{Modern Setting} Beneath the Yellow Lantern

[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.

Spoiler: show

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.”

[CGM3]

“I agree, we should check out that last door before leaving,” Eric concurs. “Who knows, it may lead us into that section, and save us the trouble of having to clamber up and down that empty shaft.”

[tdsprouse]

“i didnt see any obvious traps on it, but... I'm not always the most observant.”

[patransom]

Marcus' examination of the intricately carved hammer reveals it to be rather light and not particularly well balanced. Furthermore, the carvings are, in fact, Vaati runes that translate to words like break or smash. The dowel has no runes or markings, but Marcus feels fairly confident it is in fact a wand, not an ordinary dowel.

Additional searching of the last door turns up nothing of concern, so the party opens it to reveal a small room containing a built-in stone bench with a hole in the middle. It's pretty clearly a toilet.

[tdsprouse]

“huh. well i guess we should be surprised to find a toilet.” Brad hesitantly steps forward and shines his light into the hole, looks around.

[patransom]

There isn't anything interesting about the toilet. It apparently hasn't been used in centuries, or longer.

[CGM3]

“Well, unless anybody wants to do research for Toilets of the Gods, I guess we should hie back to the sarcophagus chamber and work on getting down that empty shaft,” Eric opines.

[Duniagdra]

a discouraged tone, Marcus says: “I agree with Eric. Let's return to the main chamber.”

[klakxor]

“Well, if anyone has to go, now would be the time.” Sahid says with a laugh.

He will follow the others back to the main chamber

[tdsprouse]

“Pass on the ancient commode.” Brad follows the others back upstairs.

[CGM3]

Eric demonstrates his self-control by not socking Sahid for that incredibly lame jest and accompanies the rest back to the elevator (which may or may not be working ).

[patransom]

You are relieved to discover that the elevator still works and, therefore, you use it to shuttle one-by-one back to the main lantern chamber. It is dark there, since the green lantern and its flaming rock are now tucked away in your gear. But, after checking around carefully with your portable floodlights, everything is exactly as you left it. The lantern chains are all empty (because you have the lanterns) and the sarcophagus still points at the eastern alcove, where the elevator that squashed Marcus is sitting open, waiting for another "passenger."

The hole in the floor awaits. Shining floodlights down the hole reveals quite a lot: the shaft leads down about 60 feet and is deeply pitted and scarred, which should make climbing down relatively easy (DC5, so by taking your time, you should have no problems). At the bottom, the northern half of the shaft opens up into what is presumably a larger chamber. You can see the wreckage of a metal elevator cylinder on the floor there.

[Duniagdra]

“Let's lower a lamp down and see if it attracts anything. If not, then we climb down.”

[tdsprouse]

“That's a brilliant idea Marcus!”

Eric Brad pulls out some rope and ties a lantern to it. and begins lowering it down. when it gets to the end of his 50', he asks “ANyone else have any rope?”

[CGM3]

Eric pulls out some rope and ties a lantern to it. and begins lowering it down. when it gets to the end of his 50', he asks “Anyone else have any rope?”

Eric unlimbers the 150 ft of rope he's been lugging around and offers it to... Eric?

OUT-OF-CHARACTER:    Do I need to make a Will save against existential dichotomy?

[tdsprouse]

OUT-OF-CHARACTER:    oops. Is that the second time thats happened? I fixed this one above. Not sure why i typed Eric