[IC]Prologue 0.1: The Beginning - Lima, March 1921

[kabukiman]

"Shouldn't we take her to an hospital?"

[Raiko]

Hotel Maury - Lima, Peru

"She'll be better off resting in here," Jackson Elias is followed into the room by Antoine D’Estaing.

Crouching by the bed Jackson continues, "Healthcare here really hasn't recovered yet from the pandemic yet, and I suspect was poor even before that

"Anyway, I'm forgetting my manners! How are you doing Miss Vallier? The Doc said you've had a lucky escape, but should be much better in a day or two? Anyway we got the guy who attacked you, but I'm afraid... erm... I'm afraid he murdered your friend Trinidad. I'm very sorry."

Jackson has carrying an object wrapped in a tarpaulin, he unwraps it on the bed, "This might be what de Mendoza was after, it appears to have actually seared his skin from his hand when he touched it. We'll know more about it when Professor Sánchez gets here."

The unwrapped object is a single length of worked gold, around two feet long, three inches wide, and is perhaps one-third of an inch thick. Both ends are rough, as though the piece was ripped or broken from a larger design.

The piece is largely a straight band, although four sections jut out at right angles into short spurs or squared off spirals. The surface is imprinted with a series of nonrepeating geometric shapes, mostly squares and rectangles, with no obvious meaning to them.

OOC:   Copied the description from the earlier post to save you looking back

"Amy also has Trinidad's notebook, with her summary of the Confessions of Gaspar Figueroa. It's in Spanish, but Amy noticed that it mentions de Mendoza!"

The hotel manager knocks on the door and says, "I am sorry to disturb you, but there is an urgent telefono call for Senior Jackson Elias."

Jackson looks concerned and says, "Excuse me, I'll be right back."

He leaves the room and heads forwards the foyer.

[Mr. Handy]

Amy takes out the notebook and shows it to the others. "It's in Spanish," she says, "but I can't read it. I just recognized the name. Maybe he was a descendant of one of the conquistadors. Either that, or he's hundreds of years old." She doesn't discount the possibility, knowing what de Mendoza had been.

[Silver Priest]

Marcus shakes his head, trying his best not to think too much about how these absurd concepts had suddenly become apart of his life.

"Well at least we know he's killable. Though I'd still burn the body to be sure."

[Zero]

Atauchi followed the others to the hotel room, and after a cursory examination of all points of entry, he returned to the hallway and took position as a sentry outside the door. The man suspected that the incident at the university was only the beginning of their troubles with the death cult Jackson had briefly spoken of. If there is a next time, it could very well cost them the life of one of their own. They mustn't be taken by surprise again.

[HelplessBystander]

John shrugged, completely fine with the arrangements.

[Raiko]

A minute later Jackson comes dashing back along the corridor, as he passes Atauchi, he simply says, "He's gone!"

Bursting into the hotel room Elias is clearly shocked, "De Mendoza has gone! Professor Sánchez is on his way here now, he spoke with the Guard and then found the room empty.

"Give me the notebook please Amy"

Jackson spends a few minutes concentrating on the notes and then reads them in English for everyone, he keeps glancing at the gold artefact and he is still shocked.

OOC:   A summary of Trinidad Riza's transcription of the Final Confessions of Gaspar Figueroa, 1543.

Final Confessions of Gaspar Figueroa, 1543

"I don't know how the rest of you feel now, but I'm going to pay Augustus Larkin a visit as soon as the professor gets here safely," Jackson double checks the load of his .45 while speaking.

"I'm feeling a bit out if my depth right now, every cult that I've ever investigated has been no more than an elaborate scam, but this one's different."

He looks around his companions, "I'd really appreciate your help, it seems to me that we need to take that band of gold back to the pyramid and see if we can fix the damage that Figueroa and de Mendoza did in the Sixteenth Century, and I can't manage this one by myself."

OOC,[ooc]This is [b]very [/b]important. This is also absolutely the last railroad in the entire campaign, after the prologue the whole campaign is a big non-linear mystery. Jackson won't try to force anyone to go with him, but anyone who doesn't won't be contacted at the start of chapter one. So however your investigator reconciles it, they absolutely [b]must [/b] be the kind of person who goes along with Jackson to investigate the pyramid and try to fix things. That's the whole point of the prologue. If they're not that kind of person, they don't get to be in chapter one from the beginning.[/ooc]

[HelplessBystander]

"Ooh, ooh, I'm in! This sounds terribly exciting, I can't wait to brag about this when we get back to good ol' US of A, this is simply too too." John gushed in excitement.

