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

[beermotor]

Fosco and everyone else locked in the room clearly heard the screams of Fritz as he ran past. Darrow, Fritz, and Hector can't hear Fosco talking to them through the door from where they are, although they do hear some muffled sounds at that distance. Whether they go to investigate is up to them.

The "buttons" don't pull, slide, or push. They are warm to the touch, though. On a lark, Fosco puts his ear net to it and thinks he detects a slight humming noise.

[MrHemlocks]

Fosco goes back to each door and repeats this..." I can hear slight humming noise coming from the buttons and they are warm to the touch. That means these doors open by some mechanical or magical means. So keep a look out for something like those. It just might release these doors."

[beermotor]

(For what it's worth, I've given you enough information to figure this out, it's not too complicated... don't make it harder than it is. Good luck!)

[MrHemlocks]

ooc..Anyway could you draw out the buttons. Seeing them and what colors they are just might do the trick. For the buttons are exactly the same....those on the north and west doors? The doors are completely sealed. No door handles. The ceiling is out of our reach. The floor is nothing special. The walls are old but sturdy. The buttons are warm and hum. The outside buttons sparked when hit by the monster.

[MrHemlocks]

Thorin has an idea. He places the lit torch close to the buttons. Than uses the torch to press inward on the buttons. He will try different combinations of buttons if the first attempt fails.

[beermotor]

ooc..Anyway could you draw out the buttons. Seeing them and what colors they are just might do the trick. For the buttons are exactly the same....those on the north and west doors? The doors are completely sealed. No door handles. The ceiling is out of our reach. The floor is nothing special. The walls are old but sturdy. The buttons are warm and hum. The outside buttons sparked when hit by the monster.

They're just square. Think of them more as plates. They're just a silvery-gray metallic color. The doors do have handles, they're just locked, without any visible way of picking them (not that you could, being 0 levels).

[beermotor]

Thorin has an idea. He places the lit torch close to the buttons. Than uses the torch to press inward on the buttons. He will try different combinations of buttons if the first attempt fails.

Nothing happens. The metal doesn't blacken from soot, either, interestingly enough. It does get slightly more warm to the touch but quickly cools down to its normal state of warmth.

[GnomeBoy]

Hector tries to calm Fritz, while Darrow steps into the hallway, not wanting to be caught off-guard by whatever scared Fritzy. He checks both directions, not just the direction Fritz came in from.

If that bug-thing is back, his arrow flies thusly: 17 to hit, 4 damage. And he calls Hector out to help...

If it's a man, he'll try to talk to him instead, but without lowering the bow, since something freaked out Fritz...



Hector to Frtiz: "Focus, man! Focus! Shivering won't save you! I'm almost scared out of my breeches, but we've got to keep pressing forward here and rescue our friends, if nothing else..."

[beermotor]

Darrow sees, at the far end of the hallway, the light from a lantern, and then, just barely, the face of a human peeking around the corner. It stops when it sees Darrow and the torchlight coming from the room behind him.

If you want to shoot or talk, let me know... because he's got such strong cover, a 17 won't hit.

[GnomeBoy]

Gist of Darrow's line of questioning:

"You there! Explain yourself! Who are you?"

"Where is the body of our friend? How came you here? What is your purpose? Where are you from? Are there more of you?"

If however, there is some trickery going on, and Darrow can't draw the man out, he'll charge to the end of the hall under the assumption that the man will retreat -- and Darrow will hope the light from the lantern is enough to light a shot at the man... Darrow is less and less in a mood to talk, and increasingly worried about those trapped in the room. Can he still hear them?

Meanwhile, Hector listens to the 'conversation'. If he can snap Fritz out of it, so much the better -- but if he hears Darrow charging down the hall all Han Solo-style, he's going to back him up with his cudgel...

[beermotor]

The man calls out in answer to Darrow's questions. "Who the hell are YOU, and what are you doing in my home? You've disturbed the bugs, there's no help for your friends now. Locked in that cell, aren't they? Yes, yes. You'd better be leaving, or you'll share their fate. Heed my advice or die!" The man's face then disappears back behind the wall, along with the light, and it starts to fade.

If Darrow wants to give chase, he can... it's over 30' to the end of the hallway though, so he'll have to double-move, which means he won't be able to shoot once he gets there.

[GnomeBoy]

Darrow will run to the end of the hall, calling out to the man to stop -- and if he doesn't, take a shot at his leg to make him stop. And again, Hector will be following shortly thereafter.

This dude looks human?

Not sure if Hector's been able to help Fritz with his trauma at all, or not.

[beermotor]

Fritz is shell shocked, it's like he can't even see or hear Hector, he just sits there wild and wide-eyed like a rabbit cowering from a wolf.

Hector watches Darrow bravely run down the corridor, shouting for the man to stop.

As Darrow's running, it's getting darker, until he reaches the end of the corridor and most of the lantern light has disappeared through the archway that y'all came in from, to the south.

And then Darrow hears... a weird noise. Sort of a clicking, tittering, popping or smacking sort of noise. As of something chittering in a strange and alien language. It's coming from beyond the archway...

[GnomeBoy]

[Why does the word 'screwed' come to mind...?]

Darrow falls back to where Hector is with a torch.

