The Secret of Bone Hill - L1 DCC conversion Play By Post

[beermotor]

Chendris sees some obvious marks in the sandy floor, as of something being dragged... through the second door.

Hector pushes open the door to reveal a roughly twenty foot square room. Rotting carpets of woven wool are piled in seeming haphazard fashion on the floor. Otherwise, the room looks empty.

[GnomeBoy]

Chendris steps back from the second door, toward the others, whispering, "Something went through there recently -- it may be our fellow explorer. A few of you get your weapons ready, and a couple with torches to back them up. I'll swing the door open and we'll surprise whoever or whatever is on the other side..."

Flavia steps up to 'torch rank' with a torch in hand.

Darrow positions himself to cover the corridor from the direction everybody has come, bow ready to fire.

Hector looks around in the dusty first room...

[MrHemlocks]

Fosco, leaves the first door and head over toward the others. Sword in hand he waits for them to enter...

[Crimsontree]

Portly Trim helps provide light with his torch. Fritz readies his club.

[beermotor]

The second door seems to be made of some sort of metal. It has a handle, but there's also a large button or plate on the wall next to the handle. The handle turns easily, though, once the party is arrayed in front of the door, and the door swings inward, onto a roughly twenty foot square room. Inside, in the corner across from the door, you see the dwarf, lying on his side like a rag doll tossed aside. Poking your head into the room, you can see another door, similar to this one, on the north wall inside the room. Except for the dwarf, the room appears empty.

Inside the other room, Hector lifts up a carpet and discovers ... something that looks like large eggs. The shells are strange, leathery looking, and he knows of no animal, not even an ostrich, that would lay an egg so large. They're probably eighteen inches tall, and seem to be sitting on the ground, arranged together; there's seven of them.

Darrow knocks an arrow and stands at the end of the hallway, covering the party.

[MrHemlocks]

Fosco looks for traps and scans the ceiling for creepy crawlers. (rolls 9 ) He leans over to Portly Trim, " help me get the dwarf."

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/v ... dL0A1gm6J8

[Crimsontree]

Portly Trim carefully walks over to the dwarf & gives him a small kick to see if he is still alive.

[beermotor]

Shortly after Portly Trim and Fosco enter the room, something LARGE barrels into Flavia and Chendris from behind, knocking them headlong into the room and then yanking the door shut. There's a weird noise immediately after that, like a hiss of steam escaping a teapot, along with a solid sounding "ka thunk" of some locking mechanism in the door... The four are now in the room with the dwarf, Thorin, who appears to be alive, just unconscious. After some light shaking, he slowly wakes up...

Back out in the hallway, Darrow sees the large insect-like creature come running from down the side hallway and slam into Flavia and Chendris, knocking them into the room, then grabbing the door, shutting it, and pushing its "hand" against the button thing to the side of the door, which causes a flash of strange red light and the hissing, ka-thunk noise. The monster then turns towards Darrow's direction and ... is surprised! It screeches in a loud voice (also audible to those inside the room) "My God! Leave us alone!" and raises its first two arms in a placating gesture. It seems to be taking steps back and to the side, though, to flee back down the hallway. If Darrow wants to fire his arrow, now's the time. And depending on initiative, he may get a second shot off...

Hector hears the noise from outside, too, but has no idea what's going on...

[MrHemlocks]

"OMG!" Fosco, realizing the danger he is in yells to Darrow. "Does this beast look like the one that killed the wizard? Ask it what it wants and why did they attack us!"

Thorin, shakes off the pain and looks for his weapon. There after he will look for a way out of this room. " Maybe my dwarven knowledge will help us to get out of here." rolls-5

[beermotor]

Thorin is weaponless... he dropped it where he was snatched, and nobody thought to specifically grab it. Being a dwarf doesn't tell him anything other than he's in a stone-walled room, with two strange metal doors, one on the west wall (through which the other party members walked/were shoved) and one on the west side of the north wall. In looking around, however, he sees strange concretions on the ceiling. It almost looks like dirty candle wax piled into little mounds about 3 or 4 inches across, or something. The effect is to create a very odd looking texture to the ceiling.

Darrow hears Fosco's muffled shouts from behind the door, and can answer if he wants...

[GnomeBoy]

Darrow lowers his bow -- about a quarter inch -- and speaks: "We only seek to understand what has taken over these ruins -- YOU have attacked us first! If you do not offer the truth quickly, you will have made yourself my enemy...!"

Darrow is hoping his shouting is loud enough to be heard by those shoved into the room, so they may know that those outside yet live.

Hector hears the shouting and gets ready to fight. He slowly, as silently as he can, nears the door, ready to surprise whatever may be on the other side if he hears melee erupt.

