"I fear that I have yet to achieve the blessing of flight." Castor replies, trying in vain to keep the morale up with some misplace humor. "As for rope..." Castor realises, in horror, that he left a coil of rope amongst his horse's gear... outside. "The only rope I have on me would be good for cording wood or knotting something closed, but could hardly hold any kind of weight."
"They're coming." Cappi whispers, pressing himself against the soft walls of the tunnel. Dirt begins to rain down on him from above, but he tries to burrow backwards a bit... hoping to press himself far enough into the soil to mask his presence. "I'm not skipping out..." he tries to assure Castor and Rufus, as he appears to be acting rather selfishly, "but I wouldn't mind a jump on whatever's coming. I have a feeling we're not getting past that cave-in."
"Cappi, you aren't running out. You're running to!" Rufus exclaims. "The only hope Theod & Winifred have is if you can get back up to the surface & bring us Castor's rope!"
"What if I...
tossed you?"
"Perhaps I could attempt to summon an eagle from the higher planes but... would it be up to the task?" Castor ponders aloud.
Cappi recalls the previous attempts at 'tossing' him, with mixed emotions. None of the attempts had gone well so far, and the drop was quite an extensive one. Rarely, however, do things work well until they need to work well.
"Sure?" Cappi squeeks, his voice cracking as he voices the affirmation like a question. "I don't suppose you've tried this before..."
Noises continue to gather on the darkened side of the two holes, quiet mutterings and whispers that have become increasingly more audible. Below, on the side where Theod and Winifred fell, you see a subtle shift in the pile of dirt.
"I thought you had..." Rufus responds to Cappi's obvious uncertainty. "What about edging across the wall? It will be slower, but I...
I believe Castor & I can hold until you return." He adds, resolutely.
"Well I haven't done well at landing on my feet yet... but if you can get me to the far side, who cares what I land on right? Just not the face, that's the money-maker..."
An eyebrow slowly raises as he hears Rufus' other plan, the sounds of gathering forces growing closer and time clearly running out. "Aye. I could try edging by." He digs one of his hands into the soil the walls are composed of, testing to see how easily he could make some holds as well as how well they grip or simply fall away.
"Fingers, don't fail me now." He mutters to himself as he begins to slide along the length of the chasm, pressed against the dirt.
"Wait, before you go."
Hoping to give Cappi the best chance at making it across, Castor places his hand on the halfling's shoulder, giving him the blessing of luck.
Cappi finds climbing the soil a fairly simple process, with ready handholds of stone and root clusters being available.
Deftly, the small rogue clambers across the wall and pulls himself up the hole and back into the open air, leaving behind the suffocating confines of the tunnel. Quickly he makes his way to Capella and pulls a coil of rope from the saddle, returning to the hole and preparing to climb back down into the darkened tunnel.
At the same time, several more small caltrops fly into the tunnel, aimed from somewhere below.
They all imbed themselves into the soil, having no real chance of hitting a target.
Once certain of Cappi's relative safety, Rufus picks up one of the caltrops to examine in hopes of learning more about these Mite creatures.
It's not easy to find the rope in Capella's saddle bags. Cappi tries to inspect the contents from his own tippy-toes, to no avail, and eventually finds the most effecient position to be draped over the horse's saddle, with legs dangling opposite the saddle bags.
Capella seems uninterested in such an unatural riding position, however, and makes her distaste known.
Having finally found the coiled rope, Cappi slings it over one arm, winks at the black mare, then rushes back toward the small entrance to the tunnels.
Rufus studies one of the objects imbedded in the roof, and finds it to be a standard caltrop of unremarkable craftsmanship. The device was definitely not meant for use as a ranged weapon, but that is what it appears to have been utilized for. It is definitely the size you would expect to employ against medium sized opponents.
Cappi spits in his palms, and rubs them together vigorously until they seem a bit tacky to the touch--then he takes a deep breath and clutches onto the side of the tunnel again in hopes of making it across.
Cappi makes his way back down the hole and carefully shuffles his way back to the group, coil of rope in tow. A few more of the projectile caltrops zing their way into the dirt, failing to find a mark and causing more than a few chitters and babbles of noise from below.
"Is this all they've been doing while I was gone?" Cappi whispers, with a puzzled expression. "Maybe they aren't as ferocious as we heard..."
He quickly hands the rope to Rufus. "Do we have enough to try and reach them? Or anything to tie off to?"
"Confound these blasted creatures, whatever they are. There has got to be something we can do, but what?"
Search as he may, Castor cannot seem to come up with anything, and frustration only worsens this problem.
What can we possibly do? Oh, Desna, song of the stars above, I, your humble follower, pray for guidance and courage, that I may help my companions make it to safety...
"It should be enough." Rufus replys to Cappi's query. At Castor's oath, he shrugs. "The best we can. I will climb down & see if I might secure them, one at a time, to the rope. The two of you will bring them up here & thence to get them out..." Considering, he amends. "If there is room enough for the two of you on the other side," pointing from whence Cappi had immediately returned, "t'would be better to raise them to there so as to avoid chance of another fall. Surely your Goddess can lend you that much strength."
