do I sense that there might be another body moving around. If it is a breeze can I determine in which direction it is heading and if it is fresh air (from outside and not in a cave; cave air, I believe would be kind of stale and or damp).

The GM wrote: It is a slight breeze, and it is sporadic. It seems to come into the chamber where you are (slowly), and then out of it. The air that it carries is breathable, though smells are lost in the room of mint.

Charles wrote: 3; After determining that the area is safe I will pull out a note pad and pen and start taking notes.

The biggest thing is that I will try and use all of my senses to be aware of my surroundings. If I have to move into an area that is totally pitch black where I can't see a thing then I will use my PVS 7B. Turning them on just for a few seconds with the IR light on to take a look ahead (plus, if there are any light sources ahead it would show up in the NOD), then turn it off, let my eyes readjust and move out slow and cautious.

The GM wrote: Probing the exits you saw, you see that they each come to a dead end. While you were moving around, however, you notice a small light to the east, through a small passageway to another chamber. The room you are in is wide, and narrow in the middle. Overall, it is shaped similar to an hourglass. Moving through to the other side of the room, you see a bird on the far side of the room, with a glowing tail. It sees you and turns and flees down a passageway on the far side of the room (leading east). From that direction, you hear the sound of dripping water. You'd swear as the bird was flying that way, you heard a high-pitched scream, like a woman, coming from it.

Charles wrote: I will move to where I heard the scream moving fast enough where I still can be cautious.

You move through the mossy, hourglass-shaped room and into the corridor that leads southwest from the room beyond. You find yourself in a puddle-covered room, but here there is no moss. In a faint light coming from the moss room and from ahead, you can see a small river flowing through the room. There is no sign of the light that you saw, so you continue on. The exit from here is in the northeast wall. As you emerge from its small corridor, you see a man, and next to the man is a flying creature, perhaps 4 inches long. Its tail is providing enough light to see by.

The man is wearing a baseball cap that has a familiar embroidered logo on it - that of the Hard Rock Cafe.

At this point, Charles meets up with Mark. When I get Mark's introduction written up, the story of Charles will continue.