Darrow continues: "So what is it to be? Speak, insect! What are those walking corpses that attacked us and who sent them? What is your purpose here?"

[Crimsontree]

Fritz bangs on the metal button with his club, trying to open the door that was closed by the weird creature.

[beermotor]

Outside, in the hallway, the thing shrieks again "Please God don't hurt us!" Then it quickly backs up into the darkness and flees further along the hallway, out of sight to the north and west.

Those inside the room hear the muffled exchange between Darrow and the creature, then muffled thumping steps, and it is quiet again... except for Fritz banging on the button thing next to the door. It seems completely impervious.

Darrow, the hunter, is fairly wise and observant, and this is what he notices about the creature, gathered from its movements and apparent habits: 1. It is probably a solitary predator (despite its proclivity for speaking in the plural), much like a spider or a scorpion, as it seems to dislike confrontation, except when attacking from surprise. 2. It's very smart, and set up an ambush of some sort (Darrow doesn't yet know that the door locked his comrades inside the room). 3. When it was holding up its arms, he noticed that the hands ended in four strangely humanoid "fingers" around a central palm, and it held them in a V-shape (much like Spock/Star Trek).

Hector hears the exchange between Darrow, then Darrow's muffled curse as the creature disappears...

[MrHemlocks]

"Damn bugs!" Thorin smashes the eggs in the room. "Now let your mom cry for you!"

Fosco, heads to the other door and listens. rolls-2

[Crimsontree]

Seeing that his banging has not released the door, Fritz begins to carefully examine the door & it's surroundings. He looks for any wires, loose stones or anything that may serve as a release mechanism.

Search roll 18.

[beermotor]

"Damn bugs!" Thorin smashes the eggs in the room. "Now let your mom cry for you!"

Fosco, heads to the other door and listens. rolls-2

There are no eggs in this room, those were in the other room where Hector went in, the "first" door (wooden) along the hallway. This was the second.

Fosco listens at the door on the north wall but doesn't hear anything. The door is cold metal, like the other in here. It also has the strange button/plate thing next to the handle on the wall.

Fritz searches, but the door seems very solid. In fact, it's almost completely seamless, there's no visible hinges, so he's not even sure how it opened. It's as if it melted into the stones, or was carved out from them.

[GnomeBoy]

"Damn -- It's nothing but an ugly mynah bird! Hector...! We have out prey in sight...!"

Hector runs back into the hallway, and charges with Darrow down the hall where the thing came from. Darrow expects it to be above him as likely as in front of him. "This would certainly scare the caravans -- shortly our contract will be complete!"

[beermotor]

At the end of the hallway there's a wooden door on the north wall, then the hallway makes a right angle to the left, the west, and its end is lost to your torchlight. You don't see the creature, although you hear a distant sound of a door being slammed.

Hector and Darrow hear the muffled sounds of their comrades cursing and banging around in the room behind the metal door.

[GnomeBoy]

Darrow and Hector are chomping at the bit -- ready to kill the thing and be done with this place.

But if those trapped behind the door are in danger, that's worth dealing with, too.

"Hector, go help get that door open. I'll cover here and see if anything turns up..."

Hector returns to the locked door -- Darrow stays at the bend in the hall and covers his allies and keeps an eye down the hall...

Inside the room, Chendris is focused on the door -- is there a gap at the top or bottom?

[beermotor]

Nope. Hector's torch doesn't illuminate very far down the hallway for Darrow...

Guys inside the room can talk freely with those outside... It's just muffled.

[Crimsontree]

Portly Trim uses his torch to illuminate the corners of the room. He is searching for something that will release the door. He also checks the ceiling and walls when he is finished.

Search roll 14

[beermotor]

(Just so you know, DCC generally frowns on search rolls, and I pretty much ignore them.)

Looking in the corners, Portly Trim finds nothing but a little sand. The ceiling is too high for him to reach, although he can see it as I described before.

[MrHemlocks]

Thorin looks at Fosco. "Got on my back little friend." Fosco jumps on the back of the stocky dwarf. Thorin than hands him his weapon and torch. With the much added height Fosco now examines the ceiling. If anything even remotely looks nasty...Fosco will set it on fire.

[Crimsontree]

Are both metal doors shut? If so, Portly Trim ties to open both of them. Are there any metal buttons on the inside of the room he is in?

[beermotor]

Thorin looks at Fosco. "Got on my back little friend." Fosco jumps on the back of the stocky dwarf. Thorin than hands him his weapon and torch. With the much added height Fosco now examines the ceiling. If anything even remotely looks nasty...Fosco will set it on fire.

Even standing on Thorin's shoulders, Fosco only goes up to about 7 feet. And, now he gets to make a reflex save, DC 10. (!)

The ceiling looks gross, but nothing is moving.