"Sounds like that bug-thing is down there with that man -- could he be it's keeper?

Stand fast! I suspect they will be coming for us now..."

Darrow and Hector ready for the thing to attack them... Hector has every intention of helping Darrow in the fight -- but just as likely might try to break for the surface and run back to town...!

[GnomeBoy]

[I'm not entirely sure what has and hasn't been tried from the inside to open the door, so...]

Chendris places one hand on the metal panel aside the door, while trying to turn the handle. with the other.

[beermotor]

[I'm not entirely sure what has and hasn't been tried from the inside to open the door, so...]

Chendris places one hand on the metal panel aside the door, while trying to turn the handle. with the other.

Please be very specific as to how he is placing his hand on the plate and door.

As for Darrow and Hector, they wait in silence for some long several minutes, but nothing appears...

[GnomeBoy]

[I'm not entirely sure what has and hasn't been tried from the inside to open the door, so...]

Chendris places one hand on the metal panel aside the door, while trying to turn the handle. with the other.

Please be very specific as to how he is placing his hand on the plate and door.

As for Darrow and Hector, they wait in silence for some long several minutes, but nothing appears...

Well, I'm thinking he's just got his palm on the plate and he's turning the handle in the usual way. If he got any sort of glimpse of the bug's digital anatomy, he'll emulate it as best he can. He's thinking there's some kind of simultaneity lock or something -- doing two things at once is what triggers it, not two things in succession. And it seems to have been physical -- no noises/words uttered by the bug when he shut them in.

I'll let Darrow and Hector hang for a moment, since Chendris' experiments will move comparatively quickly...

[beermotor]

Darrow's probably the only one who really has the observational knowledge to be able to figure it out. But I'll give Chendris a Luck roll to see if he just happens to be in a "close enough" alignment. So, roll d20, subtract your bonus (1, I think).

[GnomeBoy]

Ack! Rolled an 18, which modifies to 17, which is two above his Luck.

I sense I am on to something but I'm having the wrong zero do the stuff -- it feels wrong to switch to another character, but they are all my characters...

How about this: Darrow and Hector are (in my head at least) more or less outside the locked door, waiting for an attack...

Chendriss hails them to ask about details that they may have seen when the bug-shove happened. Darrow isn't super bright, but perhaps between them, they can figure out anatomical issues, try things in turn on both sides of the door, etc.

Of course, this leaves Hector the only actively armed character in the hall, so he's shaking in his boots slightly...

[beermotor]

Ack! Rolled an 18, which modifies to 17, which is two above his Luck.

I sense I am on to something but I'm having the wrong zero do the stuff -- it feels wrong to switch to another character, but they are all my characters...

How about this: Darrow and Hector are (in my head at least) more or less outside the locked door, waiting for an attack...

Chendriss hails them to ask about details that they may have seen when the bug-shove happened. Darrow isn't super bright, but perhaps between them, they can figure out anatomical issues, try things in turn on both sides of the door, etc.

Of course, this leaves Hector the only actively armed character in the hall, so he's shaking in his boots slightly...

This is fine, of course. But... what is Darrow telling Chendris to do? Darrow is a hunter, remember, and he made some pretty good observations about the bear-bug.

Inside, Chendris gets a little static jolt and the plate flashes red for the briefest moment when he places his palm on the plate and leaves it still for just a second.

[GnomeBoy]

Okay, my brilliant break-through has been that you have to touch the plate and turn the handle at the same time. If the bug's anatomy enters into it, only Darrow could say. Without an essay on all of the details that Darrow saw, I can't type out my own essay on all the things Chendris and Darrow try. I'm hoping we can handle things more abstractly than that...

If Chendris gets three pieces of information from Darrow (for example), then Chendris will try each of the three on their own, in pairs, and all three together, wherever possible (some could be mutually exclusive, if you follow me). If Darrow says the thing had a fist that was like a man's but with just two fingers, they try everything with just two fingers. They each try each permutation individually, and in tandem for good measure. During one of attempts, Chendris imagines ice cream for no readily obvious reason. It's really good ice cream, too.

For completeness' sake, here are some die rolls from the boys, in case you need them:

Darrow: INT missed by 8 -- LUCK made by 7 -- AGI made by 5
Chendris: INT made by 11 -- LUCK made by 1 -- AGI made by 1

We're either getting this door open, or it's two men fighting their way out of this place in hopes of getting back to town and gathering more help.

If anyone has a better idea than that, speak up, please.

[MrHemlocks]

OCC..I am just waiting. Ran out of ideas a couple days ago.

[beermotor]

Darrow recalls that the thing had what looked like four fingers but they were sort of opposable. Then he recalls that the thing held up its hands with the fingers in a V shape...

[GnomeBoy]

Okay, so Chendris and Darrow do their best Spock impersonation, each in turn and then simultaneously -- palm open on the plate with fingers V'd while turning the handle using two fingers wrapped around the right side of the handle and two fingers to the left of the handle as best they can...

[beermotor]

When Darrow puts his hands on the plate, he feels a slight surge and an almost imperceptible green flash, and there's a hissing noise and a little puff of smoke from around the edges of the door, and it swings inward. Chendris falls to the ground, surprised by the ease with which the door swung open. The party is reunited.

+1 XP.