Kari climbed off of the bucket, since no one was prepared to lower her down the well. She briefly considered going down by herself, but that didn't seem wise. "Hrolf, watch the well," she told her companion. "I'll be right back."
She retrieved her gear from the farmhouse, and set up her bedroll beside Hrolf at the top of the well. She hoped it wasn't going to rain. "Wake me up when you get too sleepy," she said to Hrolf, and tried to get some more shut-eye.
Urram wakes early and hurries through his morning preparations, although even the hurried version takes some considerable time for the meticulous elf.
Dressed and prepared he makes sure Fenna has had at least one coffee before leaving the house to find Kari, hopefully still alive after her ill-advised stunt.
As Urram and Fenna arrive back at the well, Kari is in a deep sleep while Hrolf is keeping vigil. The wolf gently nudges his gnome awake. While everyone finishes preparations, Hrolf paces and whines at the well.
Kari awoke when Urram and Fenna arrived in the morning. She got up and stretched, feeling a bit stiff after sleeping on the ground.
"No sign of activity," she told them. She rolled up her blanket and bedroll. "I'm going to meditate on the dock for a few minutes; keep an eye on the well until I get back."
She walked down to the dock and sat for a few minutes, eating breakfast and watching the birds. She also picked up some sand and spent a few minutes observing how it fell in the wind.
After half an hour on the dock, she returned to the well. "Who wants to go down first?" she asked the others.
Fenna brings out a cup of coffee for Kari.
"We'll need to lower the rope all the way down to the bottom for out descent. If you want that bucket ride Kari, go ahead and take it while we're doing that."
"Thanks!", Kari said as she accepted the coffee from Fenna.
After she finished the cup while discussing their plans, she uttered a protective prayer. She got on the bucket and said, "Ready when you are!"
Kari arrives first at the bottom of the well, discovering a passage leading off the shaft 40 feet below, about where the water level sits. It will perhaps be a tight squeeze for the gnomes bigger companions, but certainly passable.
Fenna and Urram repel easily down the rope tied to the bucket. Hrolf's whimpers descend with them, echoing through the chamber. Though the gap from the well is small, the tunnel beyond the hole rises to a height of 15 feet tall. It winds toward the northeast, and stretches beyond the limit of everyone's vision. Stalactites and stalagmites jut from the ceiling and the floor, making the terrian difficult, but passable.
Before venturing down the hall, Urram places a familiar piece of clockwork on Fenna. It whirs to life, and for a moment, a shield of magical force appears before fading from visibility. Fenna can feel the clockwork spinning in silence, a promise to return the shield if she's struck.
Kari arrives first at the bottom of the well, discovering a passage leading off the shaft 40 feet below, about where the water level sits. It will perhaps be a tight squeeze for the gnomes bigger companions, but certainly passable.
Fenna and Urram repel easily down the rope tied to the bucket. Hrolf's whimpers descend with them, echoing through the chamber. Though the gap from the well is small, the tunnel beyond the hole rises to a height of 15 feet tall. It winds toward the northeast, and stretches beyond the limit of everyone's vision. Stalactites and stalagmites jut from the ceiling and the floor, making the terrain difficult, but passable.
Before venturing down the hall, Urram places a familiar piece of clockwork on Fenna. It whirs to life, and for a moment, a shield of magical force appears before fading from visibility. Fenna can feel the clockwork spinning in silence, a promise to return the shield if she's struck.
Kari cast defensive spells on herself and Fenna, before advancing along the passageway.
Feeling very well loved by her adventuring partners, Fenna takes the front after casting Dancing Lights. She directs the glowing orbs to advance ahead of her as she looks for dangerous things.
Once everyone has squeezed from the well into the tunnel, Fenna leads the way. After only a dozen steps or so, she can see ahead that the tunnel splits, forking left and right.
Kari took a coin out of her pocket and flipped it. Looking down, she said, "Let's go left."
The cramped tunnels open up into a larger cavern. Its irregular walls open to dark spaces. A suspicious-looking pile of bones sits in the center of the floor, while the faint scent of blood and viscera has almost—but not quite—faded away.
You hear a *clack* *clack* of stone hitting stone from further in the tunnel as you approach. As you enter the chamber behind Fenna’s dancing lights, you catch glimpses of dark figures that scatter behind the rocks.
Urram readies to level off a spell at the first enemy he sees.
