sixthiterationlogs | [ MINGLE ] MINING EXPEDITION

Entry tags:

[ MINGLE ] MINING EXPEDITION

WHO: Tony Stark & Co.
WHERE: North West Mountain Range
WHEN: November 5th - 8th
OPEN TO: Open to all
WARNINGS: Language, canon typical violence

The Hike Up/Down

After sending a message out the day before to meet him in the fountain park at dawn (daylight is important) Tony packs up. Supplies secured and a path found mostly by working himself up (not that difficult) and following the blue path only he can see (still weird) Tony guides his modest expedition up a winding way over rivers and to a promising stony outcropping at the base of the mountains before needing a moment to 're-calibrate'. AkA get stressed out as to where to head next for optimal ore extraction. It takes a minute but- again, he's got a lot of anxieties to kick into gear and it should be easy enough to nudge their rag tag little group further up until they find the right spot. Making an easy walk down- well. That's also a trick. Finding a quick path back to the village before they lose the light- marking the way they've come so they can find it the next day? Kind of important.

Digging a Hole

Breaking ground is a matter of staring, trying to think back to what little he knows of geology (not fucking much), and waiting for the anxiety to get to the point where it'll hand him something specific. They need ore, they need a good starting location, and once they manage to pinpoint it? Pickaxes are handed out, a nearby cave explored, and Tony strips down to get to work. Crack stone, haul it out, rinse, repeat. Anything usable gets put in sacks made from stolen sheets to be hauled down- not the best system he's got but they're just getting started. Regular breaks are A thing, canteens of water passed around- he's pretty sure there's a stream somewhere that should help with the 'not dying of thirst' issue in the future.

Encounters With Natives

Somewhere on the hike up, during the dig, or taking a rest on one of the craggy boulders surrounding the cave where they're chipping away at stone, signs of native fauna linger. There's a patchy nest looking thing where one can hear the mewling of peakittens, blue eyed, tiny, and abandoned by the looks of it. Loping about the slopes a few curious mountain elk that bound in at the sign of food, keeping a cautious distance but wandering close should anyone appear friendly. Near the woods, though, just as they wind their way up- or make their way back down at the end of the day? Dust Moths have taken to the air, shimmering wings leaving powder in the air.

Environmental Effects

During the hike up in the predawn there's lying mist clinging to the sides of the mountain in thin curls, swirling in the air as they hike through it. Careful not to inhale too deeply, otherwise you might find yourself a little more honest than you'd like for most of the morning, and that could make the rest of the hike pretty damn awkward. In the caves proper there's stone and ore enough- and a dark, black powder that tastes of licorice and ash. Shadow dust. Maybe the next few swings don't do as much damage- or do any at all. Maybe they picking up stone becomes impossible till you're in the light.

In Too Deep

On the second, maybe the third day all their activity and digging catches some aggressive attention. A pickaxe sunk too deep, cracking through a cave wall and finding a den of snarling, hungry cave wolves that spill through the hole all snapping teeth and snarling claws, bursting out of the tunnels to scatter whoever's dared to come close to their home. A tree felled to mark their path startles a giant boar into charging, bellowing in the night, turning tusk and muscle to clear it's own way through their weary line.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He'd seen her about the village, usually keeping to the edges - so when she'd begun following him through the trees, he'd decided not to remark on it. When she was ready to speak to him, he'd figured she would do so.

The fact that she did so here, beside the river with a sentiment so near his own, was surprising but heartening. He wasn't alone. "I cannot swim," he said simply. "And this stretch looks deep. I will need to find a place narrow enough to jump or shallow enough to wade." It would be cold, but he'd deal with cold sooner than drowning.

"I can't swim either." It is nice to know she's not the only one, even as she can see others clambering through without hesitation.

"We can search further up the river, see if it's narrower there?" She'd much prefer to jump it herself, but either way the depth right here would not end well.

Altaïr looked one way and then the other, eyes slightly narrowing as he tried to judge such things as current, water speed, to see if it appeared to come in more quickly than it left - and he made a quick decision. "One upstream, one down. To go by these--" He lifted his left wrist in demonstration, indicating the device there. "--Fifteen minutes unless an absolute solution is found. Agreed?"

