Den of the Slave Takers (4e)
Game Master Rev Rosey

Okay, if we are heading in, Varis will avoid both the rope and the webs and attempt to scale the wall from where he is.

Climb 1 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18, Climb 2 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16, with a double move he's 1 sq from the bottom.
He will drop the last 5', and do it all stealthily 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30 to end in the corner directly below his spot up top.

Varis shoulders his bow before nimbly crawling over the ledge and making his way down the wall. He moves quickly and quietly dawn the side to drop at last in the dark corner down below.

Kendall makes his way cautiously down and discovers no goblins. Where they have gone remains a mystery, but the bottom of the hole is empty. It seems they are keeping their word - and their gold.

Luce will try to follow Kendal down (probably after Caine).

Athletics Rolls
1d20 ⇒ 20
1d20 ⇒ 18
1d20 ⇒ 15
1d20 ⇒ 10
1d20 ⇒ 19

" Well...Unorthodox but successful. I cannot say whether it was extraordinary wisdom that sufficed, or not. We would have been quite vulnerable upon those webs, but if they choose to rally, we may have a larger force ahead of us. Kendall cleans some webs off of his vambraces, "No matter, the past is done, vigilance against ambush, and deception is paramount now."

He regards Luce as she descends, taking a moment of her time after she descends, "What made you decide to choose that manner of bargaining?"

Luce swallows before the stout dwarf. 'Remember lass, don't show too much deference else he'll always expect it. You're a dales-born lass.'

She plucks up her courage and stopping her voice from quaking; "Well it were t' Commanders' idea, that I sort of riffed off. Sorry that we lost t' gold. Though be flapping me gums, we do have t' name of their leader."

She looks to the commander; "I'll pay thee back." she's still breathing slightly heavily after the descent.

Kendall regards Luce solemnly enough, "There is also the chance it shall be recovered. It may be a hefty tool of distension in the hovel. We shall see."

Luce smiles looking up through heavy eyelashes at Kendall; "Thanks"

Athletics:
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Uh-oh...

Athletics
1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
What a waste of crits.

"Gold comes and goes." And it's not Sigvard's gold anyway.

Sigvard drops easily down, landing gracefully. Luce's descent is less elegant, but she manages with a little help. Varis has no difficulty at all dropping down, but Vondal takes his time, grateful that he sticks to the webbing like a burr rather than tumbling headfirst into the pit.

MAP

Luce looks in horror as the wizard falters in his descent.

To Sigvards' comment she gasps slightly, knowing many folk ain't seen that much gold in one place let alone thrown it to goblins. Even if his words ring true, better to lose gold than blood.

Luce looks around the pit trying to find an exit and to hopefully lead to the Kings chambers.

Passive Perception 20

Luce spots an area with a slightly different texture. Although well camoflagued, it does not escape her notice.

MAP

Once everyone is down, Luce points it out and carefully getting her seax (hand-axe) from her pack goes over the area of wall. Looking upwards; she then starts cutting the web away to make a hole wide enough to crawl through. 'Hope none of t' spiders drop down on us!'

Then if it's a door, Luce will look for some simple mechanism.

Move to M3 and start slowly cutting away at the webbing.

Sigvard follows Luce, slightly perplexed, till she start scutting away the webbing. Then he looks at the webbing and then gazes at his spear, before switching it for a sword. "Let me help."

I think Luce might be M16? Sigvard moves to L17, and has a chop as well.

"Thank you." she says bashfully as the handsome bard comes over to help her.

Thanks, work PC is rubbish with IE & lost the grid.

Between them, Luce and Sigvard find a simple trap door.

MAP

Taking a big breath, in case of stale or polluted air, Luce grasps for a handle. Then pauses, using the tip of her axe she rubs it around the handle in case of poisoned needles.

With a steady pull she tries to draw open the door whilst Varis covers it with his bow.

Thievery 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Kendall covers the door, his craghammer at the ready in case of trouble.

The trap door opens with ease, revealing a well maintained stairwell. Nothing emerges from it, and opening it does not produce any goblins. The former guardians seem to be as good as their word. They have either left or are turning a deaf ear and blind eye to the proceedings.

Kendall will take one of the point positions, preferrably with someone with good eyes right behind him.

He huffs slightly, "And now let us have words with this 'king' of theirs..."

Luce gets out her lantern and fills it with oil, she sidles from the open portal to avoid any gusts from the depths. Striking the flint and steel expertly she produces a small flickering flame. "Well shall we proceed?" she asks as she moves down the stair, keeping her eyes out for any loose ones, or 'accidentally' spilt liquids, or trip-wire.

Feet encased in soft leather boots pad down the stairs, her innate instinctive quietness drawing her down into the dark, following the Knightly Dwarf.

All descending? If not, please say in your next post. Note that as both Luce and Vondal are away until Monday, there will be a couple of slow days.

Yup descending.

Athletics if needed 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

@Caine - no Athletics needed on stairs.

Down we go.

Time to move along, methinks.

The party ease their way down the stairs, listening for signs of life or possibly of betrayal.

Stealth checks please.

