It wasn’t quite as thrilling/perilous as a D&D dungeon crawl, but we did walk through the steam tunnels beneath campus, and survived. I think we saw two living spiders, a moth, a few mud dauber nests, and some ghastly slime, but that’s about it.
It is impressive how extensive the tunnels are…and we never really notice them. Apparently we can get to every building on campus without stepping outside, except that most of the access doors are locked for safety reasons: there are asbestos covered pipes everywhere, cables snaking around the ceiling, and hot metal supports that it would be unwise to touch.
But now I know how to get into them whenever I want!
We used to use many of the tunnels under Episcopal Hospital to get between buildings. Many of those tunnels were used as part of the underground railroad, which the staff has documented with pride.
Avoiding cables and hot metal supports isn’t a problem, asbestos, well I’ve been exposed to so many things including asbestos, that the only exposure I’d worry about now is if a cobalt-60 source was atomized.
Well, briefly.
Fortunately, they kept utility stuff caged off to avoid injury and had removed asbestos out of concern for the maintenance workers health and safety.
If you want to know why those passages are kept locked, check the 1982 film “Mazes and Monsters” with a young Tom Hanks.
Back in those days, they knew Dungeons and Dragons was a threat to mental health of young people (sark).
Oh no! Oh woe! Oh drat & darn & the wages of ruin! Myers of Minnesota has gained access to the Under & Between! That crafty spider whisperer! They shall never catch him, now!
birgerjohansson — Inspired by the real-life case of James Dallas Eggbert III. Who apparently never LARP’d in the steam tunnels but the police searched them anyhow. Rona Jaffe’s book isn’t bad by itself, but it fed right into the anti D&D hysteria that was going around at the time.
What would the wasps be feeding on down there or would they be accessing the surface here?
“Ghastly slime” (presumably the microbial stuff at the 15 mins 30 secs mark) living or artificial / minerological in nature and if alive using presumably chemotrophy or detrivore? Extremophile goo? Wonmder why thatspecific spot and if the dark patch around it is microbial or something its using to live? Take a sample and offer to microbiologists at uni to study if there are any?
If there were no carrion crawlers, I’m not interested. Stand down.
Back to the tavern, lads and lasses. It’s Grot’s round and she’s got a pirate minotaur story to tell us!.
StevoR. they were near the vents, which had easy access to the surface.
As for the slime, yeah, I’d be getting samples as well. Those mats can be quite diverse in species!
Odd to see water running into the tunnel at that one point and standing water at others. Both can create their own maintenance nightmares.