A Candlekeep Mystery (IC)

[VLAD the Destroyer]

Kaliban takes the length of rope from Crock Jon. He ties it around his waist.

"I am the lightest. I can also move the body without needing to touch it."

Kaliban then moves towards the opening, bracing for the moment he starts to slide through the hole.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The group lowered Kaliban through the dried, clumping moss, into the lower chamber. He spied the body, now half-buried under the moss that Cairn and he had knocked down on top of him. Unlike the elemental guardian's report, there was no way that this fellow was likely to be alive - face down, unmoving, and half-buried in the dry moss.

OOC: @VLAD the Destroyer I'll take an INT (Investigation) check, please. And yeah, you can lift him with your TK as part of it.

 

[VLAD the Destroyer]

Kaliban surveys the body and room. Once he is certain nothing bad will happen he will use his telekinesis to lift the body out of the hole.

OOC: Investgation: 1d20+3 15

 

[FitzTheRuke]

When Kaliban lifted the body, it slid easily free of the dried moss. He began to raise it into the air with the intent of sliding it up through the opening, where the others would grab it. While it rose past him, he saw that the face had been badly burned, and the torso chewed. He quickly glanced below himself and saw the moss shake until a large red beetle emerged, angry that it's food supply was being stolen.

OOC: I guess we should break into rounds. Kaliban go for Round One. Depending on what he does, the others can act after. Oh, the beetle is 10 ft. below him, and it's 20 ft. up to the others. (10 of which is difficult terrain, and a climb). The body is floating nearby.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Crock Jon, at the top, supports the rope, using a rock or outcrop as a pulley if easily available.

 

[VLAD the Destroyer]

Kalabin curses in gnomish as the beetle emerges from the moss.

"I disturbed somethings meal. It doesn't look happy about it.

Kaliban prepares to strike the beetle if it moves aggressively towards him. At the same time he pulls on the rope.

"Might want to pull me up? Or someone needs to give me a hand with this thing."

OOC: Was will I be able to put the body down outside of the hole with my TK? It can move an object 30 ft to a space I can see as part of the action. In either case I will be reading a strike if the beetle moves to attack me. Readied Rapier strike on beetle.: 1d20+5 23 1d8+3 4

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Kaliban tugged on the rope, and Crock Jon and the others hauled him through the dried moss as the body floated along with him. The angry beetle was left behind, out of reach of both the gnome's sword and its own ability to bite (though it clattered its mandibles at Kaliban as he rose away).

Kaliban lowered the body to the solid ground of the outside tunnel, and everyone was able to have a look.

OOC: Huh. I thought fire beetles could spit fire. I think they could in 4e. This one only has a bite attack, so Kaliban was safe (they were 10 feet apart at their closest).

 

[Neurotic]

Cairn looks at the face of the thing. "This one will not need water. It is dead."

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The body's clothes were colourful, loose-fitting, and in a style unlike anyone from this eastern area, nor the Sword Coast. They were more suited to someone from the south - a warmer climate. The person was long dead, dried, and partly eaten. A small leather satchel contained a potion, a wand (made of a twisted white wood), and a strange dull-orange crystal - all that remained of their possessions.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"A shame, for sure. I wonder if this fellow collapsed into the sinkhole prior to the mine being abandoned, or was he an explorer afterwards, like us?"

Hawthorne glances around to see if there was a place they could place the body for the time being and not risk it being disturbed. "I suppose once we complete our exploration of the remainder of the caverns here we should bring the body back down to the town. Perhaps there is someone there that might recognize or remember who this is, which would answer at least one of our questions."

He glances at the few items taken from the satchel of the corpse and he motions to the spellcasters of the group. "Are you able to determine what these items are or what their use would be? While I don't think they should be kept should we find an ally of him back in town... at the very least if any of them have a bit of use while we're here... I don't think borrowing them for the time would be much of an issue."