1d20 ⇒ 19

Whoa! Like gossamer on the breeze! Who's the man!

Varis is naturally encouraged to be our scout for this, because I plan on botching this roll.

Stealth
1d20 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2

Kendall trips on the stairs, making a loud scraping sound. He winces at the echo, giving an apologetic look to the others.

Her natural ability not making up for the lack of training she looks back to the Knight in front of her with a slight nod. She whispers lightly; 'Careful, t' steel makes thee loud.'

Stealth 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Stealth, 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Sigvard starts to whistle a happy tune, quietly, as they sneak down the stairs.

Varis considers Luce to be wasting her words. Asking a dwarf in armor to be quiet is like asking a wolf not to hunt, it's just not in their nature. He decides to take his usual lead, and better seperate himself from the clomp of cattle. He only levels a dead-eyed look of irritation back at the group before he dissappears a few paces ahead down the stairs.

Stealth 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30

HA!
In situations like this, I prefer to add all the scores together, divide by however many of you there are and see if the result hits the DC or not. Caine has some huge issues at the moment due to the flooding in the Philippines, so I'll take the liberty of rolling for him.
1d20=20. Which I'm sure he'd rather use in battle, but there you are.
13 for the following party.
Varis is fine.

Varis drops easily down the stairs, noting as he does so the preponderance of spider webs. Slipping between the guttering torches, he realises quickly that the stairs lead only to disaster. The last fifteen feet are coated with extremely sticky webs, designed to catch the unwary. Around the edges, however, are ropes dropping down.

Behind him, not even the best efforts of Vondal and Caine can completely mask the sound of a dwarf falling down the stairs. It is certainly enough to alert the enormous glittering spider sitting confidently in the middle of the room, although Varis remains unseen and unheard.

Also present is an imposing goblin. Wearing a particularly shiny crown, he is attended by two further goblins armed with short swords.

The spider raises a leg and points up the stairs.

"There are intruders, my lord."

"Are you sure? I can't hear them. In any case, I am Urgog the Magnificent Mangler. I look forward to strewing their bones beneath my throne."

Note that the map is a bit inadequate, but there is a thin ledge of passable terrain at the bottom as well. Think of it as an audience chamber with a gallery around the edge.

MAP

"Why doest thee raid t' lands above ground? And don't just say cos tha can! Your vile depredations will to end." Luce shouts once again getting ahead of her self, but the anger bubbles up inside. "King o' Goblin 'ole! You are a Usurper, all true Goblins should rise up agin thee!"

Kendall starts to whisper an apology but things suddenly get loud. He raises an eyebrow towards Luce after her monologue, but nods softly anyway.

Are we to place ourselves on the west side of the map?

"Whatever dreams of conquest you hold, are to be smashed. No more lives are to be taken by such folly." He sets his jaw as he prepares for the battle.[/b]"

"And I think it is fair to say that your mate," Sigvard points at the spider, "has very poor taste, considering how ugly and stupid you are."

Luce tries to supress a slight snigger at the bards words.

"We'll choke you with your words!" Caine readies his blade.

This feels like one of those "Roll initiative" moments.

Yes. I'd say so. This is an old laptop and doesn't seem to let me see the map. Or rather, it will, but only the top five lines. Ahem. Anyway, place yourselves on the brown bits, prepare to shin down ropes and roll init.

Sounds like my work PC.

Luce sees that fighting works are spoken and that conflict is inevitable, she moves rapidly to act sure that she had instigated against these vile 'royalty'.

Initiative: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 3 + 2 = 21 (+2 if < Varis) Position: I'll wait & see where others are

Kendall goeth before the brawl.

Inish
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Init 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20, anyone with less than 20 gets a +2 from me.

Kendall you'll have a +4 And Luce will be 1 square behind you.

Luce looks over Kendalls shoulde down to the floor below...'That's quite a drop.'

K2. Initiative 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15 with another +2 for being less than Varis, so 17

"I'd offer to fight the ugly one, but that doesn't get us very far."

And another +2 for Caine's Warlord Presence. So far we have:

Luce - 21
Varis - 20
Sigvard - 17
Kendal - 17
Vondal - ?
Caine - ?

The laptop is behaving quite horribly. Connection is dreadful. Will update when I get back to my own computer late Saturday but will check in regularl;y just to remind you all I'm still alive.

Urgog turns to Sigvard looking extremely affronted.

"Ugly and stupid? Spanglefang is a majestic spider. He's my partner."

Spanglefang preens and whispers something to Urgog.

"She's my partner."

Kendall hefts himself, standing upright and proud. "I'm feeling generous. One chance to pack up you and all your kin left standing and leave these people. Move far, far away to where you can't prey on decent folk, and this will be the end of it. Else...this will be the end of you and all you have schemed for."

R1

Varis tucks himself as far back into the corner as he can, the darker the better, so he can let his eyes focus on sighting the enemy better.

Vondal's initiative: 1d20 ⇒ 9

So that's 13 with Caine's and Varis' bonus.

K1 for me.

"And he thinks I was describing the spider as the ugly one." Sigvard shakes his head sadly. "I suppose that proves stupid."