Richard cannot believe what he is seeing as the monster again rises and attack a member of their party. He tries to get a clear line of sight on the beast before again firing on him.

Captain Richard Lines rolled 48 using 1d100.  Handgun = 70%.
Captain Richard Lines rolled 3 using 1d8.  Damage.

Captain Richard Lines rolled 5 using 1d10.


-
This message was last edited by the player at 02:16, Tue 21 July 2020.

OOC: Shooting into melee here. Please roll a penalty dice to avoid hitting Lucky

Finally, Dr Ashton-Psmith managed to load the bullets into his handgun, unfamiliar as he was with the weapon. He raised the pistol and took aim, at the once-fallen Mendoza, trying to get a clean shot. He held off for now, as Mr Ortega was too close and he didn’t trust his aim. “Get out of the way!” he shouted, somewhat unhelpfully as Lucky was hardly in his current predicament through choice!
This message was last edited by the player at 07:17, Tue 21 July 2020.

Captain Lines again proves a crack shot with his Mauser and Mendoza slumps away from Lucky . . . only to roll sideways under a table and start to scrabble away into the crowded storage room.

March 19, 1921, 2pm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
"“Broken people don't hide from their monsters. Broken people let themselves be eaten." Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters

  Lucky once more attempts to kill Mendoza with a large knife.
OOC:08:15, Today: Jesus Ortega rolled 63 using 1d100.  Kill Mendoza AGAIN! Knife,large    51/25/10 1d8. FAILS YET AGAIN!!!!

Lifting his pistol slightly again Richard places the front sight squarely in the middle of Mendoza's back, just under his neck.

Captain Richard Lines rolled 60 using 1d100.  Handgun = 70%.
Captain Richard Lines rolled 2 using 1d8.  Damage.
Captain Richard Lines rolled 52 using 1d100.  Handgun = 70%.
Captain Richard Lines rolled 7 using 1d8.  Damage.


-

The captain's pistol speaks again and Mendoza's body jerks with each impact and then lies perfectly still.

"Hands up!" a deep voice calls from the bottom of the stairs. A large man in a guard's uniform holding a huge revolver advances on the group, glancing at the body of Mendoza and then blanching white as he sees the young woman moaning and so badly mutilated on the floor.

"What have you done?" he bellows.

Behind him other guards are swarming down the stairs summoned by the rapid onslaught of gunfire so recently unleashed in the storeroom.

Richard  raises his hands and steps in front of the guard so that the man with the knife can do his thing. He seemed to have the word on this beast so Richard gave him a chance to do it. "The man I just shot attacked the Professors assistant we just arrived in time. If you fetch the professor he will confirm this, she does need medical attention though..... if you will let me ?"


-

At the shout from the guard, Monty turned and raised his hands, dropping his revolver on the ground where it clattered against the hard stone floor. His nerves were shot, and he tried to compose himself.

“It’s true!” he shouted back up the stairs in his best Spanish. “That fellow attacked the poor girl and then attacked us, we were just defending ourselves. See, he has a sword, over there!” He gestured towards where the blade lay still.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:18, Sat 25 July 2020.

In reply to Dr Montgomery Ashton-Psmith (msg # 61):

March 19, 1921, 2pm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
"Men who fear demons see demons everywhere." Brom, The Child Thief

  Lucky lifts Mendoza's head up by his hair, shows it to the captain and uses his knife to cut Mendoza's head from his body.  Lucky gets up slowly, drops his knife to the ground and with Mendoza's head in his hand yells, "Este fue el demonio que mató al asistente de los profesores. ¡Mira el alma del diablo!"

OOC:This was the demon that killed the the Professors assistant. See the devil's own soul in it!

Charles stands up from his amateurish attempts to help the girl, nodding his assent to his colleagues protestations of innocence, "It's right officers, that...thing attacked this poor woman. She needs medical attention and swiftly!

With that he looks around for something to wipe his hands on.

The open mouth with the horrible fangs has collapsed by now. Mendoza's mouth looks funny, but not horrific, and he certainly looks dead with several bullet wounds in him. As Lucky starts to slice with his knife, the Captain cries out in rage for him to stop and raises his big pistol, pointing at Lucky at point blank range.

"Senor!" he cries. "Drop your weapon and leave that body alone. All of you Gringos, stand in the corner over there."

He motions for some of his men to look at the girl and at Mendoza. They retrieve the sword and will also collect all the weapons in the open.

Jesse Hughes and the professor are standing behind the guards, looking on in horror at the scene. The guard who checks on the woman shakes his head and closes her eyes. The horrible wound in her chest is mesmerizing, but many of the newly arrived museum guards look quite ill.

March 19, 1921, 2pm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
"Thoughts are the gun, words are the bullets, deeds are the target, the bulls-eye is heaven." Douglas Horton

  Lucky stops very suddenly when he looks straight up the barrel of the gun.  There is no chance of cutting Mendoza's head off before Lucky is killed.  Lucky drops the knife, stands up and goes to the corner specified.  To the Captain he pleads, "¡Capitán, por favor!  Este es un demonio, volverá pronto a la vida. ¡Debes dejarme cortarle la cabeza o todos moriremos!"

OOC:Captain, please!  This is a demon, it will come back to life soon. You must let me cut off it's head or we all may die!

The captain shakes his head and makes the sign of madness to the other guards, whirling his finger around by his temple.

"Senor, the man is dead. If he did kill this woman, then you have done the world a favor. But we must investigate the crime."

Professor Sanchez speaks up.

"These men are guests of mine. They came down here to see why Miss Rizo was delayed. I think we can see why." He shudders as he glances at the young woman's mutilated body.

"Let us go upstairs to my office, Captain, and you can interrogate these men while the medical staff see to the poor woman's body. I am also interested in hearing what they saw."

