Before Josef jumps down--
"Didn't you say you had a transformation spell that could turn you into other humanoids? Perhaps something that can see in the dark so you don't need light?"
"Alternately, something you can stick in your pocket to hide the light if you need to?"
If the air walk is still going, then the daylight coin is definitely still going. She can hand that to him.
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"I do, but I think I'd rather hold off on that spell until I know exactly what's down there. It would most likely take away some of my equipment and weapons until it expired."
Josef grins at Rikar and shakes his head.
"Just reminding myself exactly what happens to all the heroes of the old tales. I have no illusions about my mortality, but with these abjurations and enchantments, I can at least get away right away if needed."
Telman is definitely of two minds about the plan, and says so. "Recon is good. Splitting up with no way us rushing in when it goes bad, isn't." He peers down into the misty pit. "Unless we can all fly and go at once I don't see much choice."
For the first time since acquiring the magical protection, the archer misses the enhanced sight his old bracers provided. Although if he hadn't had that protection during the giant battle things could have gone a lot worse........
"Worst case scenario, Telman, if he's really in trouble I can cast feather fall on us and we can dive right in, then air walk back out if we need to."
Having prepared himself as best he can with his own and Misha spells, Josef moves to the edge of the chasm and drops the lit coin that Therena gave him, over the edge, counts to three and then heads down into the chasm as fast as it is safe to do.
Descending at an angle, he reaches the bottom in just under two minutes, where he sees that the area is larger than the light coin illuminates so he casts Dancing Lights and moves it well ahead of him so he can see, but his location can not be pinpointed. The chasm bottom has many sharp rocks, and you can only move at about half your normal speed. Walking over to the south, You reach a pit so dark and evil you feel you have been blinded, just by looking at it. The pit has also a dizzying effect; after gazing at it everything seems to spin around in a dark spire of madness. The noxious fumes are emanating from the depths of this pit, well beyond your sight. There seems to be something stirring in the depths of this pit.
Moving away from the edge of the pit you head into the northeast section of this cavern. While the fumes are not as bad here, they are still toxic.
Walking around, Josef takes a very small amount of damage because of the noxious fumes, and does not see anything out of the ordinary, besides the fumes that is.
Kreig paces along the edge, puffing away at his cigar anxiety clear in his shoulders. "I don't like it. Not one dang bit..." He stumps over to a cavern rock and lays out his pack. After a while he digs out his 'private' journal. The one he's written in code to maintain the secrecy of his poison formulas. "Poison gas huh? Well mebbe I can see 'bout an antidote o' some kind...when Jo gets topside, le's see ifn he gots details on the source."
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Aware that something is wrong, but unable to determine just what that is, Josef begins his ascent.
fort
fort
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Once at the top, he relays what he saw, including a description of the toxic gases ans where they were most potent. He also includes the deep of scary doom, and his assessment of something "off."
Telman looks to Kreig as Josef makes his report. "Nope. Not one dang bit."
"Can magic get us all down there AND protect us from the fumes?"
"I don't know what magic can do for us, Telman," Rikar replies, glad to see that Josef is in good shape in spite of the poisonous gases, "but it looks like a quick trip down there isn't going to kill us."
He slips a vial of antitoxin out of his belt pouch and raises it in a toast to Kreig, saying with a grin, "Shall we drink up and see what we can find? If anyone can sort out something that's a bit 'off', we can, eh? We'll just walk on air and see what lurks below. Sure beats waiting at the top, wondering what's happening in the darkness and mist."
Kreig closes his coded journal and slips the leather and brass buckled strap over the edge to lock it. "Sounds like we got some work ahead." He withdraws his only vial of Antitoxin and tips the rim against Rikar's. "We go quick, we go quiet, we get back." With the toast complete, he drinks the elixir down. "C'mon Longshanks. Let's get a move on. I wanna be back up here ta finish my cheroot." He leans down and smashes the end of the cigar along the ground, then slips a dagger it to expert snip the end before tucking both away.
He leaves his pack and only brings the essentials; Thieves Tools, poison doses, weaponsnot etc. Then he withdraws an item he'd not used in along time. A square bolt of black cloth that he lays on a rock. "My old mask from days not so free o' robbin'. Figure I soak this in some water n' oil, mebbe it'll help with the gas. I gotta spare bit I could make fer ya, Longshanks." He chuckles as he works. "We gotta do somethin' about that ugly mug o' yers."
During exploration, he looks for a source of the gas and perhaps a way to shunt it somewhere else.
(+2 Traps)
(+2 Traps)
"How about you go ahead about 50 feet and we'll follow behind. Josef, did you see how far the passage below went?"
Rikar drinks down his antitoxin, and attempts to menace Kreig with the back of his hand, but he can't keep a straight face long enough. He then feeds Latys the other vial of antitoxin he carries, and the two of them join Kreig in the descent.
Josef came back and reported his findings to the group, and Kreig, Rikar and Latys decide to have a look themselves. Taking an anti-toxin, and using air walk they move down into the chasm.
First going to the pit, Kreig notices that their is something "moving" down their and that it is big. Rikar confirms that and adds that it looks like a huge bat made from darkness itself with red eyes. It is well down the hole, and does not seem to notice you yet.
