Skip to content

The Crack in the Air

The Crack in the Air is a hard-edged rift in space in a side tunnel of the Dahlonega mines, with a metal pipe running through it that pumps gas into the mine. The party found it in Appalachia 09.
Type Lore (anomaly)
Aliases portal; rift
Location A side tunnel in the Dahlonega Gold Mines beneath the Spud Hut plant
First appearance Appalachia 09

Description

The side tunnel is lit with rippling light, like pool caustics, around a hard-edged cut in space "as if cut with a scalpel". A metal pipe passes through the crack and hisses gas. Through the opening the party sees faint industrial machinery in darkness. Flashlight beams do not pass through normally. Standing close electrifies and freezes the fingers. Andrew Howard compares its edge to the "absence" from his pepper spray (Appalachia 09). See Andrew's Pepper Spray.

Properties

  • The gas. The party hears the hissing before they find the crack. Voices go high-pitched, like a Mickey Mouse impression, but nobody feels lightheaded, and the effect fades with distance. Kurt Larson guesses hydrogen, bans gunfire and sparks, and gets everyone out. He tries to pack the pipe (Appalachia 09).
  • The pipe. Kurt calls it "such a jackass redneck solution with such space-age technology". The players treat the arrangement as portal technology used to siphon gas, far beyond anything Spud Hut should have, and Kurt wonders what stage of life someone on the other side could be in to use it this way (Appalachia 09).

History

Clive, the animal handler, says that as far as he knows Jan has no portal. Kurt answers, "Somebody fucking does" (Dante (as Kurt Larson), Appalachia 09). Dick "The Biz" Baxter sets the timer on his spy camera and photographs the crack, including through it. His fingers feel electrified and freezing, but he gets the shot. See Spy Camera and Microphone. Afterward Kurt fears that someone will blow up the mine with hydrogen (Appalachia 09).

Later accounts

Unrecorded session

The finale of the Appalachia arc was never recorded. Everything below is known only from the epilogue, Walkers 01.

The Spud Hut corporate facility exploded shortly after Jan fled it. Visiting the imprisoned Jan, Kurt says that explosive gas was piped into the mines deliberately, probably from an adjacent cavern, and that the culprit is unknown. Jan can name no one with an interest in the mines. Kurt tells the table he is "not fucking telling him about the portal", since Jan seems not to know of it (Walkers 01).

What remains unknown

  • Who is on the other side, and whether it was meant to kill, flood or blow up the mine.
  • Whether the crack is tied to the ape-men. Rita (as Andrew Howard) asks whether extraterrestrial ape-men would have portal technology (Appalachia 09).
  • Who built the pipe, and whether it is the source of the later explosion.
  • What the Biz's photographs show. The episodes never mention the film again.

Appearances