"Let us hope. I will keep my bow at the ready, in case the creatures should decide to attack you. Desna help us all, we will make it out of this."
Cappi's quite grateful that Rufus volunteered to descend, although he's still quite overcome with curiousity of what resides beneath them. He knods and prepares to cross back to the other side of the cave-in. "Castor, can you cross over to there as well? I know it's a rather low ceiling..."
"Hopefully so. Pray that I do not fall."
Castor utters a prayer under his breath before attempting to cross, whispering words of hope and freedom all the while.
Hm. I'm stumped as to what our characters should do, in all honesty. If you'll allow me to backpedal...
"I do not think pulling them back up to the surface will be very doable. Perhaps our best bet would be climbing down ourselves, though that is a rather risky prospect in itself. Perhaps if the two of you held the rope for me, I could climb down and see if I can heal these two to a point where they can climb back up by themselves. Hopefully, not too many of these mites would be waiting at the bottom of a pit trap.
"I fear we haven't time." Rufus demurs. "Those self-same powers of healing would be lost if these creatures managed to catch you undefended."
"Between the two of you I believe you could pull them one at a time up if I go down to secure them. If we do it quickly, we can get them up here before those cowardly beasts amass the courage to attack us. Once we have all up here, there should be ledge enough on t'other side that we can maneuver likewise to gainsay freedom for us all." Rufus lowers his voice as he proceeds to drive his swordblade into the packed earth before the hole & tie the rope to it as an anchor.
"Let us hope so..." Castor replies. Then, thinking for a moment, he detaches his morningstar and its holding strap, and hands it to Rufus. "If you are going to leave your sword here, you had best at least bring a weapon down with you."
At Castor's warning, Rufus draws his dagger once more before sliding it back into it's sheath & then cautiously making his way down the side of the hole.
Rufus makes his way to the bottom of the shaft, settling down into the pile of dirt and rotten boards and finding himself in a fairly open room with a low ceiling. The light from the stone casts shadows upon the walls and the cavalier's eyes play tricks on him repeatedly as he feels he sees movement just outside of his range of vision.
As expected, he verifies that Theod is quite dead, the damage done by the board piercing his chest during the fall obvious. His hands find Winifred's form, mostly buried in the dirt, but there is no movement from the body. Feeling her wrist he finds a faint pulse, but is unable to determine any more with the amount of debris still covering her.
The noises on the opposite side of the tunnel grow quiet, and the only noise that can be heard are the sounds of loose soil filtering down the shaft from above where Castor and Cappi stand.
Hastily sweeping aside the dirt & other debris from Winifred's form, Rufus carefully but quickly pulls her out & to the end of the rope, which he then ties about her under her arms. Removing the stone she had illuminated, he waves to his companions above to begin pulling her out of the hole before heading over to Theod's corpse. Once there, he regretfully pulls his friend's gear out of the rubble to be ready to throw the rope up as well.
"How are they? Please tell me it is not as bad as it looks."
Rufus notices as he brushes away the debris from Winifred the odd angle that her body is positioned and has no doubt that her back could likely be broken. While she is alive, it seems clear that moving her would result in lasting damage that would leave her unable to walk.
Cappi creeps toward the other side of the tunnel.
He tries to pad slowly through the soft earth, and avoid any of the caltrops that have lodged themselves there. If he can get close enought to the passageway down on the other side to see down it, he will kick the glowing stick that served as his temporary light-source down the next drop.
"I fear she will never walk again, but if we can get her out of here alive, her family may yet have a thing to say on that." Rufus replies as he waves to the others to pull her up.
"No. I can climb down and heal her before we bring her up. There is no sense in risking hurting her further."
Unless Rufus gives any major objections, Castor climbs down.
Though he shakes his head in disagreement, Rufus does nothing else to deter the Elf, instead merely drawing his dagger & watching the shadows and crevices that surround them for sign of attack.
Castor carefully climbs down below, leaving Cappi standing in the tunnel alone. He tends to Winifred's injuries as best as he is able and gives Rufus a nod. Unfortunately at this point there is no one strong enough at the top of the shaft to haul the sorceress to the top, and it is at that moment that the shadows erupt into activity.
Where the shadow and light meet, Rufus and Castor see six small creatures with bulbous heads and blue skin. They are devoid of hair and wear only ratty garments which hang loosely on their small frames. Four are holding what appear to be a crude crossbow-like device while the other two are brandishing tiny swords and chanting.
Two of the small missiles fired strike home, grazing both Rufus and Castor slightly.
"You dare show your faces now? Pests! I will end you where you stand!"
Infuriated by the sounds suffered by his companions, Castor stands to face the mites, and draws his morningstar.
"By the wings of the night monarch, companions, your woes will not go unavenged."
Castor touches his weapon to his holy symbol. Light glows around the metallic butterfly for a moment, and a pulse of light bursts from its wings, wrapping around the weapon's head.
is why I wanted them both up there!
"Cappi, keep an eye out up there! The last thing we need is an ambush from above!"
Good thing I climbed down. Rufus is a strong man, but six on one is hardly a fair battle.
"Be careful! They have tried to curse us; you might find your luck on the low side!."