Dark Places

Lyle's arrow sinks into its head and it falls to the ground, legs and tails twitching in its death throes. It stumbles to its feet once then falls still.

Combat is over.

Your nerves likely call to you, wondering if there are more, and if so, how many, lurking in the dark.

"Well that wasn't the warm welcome I was hoping for. At least we know what happened to the minors. We should check to see if there are any survivors."

As Lyle begins to salvage his spent arrows, he says "As much as I want to get out of here... if there are any survivors we should help them...but first, let’s see if we can find out who these poor souls were so we can tell their kin."

Lyle begins to search the bodies, or what’s left of them.

Just a reminder that there were no miners down here that the foreman knew of. He didn't know who was down here, only that they heard sounds beyond the cave in. He suspected thieves of some kind.

Jaz is going to keep an eye, and ear, out while Lyle searches.

How about: Lyle can ask a single question about them and I'll answer it.

Searching the dead men, you find that they're not human. At all. They similar in shape, but the shape of bones, the structure of the skin, it's all different, like they're more slugs in a vaguely human form. Save, they have meat that one of the creatures was feasting upon.

They have a little bit of strange gear, numenera, two pieces each, and a kind of weapon looking instrument, perhaps a shooter.

Lyle inspects the shooter, hoping he could figure it out without killing himself or anyone else. They were dealing with things he never saw before... maybe rushing into the fray was better suited to the stronger members of his team.

"Hey- I found some gear. Can any of you identify it?" He whispers loudly, gingerly handling the shooter. "These poor souls aren’t exactly human... they’re kinda like slugs. Doughy." Lyle makes a superstitious sign with his hand and spits between his fingers. "Rest, now... whoever you were".

"That may be bad news. Other lifeforms that is. .. "

Turana was poking with her club the second dead creature to make sure it is completely dead before attempting to recover her dagger from its body. She heard Lyle's voice and then decided to take a look at the bodies

Shooters
Lyle can use the weapon, but he will have an 'inability' which means that it will be with a Hindrance (+1 step difficulty). It is a medium ranged weapon, 4 damage up to Long range. There are two of these. Training (time) will allow these to become regular medium weapons.

Searching
Lyle is just searching rather than salvaging. But anyone can repeat. Once the searching or salvaging has been successful, no further things will be found from that spot.

---

Further into the Caves
You follow the cave to where the second spider-like creature came from. You don't know if there are more intruders, or if these are refugees who managed to sneak past the town and hide in the cave and were attacked -- if so, are there more? These are things you will need to determine before the mine can be declared safe.

The darkness is pushed back slowly by your glowglobes but despite the light, you see a harsh light coming from ahead, like a flashing unpredictable burst of energy, reflecting off the rocky tunnel walls. You are approaching the corner, the flashy disturbance around the bend.

How do you approach it?

"I'll scout ahead, what do you think?" Lyle whispers.

"Let me help identify these numinera, Then I'll help yoi scout. "

Emmett looks with the others at the bodies of the people. He found it easier to call them people, but they certainly weren't his folks, and he wasn't sure if they were even people to start with. He turns to Jaz. "I dunno if it's a touchy subject or what, but are they...like you? Folks like us, but maybe they just changed a touch?"

As Lyle proposes scouting forward, Emmett chews on his bottom lip nervously. "Yeah. But only if you can do it quietly. You already been tagged once, if you get caught out we might not be able to reach you in time. Just do it smart, yah know?"

"I might be able to help you to take a look, it may help if you are ready to shoot while i try to look without hopefully giving up our position", she whispers to the rest of the team "any chance there's something we can use as a small mirror?, i should able to move it a little to see what's ahead of us"

Jaz nods to Emmet. "It could be, but it woild be surprising that they mutated the same way. Not impossible though." Jaz will pick up one of the Numinera and try to identify it while they discuss what to do.

Jaz works out that two of the pieces are masks that protect the reader from the harshest of environments.

Jaz turns one of the masks over as he speaks."Looks like these are environmental protection masks. Really good ones too. " He pauses."Makes you wonder why they needed them. Either way the ones whonare scoiting should use these, just in case. " He puts one on.