As he looks the scene over he reaches forward and picks up a long object - the same object Mendoza tried to grab and dropped as though it was scalding hot. Indeed you can see that fragments of burned flesh adhere to it where he touched it, but the professor shows no harm from it.

He holds it up and you can see the light glinting on it. Gold.

"This is the very artifact Miss Rizo was looking for," he says. "I will take it with us."

The guards push everyone to go back upstairs.

Charles heads upstairs without further complaint, his hands clearly where they can be seen at all times. He doesn't fancy taking his chances with any trigger happy guards.

March 19, 1921, 2pm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
"one plus one is two; so the cord of two is better than one." Lailah Gifty Akita

  To the Captain,a Lucky yells, "Capitán, por favor, ¡al menos ate a este monstruo con riopes!"  Lucky reluctantly walks up the stairs.

OOC:Captain please, at least tie this monster up with riopes!

Monty was still reeling from the shock of the strange encounter. He complied with the police officers and headed up the stairs with the others.

Richard did what he was told and followed the others up stairs.


-

The museum guards escort everyone back upstairs to the professor's office while ambulance personnel take the bodies away.

It takes a while, but Sanchez eventually convinces the guards that the visitors are unlikely to have killed the girl and that if they did kill de Mendoza it was an act to help the girl. The captain of the guard is eventually persuaded and agrees that they may leave, after giving him details about who they are and where they are staying in Lima.

While this is going on, one of the guards brings a sheet of paper that was found under the young woman's body. The captain shows it to Sanchez who shows it to the others.

"This is what my assistant had been working on," he says. "A translation of an old document from the time of the Conquistadores The Final Confessions of Gaspar Figueroa. We believe that it mentions the pyramid in the mountains."

http://rolld20.com/pix/Rizo_Synopsis.gif

Spanish, written by Gaspar Figueroa, 1543, on vellum.
Figueroa - Spaniard who had traveled to Peru with Fran cis co Pizarro.

According to the text, Figueroa set out to seek his own fortune following
Pizarro’s assassination in 1541. He was accompanied by Hernando Ruiz, Diego
Garrido, Luis de Mendoza, and Pedro de Velas co—fellow conquistadors who
had served with Pizarro. They traveled into the southern highlands of the
Andes, looking for treasure, hoping to make their fortunes before heading back
to Spain and retiring in luxury.

Hearing rumors of an ancient temple filled with gold, the men set off into
the mountains southwest of Lake Titicaca . There they found a pyramid
surrounded by a maze-like structure of underground tunnels. The walls of
the tunnels were inlaid with intricate gold carvings. The men pried out a
large section of the gold, exhausting themselves in the attempt. That night,
as they rested, an evil sickness befell Figueroa’s companions; in the morning
light they looked gaunt and deathlike. Complaining of agonizing hunger, they
pursued Figueroa; de Mendoza caught up with him and started to devour him
like a human leech. Figueroa shot his friend in the head and fled, pausing
only to snatch up as much of the gold as he could carry.

Figuero a eventually arrived back in Lima, hoping to get passage home, but
he was too weakened by his ordeal. Figueroa describes himself as wasted,
little more than a walking corpse.

I read Final Confessions as Figueroa’s attempt to lift the guilt that his avarice
had placed upon him. He believed that his fate and that of his companions
was brought about by their desecration of a holy place, and his most fervent
wish was that he could undo the damage he had inflicted. He describes how
he can still hear his friends’ voices, crying out with inhuman hunger, and how
in the dark of the night he can hear another voice, ancient and seductive,
promising him eternal life if he returns to the temple. The voice told Figueroa
how to contact it, but it seems Figueroa was too afraid to ever attempt this.

A postscript written by the priest - who per formed the last rites - states that
Figueroa died a day after completing his Final Confessions. His last words were
an entreaty to whatever gods were listening to forgive him his blasphemies.

March 19, 1921, 2pm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Professor's Office
"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will." Chuck Palahniuk

  Lucky slowly reads through the document.  He is silent for a while, then comments, "Luis de Mendoza? Luis de Mendoza! Can it be the same man as we just killed?  How could that be possible?  An ancestor maybe or just the same name? "

Charles nods along to Lucky's comments, "Surely it can't be the same man - not nearly four hundred years later! Maybe he's borrowing the name for some purpose? Though it has to be said our Mr Mendoza seemed remarkably reluctant to die..."

One of the uniformed museum guards comes into the room and whispers to Professor Sanchez who nods and looks worried.

"The guard tells me that the man you killed has disappeared. Someone must have stolen the body from the back of the ambulance. They are searching for it right now.

"You believe this man, Mendoza, to be a descendant of the Conquistador mentioned in the manuscript? And he has been working with Senor Larkin? Perhaps the Professor will know more. What hotel is he staying at?"

At hearing Mendoza's 'body' has disappeared Charles visibly shudders and looks over both shoulders as if expecting him to pop out of the corners of the room, "Larkin is at the Hotel Maury - well, that was where he's putting us up at least. We're due to meet him on Monday morning so if you have any questions for our patron then you could meet him there. Doesn't look like he's shared the whole story with us at least."

March 19, 1921, 2pm, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Professor's Office
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon

  Lucky hears that the "body" has disappeared.  He shakes his head slowly and tries to contain his disgust. "Bueno, has permitido que un monstruo asesino escape para matar de nuevo. ¡Espero que estés bien satisfiado!"

OOC:Well you have allowed a killing monster to escape to kill again. I hope you are well satisfied!

Richard listened to the exchange and then the additional information. He shook his head at that. "We must be on our guard as this monstrosity may just want to wipe out any additional witnesses. I am currently staying at the club should others deem it wise to stay somewhere else I am sure arrangements can be made ?"


-