{Modern Setting} Beneath the Yellow Lantern

[tdsprouse]

Brad walk to 1322, “That sounds fine to me, but you might not want to stand there.” he says to Eric.

[Duniagdra]

Marcus moves to 1318. “In case the block slides out this way, let's not stand in front of it. I say push the button.”

[klakxor]

Sahid moves to 1323 “The button sounds good. This is a good position to see if anything happens.”

[CGM3]

Never one to ignore intelligent advice, Eric moves to 1321. “Push the button, Max!”

[patransom]

Once everyone gets to a safe location, the Doctor pushes the button. This causes the odd stone slab to rise up into the ceiling and crunch firmly into place with a loud grinding sound. In the alcove formerly hidden by the slab is the crushed skeleton of some unfortunate individual who was obviously standing there when the slab came down. Curiously, while most of the skeleton's clothes seem to have moldered away into rags, the bones are still covered by a long leather coat that appears to be in mint condition. The coat appears to be the kind you might see worn by a gunslinger in a western movie. Next to one of the skeleton's outstretched hands is a tattered leather bag whose contents don't seem to have been completely crushed by the slab.

The back wall of the alcove is covered with a series of pegs. While most of the pegs are empty, three items still hang from them: an odd set of steampunk-looking goggles, an ornately designed hammer, and a small carved wooden rod that brings to mind nothing other than a magic wand.

[tdsprouse]

“Nice Coat. Not too lucky for this guy though. Those Goggles are kinda neat lookin too.”

Brad moves to 1221 and tentatively reaches out for the coat, and tries to pull it and anything that comes with it out from under the slab.

[Duniagdra]

Marcus takes the pack and empties it out. a cautious tone: “I'd stay clear of those thing for the moment. I suspect that this person went to take them and was crushed by the stone.” Marcus has a loon at the contents of the pack.

a curious tone: “Is there anything in the pockets of that coat?”

[tdsprouse]

“I'll check.”

Backing up a step, and pulling the coat with him, Brad will remove it from the skeleton and check all the pockets, and search for any hidden pockets.

OUT OF CHARACTER

IC is down, search is +2

 

[CGM3]

Eric stays out of the way of the others, looking at the objects hanging from the pegs in the recess.

[klakxor]

Sahid looks at the body and everything around it. “Still seems like a horror movie to me”

[patransom]

The sack crumbles into bits as Marcus pulls it out of the alcove, scattering its contents into the hall. The contents are three small statuettes, about the right size to be held in two cupped hands, along with numerous stone fragments, obviously from other statuettes that were crushed by the stone slab. The three intact statuettes are of a grand palace, a slim spire with eight connected smaller towers of different heights, and what looks like a grand stadium.

Brad pulls the coat out, dragging some bones with it. The coat, unlike the sack, is still in fine shape. The leather is supple, showing no signs of age. After shaking the broken bones out, he searches the pockets to find a small, wood-bound notebook with an eight-pointed star burnished on the cover. The yellow, brittle pages contain some sketchy maps and rather cursory notes. The information is a bit difficult to read, but it's in English. Reviewing the pages reveals the following information:

This guy was obviously part of a small group of treasure hunters exploring this cave for "arcane relics." The group had six members: Uhle, Claus, Anders, Wayne, Jacob, Fred, and the author. Together, they entered the cave and got as far as the big room with the lanterns. The description of that part of the cave complex is consistent with what you've seen so far, except that all the lanterns were present. Wayne was badly burned by the trap in the sarcophagus lid, but they figured out how to operate the elevators and decided to split up to explore further. Jacob was planning to climb up to a passageway above the blue lantern. Fred was going to descend the elevator beneath the indigo lantern. Uhle, Claus, and Anders descended an elevator beneath the green lantern (which apparently was working at the time this expedition took place). They took the red lantern with them, because the group didn't have enough light sources of their own. The author descended the elevator beneath the yellow lantern. The injured Wayne remained behind in the main chamber. He had taken the indigo lantern an was using it for light. The notes indicate the group found one interesting item in their brief investigation: an intricately carved armband bearing a repeating leaf motif. Wayne was carrying that.

[CGM3]

OUT OF CHARACTER

I, uhm, think you mean Brad pulls the leather coat out and examines it... unless Eric has gained the power of mind control!

