She Sells Sea Shells
| She Sells Sea Shells | |
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| Dates run: | July 22, 2013 |
| Run By: | AJ |
| Read the logs: | She Sells Sea Shells |
"This is magic again isn't it?"
A field trip to the beach goes wrong for the New Mutants (and guest), who find themselves battling a cave to stay alive.
Contents
Cast
New Mutants
Clint Barton, Frank Ludlum, Hope Abbott, Madelyne Pryor, Molly Hayes, Renee Nguyen, Susan Storm, Tandy Bowen, Topaz, Billy Kaplan
Staff
Sam Guthrie, Korvus Rook'shir, Catseye
NPC
Timing
Plot Summary
As a treat during the summer holidays Sam takes the New Mutants on a trip to the beach. However before they arrive at the beach he takes the kids, along with their RA chaperones, to a nearby smugglers cave.
The journey to the system passes without incident, and the group wander through the cave examining and pointing out several of it's distinguishing features. As the students wander through the cave the accompanying staff members start to fall behind. While everyone else is distracted, Billy and Topaz detect a magical presence in the walls that they hadn’t noticed before - and they realize the presence is growing in strength as they approach the central cavern.
Ultimately the tunnel leads the New Mutants into a central cave; the New Mutants are the first to enter and a reluctant Namor enters behind them. As the Attilani noble enters the cave The walls fade out and the New Mutants find that the cave around them has changed. An altar has appeared in the center of the circular cavern and, spaced equidistant around the circumference of the room, are twelve columns. Hidden in four alcoves inset at equal intervals between the columns are scorpion statues.
And then the fieldtrip curse strikes.
In her surprise at the room’s sudden transformation, Tandy backs up and disturbs a relic on top of the altar. This triggers a trap and the magical backlash from the trap’s activation hits Tandy hard, temporarily disrupting and suppressing her powers. The entrance to the cave fades, apparently turning into a smooth piece of wall just like any other stretch of cavern around them. As the New Mutants check the wall where the tunnel used to be for weaknesses they can use to escape, the statues in the alcoves around them begin moving. The scorpion statues attack the group and the New Mutants (along with Namor) are forced to defend themselves, splitting into teams to face off against them.
The accompanying staff are trapped on the outside the cavern and are unable to get in despite their best efforts.
During the fight Sue is caught out by one of the statues and knocked off her feet near the altar. As she scrambles to get up, the scorpion brings it’s tail down in a quick strike meant to do maximum damage. Sue manages to interpose a force field between herself and the statue, but the scorpion manages to push through it. In her initial attempts to get avoid the statue, Sue had seized one of the artifacts from the altar and the strike, it’s power much reduced by the resistance provided by the force field, glances of the blue gem inset in the pendant and ends up wounding her instead killing her.
Unfortunately, the stinger does actually produce a venomous poison, to which Sue succumbs before collapsing. Upon seeing her friend fall, Tandy panics and rushes to Sue’s aid. The emotional shock, combined with the return of her powers, triggers a previously unknown aspect of Tandy’s powers - healing. She blasts the room with light, removing all the toxins from Sue (as well as anyone else who might have gotten hit) before collapsing from powers overuse herself. Having seen Sue and Tandy collapse, Clint rushes over to defend the girls and manages to finish off that guardian. The seal absorbs the life force released by Tandy, but the sheer amount of energy she releases proves too much for the seal to handle after the destruction of its guardians, and the seal overloads, opening the doorway and freeing the trapped students.
Related Links
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
As a result of her actions in this plot, Catseye was promoted to full X-Man status.
Tandy's secondary powers were activated during the events of this plot.
Meta
Plotrunner: AJ