It seemed reasonable to him. A group the size of theirs couldn't traverse too far in half an hour. Not far enough that Altaïr wasn't confident that he could find them again. These people left a very noticeable trail.

She watches the water as he assesses the flow, and then glances at his device as he motions with it. She nods.

"Agreed. We should find something by then, right?"

"Even if what we find is that this is our best chance," he nodded. "I will go downstream and meet you back here. Fifteen minutes out. Fifteen back." Half an hour in total. Definitely enough time.

7 nods, checks her watch, then heads upstream. The further she went up, the deeper the stream cut. The banks started to narrow in, but they were steep and muddy; she stopped to test the edge, and it gave way and almost pitched her in right there; jumping would not exactly be the best choice here.

She looks up at the trees; as the stream was closing in, so was the canopy. The branches were thin, but they looked supple. It might work. She continues following it upstream, where it levels out into a little pool that fed into the creek. A log had toppled over and looked like it may have created the barrier that caused the little pool before water strted bubbling out underneath it again. She put a hand on it and gave it a shove; it wasn't completely stable, but it seemed like it was going to take a little more power to knock it loose. For two relatively lithe people, it might actually work as a bridge.

7 checks the watch again, and turns to head back to meet him. There were a couple options this way, but each came with their own warning labels. Hopefully Alaïr had found something better.

The stream widened and narrowed as he walked. There was a place with stones that were a width apart that could be jumped, but they were slick with water and moss - and the water between looked deep enough to cause a problem if someone fell. If there were stones there, there was also the chance of a head injury.

The more downstream he went, the louder it got until it formed into a waterfall. Small, but a waterfall all the same. One tree leaned across - climbable, he saw immediately, but it would take a jump across to make it, and the landing was uncertain. There weren't enough leaves or brush to make the landing soft enough to be dependable. He thought he could roll through it and avoid breaking a bone, but his joints would ache afterward, even with his newly-regained youth.

At the fall's bottom, there was a patch that looked passable, but to get down with any reasonable time would mean climbing, and the stones here were as slick as the others upstream. No easy way in sight. Only a choice of uncertainties.

The waterfall cut his time short, and as such, he headed back to their meeting place, early enough to see her approach and greet her with a raised hand. "I've found no clear way, but a handful of unsure possibilities. By your face, I see you've found similar."

She nods, crossing her arms and glancing at the river beside them. Most of the others had already crossed over by now, and it grated her to be waylaid by such a simple thing. She wondered - not for the first time - if she could clear it with a running start and a boost from her spear?

"There are a couple options, but I wouldn't call them guaranteed. Tree branches that are close, but not wide, and a log that crosses the river, but isn't stable. What did you find?"

"Stones that could be jumped across, but slippery with moss. A fall that could be climbed down, crossed, and up again, but slicker than the stones. A steady tree stretching over the river, but too tall for a truly safe landing. Your log may be our best bet. We should be able to shore it up with stones or strong sticks driven into the ground on each side." He could see how to do it - and it would be more easily done than any of the possibilities he'd found. A bit of extra time and rope and he could have worked with the tree across the river, but he had neither.

She nods, and turns to lead him up the way. "You sound like you've got a good idea for making it steady - have you done this sort of thing before?"

Leading him up along the creek upstream, holding aside branches to help him pass through.

Altaïr nodded. "Each spring in Masyaf, what fell as snow melted into water, and the rains began. The ground soaks up quickly and the rivers overrun their shores. We had to replace at least one bridge each year - and had to make makeshift bridges until they were reconstructed. One log for the two of us should suffice."

He followed her easily, ducking past the branches she held, keeping an eye on the river as they passed. Just thinking about the river itself had him wary of its bounds.

7's keeping her own healthy distance from the bank, but some of this may have been from a tell-tale gouge in the loose mud where she'd stepped too close on her initial inspection.

She finally brings him to the little pool, and the log laying across the creek. She leans over and gives the edge a little shake to show the looseness, and looks back to Altaïr for guidance. "Do you think that could work?"

"I do," he said, observing how it shifted - and then he began to look around for rocks, large pieces of wood, anything that he could sink into the ground to act as a chock, such as the ones they used for wagon wheels. "We'll only be able to secure one side. We'll still have to tread lightly."