 

“Well, that explains how the missing lantern got that way,” Eric observes as he peruses the yellowed pages over Brad's shoulder. “Now all we have to do is find it.”

Edit: fixed

[patransom]

OUT OF CHARACTER

I, uhm, think you mean Brad pulls the leather coat out and examines it... unless Eric has gained the power of mind control!

 

OUT OF CHARACTER

Um, yeah. Fixed. As a side note, you should recall that you have found the indigo lantern (it was in the wolf den upstairs); the only missing lantern is the red one.

 

[tdsprouse]

Brad hands the book to Marcus after telling the others of its contents.

“Anyone mind if I take this, it looks about my size?” Brad asks holding up the coat?

If no one objects, he puts it on over his bulletproof shirt. His face clearly shows that he enjoys the look of the old gunslinger. “Now I just need a flat brim hat and a poncho.” he says with a smile,

[Duniagdra]

response to Brad: “No objection from me.” Marcus accepts the book from Brad and puts it in his pack. a teasing tone, Marcus says: “Anyone wanna play Kings and Castles?” He then stows them into his pack also.

a cautious tone: “Anyone think we should try removing those three items the slab was hiding?”

[CGM3]

“Fine by me, I really don't do the spaghetti Western look,” Eric responds to Brad, then asks, “So, who wants to play "snatch this pebble from my hand, grasshopper" with what could be a killer piledriver?”

[tdsprouse]

“Maybe try to lift them off with a pole, or something?” Brad asks, looking around for stick, or a sturdy femur.

[patransom]

Brad hands the book to Marcus after telling the others of its contents.

“Anyone mind if I take this, it looks about my size?” Brad asks holding up the coat?

If no one objects, he puts it on over his bulletproof shirt. His face clearly shows that he enjoys the look of the old gunslinger. “Now I just need a flat brim hat and a poncho.” he says with a smile,

The leather coat is obviously enchanted, as it resizes itself slightly to fit Brad perfectly (just like his bulletproof shirt). Brad will soon realize that it is a +1 leather jacket. It is, therefore, slightly inferior to and doesn't stack with his current armor. It does look cool, though.

[Duniagdra]

“I could try to use the staff from the statue?” Marcus will remove the three-section staff and lock it into one piece. He'll then try to fish the items out starting with the wand. He's actually trying to see if molesting the items will cause the slab to fall.

[patransom]

Using the staff, Marcus is easily able to fish the goggles, hammer, and wand from the pegs. The slab shows no signs of falling again.

[tdsprouse]

“Nice job Marcus. What do you think those goggles do?”

[Duniagdra]

Marcus wears the goggles to see what happens. He collapses his three section staff and returns it to his pack along with the hammer and wand for later identifying.

[patransom]

The goggles are obviously enchanted. Although their lenses seem to have no special curvature, once Marcus puts the goggles on, he finds that they magnify his visual acuity for close up details.

OUT OF CHARACTER

They are goggles of minute seeing.

 

[Duniagdra]

“Wow. Well, these will have their use with seeing the hard to see. These goggles make the small bigger and closer, like magnifying glasses.” Marcus will put them in his backpack.

“I think we could continue moving on.”

[tdsprouse]

“Yes, lets.”

[CGM3]

“Any ideas about the hammer and the dowel?” Eric inquires.

SpoilerShow

OUT OF CHARACTER

If you didn't realize he was referring to the wand as a dowel, you've earned three demerits.

 

[Duniagdra]

At Eric's query, Marcus takes out the hammer. “I hadn't considered it, I assumed it to be a sculpting hammer considering the room.” Marcus looks at the hammer and checks its weight.

“The dowel I'm expecting to be a wand.” Thinking a moment, Marcus also pulls that out to see if there is any symbols that indicate its use or purpose.

Search/Arcane Lore (1d20+6=19, 1d20+9=22)

[klakxor]

“Well, we should probably do a quick search of the rest of this area, but according to that journal, the red lantern is in that hole in the ground where the other elevator fell. We should really go look there. Does anyone have any spelunking gear?”

[tdsprouse]

“I think we got some rope, but thats about it.”

[Duniagdra]

“I think while we're here, we should finish exploring what's left of this area. I thought someone pointed out a door? This room is pretty well explored. Let's move on.”