IC: Ch 3: Swamp Delving

[BenTheRat]

OOC:   Sorry for any misunderstanding, The large obelisk is 12' tall. The smaller one was about a foot long and in the hands of one of the robed men. They took it with them.

The rest of you see Tobias walk up to the rest of the group. He walks up and looks at the obelisk.

Spoiler:

the symbols seem to be calling for you, your head begins to swim with the ruins, you feel light headed.
OOC: take a Sanity 1/1d3 test. If you fail, you walk forward and place your hand on the ruins and begin to trace them. If you pass you resist the urge.

Joe sits up, he looks exhausted. "Can I get some water? No, first time that's ever happened."

[HelplessBystander]

Tobias examined the runes, and he felt the rune call out to him. The runes wailed some ghastly tune as he stared at it affixed. With great strength, he managed to resist the urges that welled up within him. He closed his eyes and walked towards his friends as he ponders about the possible goals of the group of students and professors over there.

Spoiler:

HelplessBystander rolled 1d100:
11

SAN Lost: 1

[Mr. Handy]

Eddie hands Joe his canteen so he can take a drink.

[BenTheRat]

Joe takes the drink and hands it back. "Lucy, who the hell are these people."

[HelplessBystander]

Tobias gingerly placed down the chicken. Tobias Jerkins, at your service. Now, I was planning to give this chicken to uh...someone, but it looks like nobody needs it. Heheh."

[Rooter]

"Bret Parker from the Bridgewater Weekly. Would you mind telling us what just happened? Who were those guys in robes and why are you stealing chickens while wearing a hound costume? Some kind of prank?" Bret isn't quite ready to believe what he thought he just saw yet.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm Eddie Donovan," says Eddie, holding out his hand for a shake. He decides it's probably best not to reveal that he's a policeman.

[HoneyDog]

Maria

"I'm Maria. We just want to help. It looks like you need it. Will you tell us what is happening here?"

[BenTheRat]

"Whoa, you're with the newspaper. No, Nothing's going on here." he is trying to scramble to his feet, but slips and falls.

[HelplessBystander]

Tobias held a hand and helped him up and gently patted him on the shoulder. "There there, nothing to worry about. We are not here arrest anybody. We just want a little chat and make sure that nobody's bein' hurt. The fact that you're stealin' the chickens without paying for them ain't helping. Now, I'm not sure what you think you guys are doing, but game's over fer the day. There's a guy hurt over here and y'all need to calm down a bit and discuss this with us rationally." He said, with a moderately firm tone towards the group of misfits. He don't what he just saw, but he could tell that something supernatural's up and go in' on around here and he doesn't quite like the smell of that. Tobias wants to finish dealing with this thing as soon as possible.

[Mr. Handy]

"From what I hear, nobody believes a word the Weekly prints anyway," says Eddie. "Look, you can tell us what's going on here. We're here to help."

[Rooter]

Bret pretends not to have heard what Eddie just said about the Weekly. "Maybe we'd better talk to Professor Ingram instead. Do you know where we can find him?"

[HelplessBystander]

"It would most certainly help." Tobias said quickly.

[BenTheRat]

Joe accepts your help up and Lucy hugs him, "I told you this would be dangerous, it's not something to be playing around with. Do you believe me now?"

He hugs her back, "yea that was crazy, I think I'm out," he stammers out. After a minute he takes a big breath, breaks off the hug and looks at all of you.

"Okay, I'm ready to talk. I'm sure Lucy has told you some of it, but if we use blood to trace the lines of the pillar, you are inside the big dog suit. The power is the rush. You feel so strong, so fast, you can see anything, its nothing like anything I've ever experienced. When I came back without the chicken, the professor made me go back to get one. I've never been in the suit that long, I think that's probably what caused me to pass out. What else do you want to know?"

[HelplessBystander]

Tobias nodded, he believes that he already had a very clear idea of what is happening around here. “Joel, I appreciate your willingness to talk to us. I thank you for this, but do you mind telling me why the professor is asking you to get a chicken? I would also like to know whether every person who traces their blood over these runes will transform, and what about indirect contact? If you smear the blood of another person onto these runes, would that person turn into a Hound?”

[Mr. Handy]

"How did the professor find out about what this thing does and how it works?" asks Eddie. "And why did he recruit you to help him with it?"

[BenTheRat]

"You can use your own blood, but we use the chicken for that. Whoever traces the line in blood gets the suit, but you don't want to do it without the key. That's how you get out of it." Joe said. "The professor asked us to help with the research. It was cool at first, but I think its gotten out of hand.
We always meet at the school afterwards, not sure if they went tonight, but we were supposed to."

[HelplessBystander]

Tobias looked at Joe with a serious expression. "Thanks for clearing that up, and I suppose we should go and have a little chat with the professor, see if we could get him to see reason. If not, we'll have to contact the relevant authorities."

Tobias leaned towards Bret and whispered discreetly, "Bret, you don't mind if we go and some more people hanging around, would you? I have a bad feeling about this, and we should probably get as much help on our hands as possible before we take anymore unnecessary risks, if the professor turns into one of those halfway-through an negotiation, I want the Hockmock police department behind me."

[Mr. Handy]

"What's the key?" asks Eddie. "Do you have it?"

[HelplessBystander]

Tobias replied to Eddie's question. "I'm pretty sure the key was the smaller obelisk that cancels out the spell."