Stealthily moving over to the area where Josef thought that something was "off", Rikar notices a man sized natural crevice in the wall that only the sharp eyed ranger sees. Inspecting it, you discover that the noxious fumes do not go into the crevice, and that beyond is a tunnel that leads down.
"It's not doing us much harm as long as we don't hang out in it," Rikar replies to Josef., "How about you hang on to that spell for when we really need it? Maybe the three of us will take a few steps into that crevice, so we're out of the fumes, while you go for the others."
Therena will quickly follow Josef down, holding her breath when she gets halfway down and heads straight for the crevice.
Kreig eyes the crevice and moves to slip thru it, gesturing to Rikar that they should check it out first.
Tell wily dwarf eyes the opening with suspicion. Anything just laying around like a convenient portal around the death gas gets his hackles up. He checks for any traps before proceeding.
(traps)
If it's clear, he waves Rikar and Latys forward.
Coughing, hacking, and groaning the entire way down, Telman does his best to keep watch through watering eyes as he makes his way down the pit and into the crevice.
Misha descends and coughs and splutters, not handling it as well as she hoped.
Having found a natural crevice that seems to escape the noxious fumes, Kreig checks it out for traps, and Rikar checks it out for signs of life or anything else. Both discover that there are no traps, nor has anything passed this way that they are able to detect.
The tunnel is absolutely pitch black, however with either dark vision or lights is not too difficult to navigate. It is however a climb back up, with twisting and turning passages. Some are fairly flat, but others are a steep climb. It takes about five hours to traverse the ten mile tunnel.
At last you come to what appears to be the backside of a black stone, that is blocking further passage. Inspecting the stone, no one finds any trap or magic on it, but it effectively blocks further passage.
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"I have a few potent scrolls I could scribe and learn, if we could take a day or so of rest down here. Our food supply and water is sufficient, and this seems like quite a defensible position. I understand if you'd rather press on, in which case I will only need abut 5 extra hours before we proceed."
"Being prepared is always better."[b] Telman looks around the passage then to the resident tracker. [b]"But is this a safe place to camp? If we are going to wait we shouldnt do it in a high-traffic area....."
"It's the dead end of a 10 mile long passageway!" Theren exclaims. "What exactly is your definition of high-traffic?"
"Well, I think someone blocked this passage, but regardless it seems as safe as any place. We've been walking forever and I could use some time to update my journal too." Misha stretches.
"High traffic it's not," Rikar agrees, nodding along with Therena, "but I'd hardly call a dead end defensible. Anyway, I'll take a look around and make sure there aren't regular visitors we need to worry about. If that's not a problem, I'm good to rest here as long as you all need to, take some napping lessons from Latys."
He turns his attention to the stone floor, carefully studying it and the walls for any signs of creatures that may have passed by, or hidden doors.
"Right, we rest here," Rikar concludes after his study, though a glance at Latys tells him she's already made that decision, her long body curled into a tight circle and one eye slightly open as she dozes on the stone.
He sits down with his back to the cavern wall, considering the massive black stone that blocks the tunnel. "So, once we're all rested up, how do we get that block out of our way? I've got my doubts that I can just shove it out of the way."
Telman shakes his head, having nothing like that to offer. "Looks almost like a doorway but with no mechanism or magic to open it."
"Must be something pretty important behind it to have this much protection. But unless we REALLY missed something up above, whatever's behind has to have a way to get out....."
"I've got a crowbar and a miner's pick, and you've got an enlarge spell, Josef. Alternately we could try teleportation magic and try to jump ahead of it, but we'd be flying blind."
Misha nods at Telman. "Well, Rikar says nothing's passed here so whatever shut that might have done it quite a long time ago."
Once Rikar and Latys have napped all they can nap, as Josef busily works in his spellbooks, Rikar engages the powerful feline in an impromptu footrace, darting along the twisting passage and actually managing to keep pace with her. He's laughing with excitement as they move like wind through the tunnel, and is about to lay a hand on her flank to signal an end to the race when they come to a straight section. With what looks suspiciously like a wink, Latys glances at Rikar, then darts ahead, moving impossibly fast, more like an arrow than an animal, and leaving Rikar leaning against the stone wall to catch his breath.
Kreig eyes the passageway from where they'd traveled and then the large stone blocking their way forward. "If it's choosin' 'tween fightin' that swirlin' darkness in the pit a day that giant man-bat thingy, yeah I'm take the rock."
His pack and satchel goes down next to the wall as he sorts thru his tools. "Y'all focus on magickin' it. Lemme see if I can find a mechanism somewhere's. Might be they gotta let their suckups follow 'em to the devil-dragon summonin' hootinany..."
Kreig starts looking for unusual stone formations around the blocked opening to see if there are mechanisms for moving the stone. If that fails he'll see if there are weak points along the black stone where it might be easier to manipulate.
Taking 20
》Perception (unusual stone) 20+22 = 42
》Disable Device 20+23 = 43
"Is the stone standing freely, or attached somehow?" Therena asks. "Perhaps I could just open up an extra-dimensional pit and drop the stone into it, and then we could just air walk over the pit."