"I assume your brother named The Lost Citadel. Did he explain why? Seems to be a bit less generic than the other names"
"He never did tell me."
"Well... your hat looks... a bit beat up, to be honest. I suppose it works for the, uh... 'ruffled gentleman explorer' thing.
She then turned to the guide again.
"I don't mean to be hasty, but can we get started? I'm sure my companions can ask you things along the way, and we shouldn't have too many more questions for Steve."
Ironically, she then asked a question to Steve.
"I don't suppose there's any way we could get some last-minute sample containers? I don't know if everything we find will stay coherent in a bag."
((Or do we have containers of some sort already?))
>You've got containersCharro was fairly satisfied with that result. 'Not too bad, considering I made it myself. Who knows, it might even work.'
"Thanks. And yes, I suppose we should get a move on. Best not to keep this place waiting, or something."
>Stand around, hands in pockets whilst waiting for the team to get moving.
((Also, throwing-blade-hat would be unconventional weaponry, right?))
Unconventional, yep.
I'm sure they would like some soil samples, but nothing insane. Hell, they'll probably like anything we bring back as samples, I mean, how often do they get to work with material from an anomaly?
To the team:
I guess I'm more-or-less ready for the trip where it seems it'll mainly be creepy, but not overtly dangerous if nobody acts stupidly. Seeing what I saw on the ship, however, that likelihood is low.
To the Guide:
Few more questions, if someone in our group decides to be an idiot and attack the Lighteater, will it attack the group or just that one person? Have you ever tried to lower something into the pits and haul it back up? And, since you seem to have a supply of chemical lightsticks, may I have a couple?
((I think it's implied that we have plenty of different sample containers and stuff with which to acquire samples, like a very small geologist's pick for rocks or whatnot. GM, correct me if I'm wrong.))
"I don't know what it would do. I don't recommend it though. And no, I've never tried lowering anything down and pulling it back up."
The man replies as he throws you 3 glow sticks.
"Alright, enough guff. Lets get going. We can always talk on the way."
He walks over to the refrigerator and places his hand on the handle. He looks back at the group.
"Do as I say, when I say it. Don't ask why. Just do it."
He opens the door of the refrigerator; it's empty, all the shelving has been ripped out. The back of the fridge also seems to be gone, replaced with a solid black wall that you can tell, somehow, isn't normal. Conrad proceeds to lay on his stomach and push himself feet first into the blackness, disappearing a moment later.
The team follows him in one by one. Some follow his example and land feet first, while others walk straight in and end up falling face first: The enterance, vertical in the normal world, is horizontal and several feet above the ground in the other. The ground around the entrance is surrounded with lights: strings of lights, lanterns attached to cords, even searchlights, all scattered around in white, sugar-like sand. Beyond that light is nothing but solid, yawning darkness.
"First things first." Conrad says once everyone is through, "Light does not work the same here. That's the first and most important thing you should keep in mind."
He takes a glow stick from his belt and cracks it, shaking it till it begins to glow blue. He turns away from the group and hurls the stick out into the darkness. Once beyond the glow of the lanterns you can see what he means: The blue light of the stick doesn't expand outward and fade with distance, it remains uniformly bright until it abruptly stops. The glowstick looks like a light blue sphere of light maybe 20 feet across, arcing out away from you. And then it is gone, like a candle being snuffed out, as soon as the last edge of the sphere gets beyond the dome of light around you.
"Here, light doesn't just keep going, it's finite and truncated, like a bubble. Within that bubble you can see, outside of it you're blind. There could be a thousand of those glow sticks laying around on there, just feet from this little island of light and we couldn't see them because their light won't reach us."
He points off in the opposite direction, straight behind the group. You all turn in unison and see that the island of light narrows to a tunnel of interconnected lamps, each on a wooden steak with a rope strung between them. It looks like a tunnel, 40 foot in diameter, cut into the shadow; you can see down it's length, but can't see it from the side.
"If you connect the bubbles, light can continue to travel. It's the only way to see here, to connect the dots. That's our path."
He shrugs the pack on his shoulders, repositioning it's weight, and starts walking down the path.
((Cutting torch is chemical based, not fire based. It should work since it basically generates intense heat at close range to melt through things.))
(Isn't that basically the same thing?)
Actually the torch is a laser, if you read the description in the armory. It's only called a torch to differentiate it from the cutting laser. And since it works with light it will still work.