But that one side, he began to secure with rocks on the upstream, tipping it toward the thick sticks he'd driven into the ground on the downstream.

7 watched him, taking note of the size and shape of the rocks and sticks he was choosing and then looking around for more fodder she could offer him. She piled them up near the log as she found them.

"I can do that." Treading with a light food, she could do. "Just give me the word, I'll test it out."

"Once this is a bit further..." He wanted the bracing to go right to the edge of the water, and after he'd managed it, he gave the log a solid push with one foot - and when the movement it gave was minimal, he nodded. "There. And we can do the same on the other side, so when we return, we'll have our bridge prepared."

She lets him work, not wanting to get in the way of it and watching carefully in case this ever came up when she's on her own. At his word, she climbs up on the log, takes a couple testing steps, then continues along to the other side with a slow and steady pace.

Wet wood isn't exactly something she's had a lot of experience with, and even though the log wasn't rocking much at all anymore, there was still something disconcerting about the slick feeling underneath her feet.

She's careful, but even then there's a moment that her food slips right off where she'd planted it and almsot upends her in the river. Her arms swing about, and she's able to stabilize herself and hang still a moment before taking the last quick step and hopping off the log onto the far side.

"Do you want me to try to secure this side before you come over?"

Watching her gives him information he'll need for later, he thinks. Taller branches on each side for handholds. Rope to secure one side to the other, to keep what just happened to her from happening again. His eyes narrow as he makes a few decisions then and there.

"I will cross first - it would be unfair for you to take such a risk and for me to face nothing. But I can see one thing I can do here and now for the sake of ease." He stepped onto the log and, moving as slowly as she did, he crept while crouched, keeping himself close to the log's surface. But once he was over the water, he drew a knife from his sash. A few quick scores and he'd made a carved ridge in the log. Three paces more and he did it again, and again, until he'd gotten across the water's surface. Places where toes could grasp. Places where the water could run away and leave other surfaces drier. Most importantly, it was a start.

"There. Now we'll face less danger crossing back, and we can shore this end from moving."

She watches him, noting his low stance with the intent of mimicking it on the way back. Then, curiously watching as he scores the wood. That was an interesting tactic.

But they are both safely on the other side and dry.

"I can get behind this plan. "

"Later on, if we continue using this path, we can add more logs and make a proper bridge. For now, this will do," he agreed, and then began gathering stones and sturdy fallen limbs to do as they'd done on the other side. This time, with practice, and with her having seen how he did it before, it was easier - and they had a place to rejoin the rest of the mining expedition. And a way to get back across without drowning.

"I will say that it is good to know that I'm not the only one without skill at swimming. I've never been fond of water that could reach over my head."

"Did you also have trouble when you got here? With the fountain?"

She can honestly say she never thought she'd been so close to dying, and given her lifestyle that was saying something. "If I could never look at that much water again, I'd be happy."

Altaïr nodded, unashamed of his troubles there. "I did. I believe I nearly drowned. But then, somehow, I began to breathe the water instead of drown on it - though how that was possible, I do not know." It still confounded him to think about it, and he had thought about it at length. Nothing like that had ever happened to him before.

"Really?" She peaks her eyebrows at him. "I had a - light - show up, direct me to the surface, but I certainly couldn't breathe the water."

Maybe she's a little intrigued by that, even though she is not at all eager to ever be in that situation again.

He shook his head. "I've never heard of the like. People do not breathe water. But I did - for a few moments, I did. I'd thought for the time before it that I would spend the rest of my afterlife dying again and again in the depths of the water, but then I was able to get to the surface and pull myself out. It was... 'terrible' is not a strong enough word. But I am here now."

"Yeah, we're here now." She smiles. "And, we've survived the river. I definitely feel a little better about the trek back, knowing we've got this set up."

It was definitely a good idea to beef it up if they had the chance.

"As do I. It seems we may need to do more scouting, map the terrain a bit more thoroughly in the surrounding areas. I would think teams of three would be best for such a job..." Something to think about, certainly. But it seemed that lately, all he'd done was come up with thoughts of things that needed to be done rather than things he could do. The downside, he supposed, of being a leader.

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