Play@YSDC

As the investigators wander through this ghastly prison, they eventually become aware of dim light ahead, coming from the final room.
The faint glow comes from roses of fantastic colors: aquamarine, violet, orange, and grassgreen. These flowers hang from thick rose vines which have an oily black sheen and drip black ichor from long thorns. The vines have grown through the remains of those who died here so that they support the bent and twisted skeletons, which are thus tormented even in death. Flowers bloom in empty sockets, and the vines have pulled the dead into strange poses. At the base of the mass lies the left arm of a statue. It is human-sized, and glows faintly.

OOC:   OOC: Stability test (1D6, you need to get 4,5 or 6 to succeed) for seeing the whole ghastly prison. 1 Stability point is lost if the roll failed.

You can deduce that the bodies are at least a century old. More accurate dating require forensics.

Felicity takes it all in stride. "There's the arm," she says. "Let's get some gardening shears and cut it loose. I don't like the look of those thorns."

Stability test (no points spent):
1d6

“Incredible!” Clarence breathes. “The arm must have magical properties. Although I’d be hesitant to touch it myself.”

Stability roll: 6

Andrew crouches down beside Archie to look at the bodies. 'What do you think happened to them?' he asks, looking closer at their contorted forms. The way they are twisted and angled, what happened to them, what horrors did they endure? He shudders involuntarily at the thought and screws his eyes shut trying to block out the images that come into his mind.

At Clarence's observation he concurs, 'If that thing was really affecting the family, can we safely start collecting the whole statue? Perhaps there is some way we can store it without coming to harm?

Andrew has Forensics 1 if that will help examine the bodies. Can he think of any way that they might store/carry the Sedefkar Simulacrum without being harmed? Lead lined box?

L1d6

Archie shook his head and shuddered. He looked over at Andrew and said darkly, "There's not enough left of these poor wretches for me to tell. The skeletons have been here awhile, though. At least a hundred years." He finally turned toward the part of the statue and said to the others. "I am praying that getting this out of here will save the family."

Stability Roll

1d6

Cutting away the vines completely enough to avoid all damage takes about twenty minutes. As soon as the vines are cut and the arm removed, the rose blossoms begin to decay. The arm is smooth and relatively featureless, like china, and cool to the touch. Inspected carefully, a repeating pattern of arms can be seen in the ceramic. When taken away from the roses, it ceases to glow.

The bodies are of quite young people, but it is very difficult to deduce the precise cause of death or other injuries. One of them has a smashed skull. Others have joint injuries or minor abrasions to the bone, in several parts of the body. It seems they died under torture. Only two have clothes, now in tatters. None is carrying anything.

Keeping his voice low, Andrew points out the smashed skull to Archie. 'Look at this damage to the joints and bones. They were tortured, even if that isn't what killed all of them.' He takes a deep breath and looks away for a moment. 'See the teeth, they were young, and he jabs the tatters of clothes, most were naked. It's disgusting.'

He stands, 'I wish I had brought my camera with me, I could have taken some pictures of the scene, to capture these strange roses and to give something to the police when they come to investigate these bodies.' He looks closely at the decaying flowers but gardening is not really his strong suite. He has staff for that sort of thing.

OOC:   I'll try and pick up a camera the next time we're in a town/city!

“I’m not sure how we’d explain all this plus our presence here to the police; and we’d be here for days wading through all the bureaucracy. Plus I don’t suppose Monsieur Lorien will like all the hassle.
How about we take the arm and then suggest to the Loriens we cover the entrance and get out of here?”
Clarence wipes his brow.

Andrew looks at Clarence in disgust. 'The least these poor people deserve is a proper burial.'

"All of these unfortunate people died well over a century ago," says Felicity. "Nobody's going to suspect us of having killed them, though I may end up committing murder if anyone dares to claim I'm that old. We just tell the police the truth, or at least part of it. We came here to find the cellar of Fenalik's home, and we found it."

"Aye...the poor wretches do deserve a burial," Archie said sadly. "But we don't have the time or the means." Archie paused for a moment over the twisted bones, eyes squeezed tightly closed as his lips moved ever so slightly.

Then he turned to the others. "My vote is to leave the police out of the loop. There is no way they aren't going to detain us for a few days."

"They're not going to think we're responsible for torture and murder cases from the 18th century," says Felicity. "I'm quite confident I can sweet talk the police. They're only men, after all. At worst, they'll ask us not to leave Paris for a few days, and I can think of plenty of worse places to be stuck."

Clarence shakes his head.
“We’ll be snarled up in red tape for days. Plus, it will likely alert whoever it is who’s also looking for the statue.
As Felicity says, these poor sods died long ago. This isn’t much different to an Iron Age burial chamber in itself. There’s nothing we can do other than remove the evil presence of the arm.”

Andrew is clearly fuming. 'There is a thread of common decency that separates civilised man from the savages. We are British damn it!'

He says nothing more for several minutes, seemingly lost for words and overcome with anger until he eventually adds, 'May I suggest we seek Monsieur Lorien's wishes in his own house?'

"An excellent suggestion," says Felicity.

"We need to bring the arm with us," says Felicity. "I'm hoping the Lorien family will be healed now, but we don't want the same thing to happen to us. Perhaps we should avoid touching it with our bare hands but find something in which to wrap it. I suppose we can store it in one of my steamer trunks when we get back to the hotel, along with any other pieces we find later. I brought plenty of clothes, but there's still room left for all the things I was going to buy. I'll just have to save some room and get some of them on the way back."

Archie nodded, agreeing with Felicity. "Yes, we need to take it with us, and we need to avoid touching it at all costs," he said as he shrugged off his suit jacket and dropped it over the arm. He looked around nervously. "I trust you all know what you need to do, should this go terribly wrong."

Archie leaned over and slowly lowered his hand toward the cloth covered arm.

“Careful, old boy.” Clarence watches apprehensively.

Silence falls into the gloomy underground. The young doctor bends over to grab the object. As he picks it up, something seems to be different from what he expected.

Seen up close, the material of the piece is made of rock. The surface of the arm is slightly uneven. The stone has been finely decorated with very small representations of an entire human figure. They cover the entire surface and can only be identified by observing the piece very close. Although it is undoubtedly made of rock, the object is very light. Oddly light. Apart from that, nothing else happens.