[jp1885]

"So let me get this straight: there's an evil death cult and a centuries old vampire at the heart of it? No offence, but do you think I was born yesterday?"
"But saying that, if it means getting that son of a bitch that stabbed me and murdered my friend behind bars, or preferably put six feet under, then I'll believe with whatever hogwash you like."
"Count me in!"

[Raiko]

"Excellent," chuckles Elias, "If you feel up to it, you're welcome to join us.

"I'm not sure that I fully believe any of this myself, but I've seen things with my own eyes that I've never seen before in over a decade of investigating cults like these. Perhaps it's just a more elaborate scam than most."

[Mr. Handy]

"Of course I'm with you," Amy says to Jackson, regarding him with open admiration. "I'd follow you to the ends of the earth."

[Zero]

Atauchi entered the room behind Jackson and slid the lock firmly into place. He was alarmed to hear that the body had gone missing, but didn't believe that it had walked off on its own. It was more likely that de Mendoza had an accomplice nearby, and that individual had taken it to preserve the secrecy of the pishtaco and the cult's activities in the region.

"Seem impossible de Mendoza still alive. Maybe someone from cult took body." the man suggested.

The Quechua man was all for taking action, but he wasn't certain that charging ahead to confront Larkin was wise. He would need more convincing.

"Hold Jackson, you sure that good idea?" he interjected.

[Raiko]

"I'm open to suggestions, but it seems that they're onto us, so best to keep.on the front foot, and if Larkin is actually innocent in all this, then he's probably in danger too."

"I wouldn't mind taking a look at de Mendoza's room as well."

[Silver Priest]

Marcus has no real interest in pursuing an apparently unkillable man and venturing out into the middle of nowhere to find the god who cursed them for stealing from him, but apparently John did. And one of the first things the agency told him was that the customer was always right.

Unfortunately.

"Count me in as well. I suppose I'm a bit curious just where De Mendoza went off to. Hopefully next time I put a bullet in him he stays down."

"I'm all for going after Larkin first. He's our best lead now, and we can determine if De Mendoza approached him and he's a dupe or more deeply involved in all of this. You all should know though that it's unlikely to be pleasant. But all I know is that the man's in league with murderers at best, vampires at worst, and if we don't get some answers from him more people could very well die."

[Raiko]

Jackson nods knowingly, "Thank you Marcus, if we come across de Mendoza again, we'll just have to use more bullets."

[jp1885]

Cynthia flops down into the bed, suddenly exhausted.
"So Larkin is De Mendoza's pal huh? I guess checking his room might provide some clues - some leverage over him and his chum." She smirks. "Some garlic or a wooden stake even."
Her tired eyes turn to the strange golden artefact. "I'm no expert, but I do dabble in archaeology..." What does this tell us?"

Archaeology 26%,[dice]0[/dice]

She lies back, rubbing her eyes. "Ugh, I can't even focus. Perhaps I need some sleep. Can someone do me a favour and get some clothes and my satchel sent up from my dorm please? Everything I need'll be in there."
Cynthia closes her eyes and lets herself drift off.

[HelplessBystander]

John yawned, "Yeah, makes sense, let's talk more tomorrow. Though you mind if I have a look at the object?"

Archaeology 40%,[dice]0[/dice]

But, alas, John also could not find any significance within the artefact.

[Mallet]

Antoine D'Estaing:

Antoine D'Estaing takes a few moments to take in the whole situation:

"You can count on me to pursue this mysterious affair till it's very end !" he states with determination.

[Mr. Handy]

Amy has no idea what to make of the object. "Whether Larkin is cahoots with de Mendoza or not," she says, "de Mendoza, if he's somehow still alive, may still want to kill him to keep him from talking to us. Or his accomplices might. We'd better go check on Larkin quickly!"

OOC,Archaeology roll (41% skill) about the gold artifact: [dice]0[/dice]

[Anatomist]

Dr. Nemesio Sanchez nocks at the closed door. All can clearly hear him winded after a long run from the Museum. "It me Nemesio, Dr. Nemesio Sánchez, please open the door."

Once inside Dr. Sánchez, rapidly tells about him finding a empty room where de mendoza's body was hidden, and his brief encounter with the Republican Guard. "The guard swallowed the story whole"
"im nos sure what to make of it de Menozas body is gone? did he just revive and left or did someone else get his body?" "either way we MUST get to the bottom of this ordeal, we are all in great danger" He sees Trinidads note about Gaspar Figueroa and reads it. "ah, as i suspected Gaspar Figueroa had indeed written about 'a' de Menoza, this is bad, bad, bad."
His eyes scans everyone else in the room "we should look into his room and Larkin's" his eyes gos suddenly wide when he notices the golden object "what's that?" let me take a look.

Archaeology (80%) hard success,[dice]0[/dice]