Subscribe to Talien's Tower on Facebook, Twitter, email or via the Site Feed

Friday, December 5

Jack Frost: Part 8 – Examining the Lake

The most immediately striking feature of Crow Lake was the presence of the Crow Lake Mounds, just off-shore. These five mounds were arranged in a pentagram, each of them about twelve feet tall and thirty feet in diameter, covered in the same thick, rough grass as the rest of the ground nearby.

Howell pushed her glasses up her nose. Her skin was red and raw from the flash-freezing she suffered, but she had recovered well. “Fascinating.” She tapped some keys on her cistron.

“Indian mounds,” said Jim-Bean.

Howell shook her head. “According to newspaper reports, these mounds were built in the twentieth century, by Hiram Bates. Bates claimed he felt the touch of the "spirits" of the Shrine. He became fixated on the notion that by building a mound would somehow placate the ghosts or spirits that haunted him. When the dreams did not cease after he built the first mound, he went to work on the next one. When five mounds were built, he lost all hope; there’s a brief news report of his suicide.”

“I thought they did an aerial survey of the Lake already?” asked Hammer.

“Bimmel’s team?” Howell snorted. “Aerial surveys noted the pentagonal arrangement of the mounds, indicating intelligent construction, but they’re not interested in archaeology. Bimmel’s too busy taking broad surveys of the area and examining the corpses.”

“Got any equipment in the Humvee we can use to explore the lake?” asked Jim-Bean.

Howell nodded. “I have a fish finder. It’s not much, but when you told me to stow equipment to explore the lake I thought it might come in handy. I also brought along a submersible camera…”

“We’re going to have to go out on the ice,” said Hammer with a frown.

“I brought an ice tent and drill,” said Howell. “And two wet suits.”

“Good girl,” said Jim-Bean.

Howell blushed. “I’ll go get the equipment.” [MORE]

Labels: d20 modern

posted by Mike Tresca at 6:46 AM

Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

---