Round 1
Kari <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Round 2
dark creatures
Urram
Kari moved forwards, trying to get a look at the dark creatures.
She called out, "I am Kari; I'm from the settlement. Can we talk to you?" She wanted to determine if they were really hostile before she started shooting. Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding?
Fenna directs her dancing lights farther forward, putting them in what looks to her like the center of the room. She readies an attack with her gladius in case she's approached, and waits for the results of Kari's diplomacy attempt.
The creatures peek around the corner and begin wailing an otherworldly wail. They scramble up the walls and approach, sitting on the edge of the light. Kari and Fenna immediately recognize the chokers, but these four appear quite a bit smaller than the one from the farm. Urram recognizes the abberations as well, young chokers.
Round 2
Urram <- UP NEXT
Round 3
Kari <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Urram snaps his fingers and unleashes a series of ghostly leaves at the nearest choker. These leaves seem more substantial than normal, leaving a slight glow behind them as they slam into the creature.
Kari backed up. "Whoa, not to close now!", she declared, and readied a water bolt if the creatures tried to attack.
Fenna attacks the chocker that moves nearest to them.
Urram's motes slam into the choker on the north wall. Fenna steps in piercing the choker on Kari's flank. It wails loudly. The chokers strike back, but Kari's blast sends one of them to the ground before it gets close enough to strike.
You hear more screams from the cavern to the south. Two more of the creatures, much larger, crawl out of the darkness. The little chokers reach out with long, gangly arms toward Fenna's neck.
Fenna flinches at the accurate strikes of the creatures, but her friends' magic deflect the blows.
Round 3
Urram <- UP NEXT
Round 4
Kari <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Young chokers
Chokers
Urram, seeing that more of the creatures are coming, decides to repeat his earlier trick and raps his spear on the ground once more, striking one of the chokers attacking Fenna.
Fenna starts a oration on the dangers of letting kids roam unattended while jabbing again at the choker in front of her.
Kari formed her watery blade, stepped up and swung at the juvenile choker in front of her.
The young chokers are blasted away as the larger ones advance, screaming themselves to answer the cries of their children. They attack from perches high up on the wall.
Despite their desperation, the chokers fail to grab hold of Kari or Fenna.
Round 4
Urram <- UP NEXT
Round 5
Kari <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Young chokers (dead)
Chokers
Kari backed up and fired a water jet at the choker attacking her. "Keep your hands to yourself!"
Unwilling to use what magic remains to him, Urram closes with the left-most choker, aware that Kari may want more room to fight in. Trusting in his magic protections he thrusts forward with his spear.
Fenna doesn't love the idea of stepping inside the nearest choker's reach, but she does anyway. She draws her machete as well and attacks with both.
Kari steps back from the edge of the choker's reach, blasting it hard in the face. Urram strikes out to the creature high on the wall, but it hops out of the way like a spider.
Using the wall to his advantage, the choker above Fenna stays completely out of reach of her blades.
They strike out again:
The injured choker swipes clumsily at Urram, while the other dueling Fenna comes close to landing a blow.
Round 5
Urram <- UP NEXT
Round 6
Kari <- UP NEXT
Fenna <- UP NEXT
Chokers
Kari continued her assault on the choker attacking Urram, trying to blast it off the wall.
Urram likewise continues to press the assault.
Fenna quickly fires off four arrows at the choker since it insists on not playing fair.
+++++++++++++++++
Arrows and water blasts send the chokers tumbling to the ground in heaps while Urram's spear remains clean. Within seconds, the cave falls silent except for the drip of Kari's water blasts against the cave floor.
Kari searched the cave, making sure there were no more creatures lurking about.
Urram helps Kari, poking his spear into the dark nooks and crannies.
"Well that's that" Fenna comments. Then she adds "hopefully".
She also helps to look around the place.
"So, do we keep drinking out of this well?"
"I could purify well water for a couple of days," Kari suggested.
"I do not think the well is a problem." Urram says. "This is some sort of natural formation, which intersected with the well shaft - I imagine the first colonists, or whoever dug it, didn't even realise these tunnels were here."
He looks around at the multiple exits. "We should clear this place. If there is another way in then it could be a good refuge for your... our people."
From your spot in the cave, you can see an exit to the south and to the west. You also remember the branch behind you, where you took the left fork.
After looking around the cave, Kari explored to the west.
Fenna accompanies Kari to look around down the other branch of the tunnels.
"We should be careful when we look at the exits. They could be trapped so we should check carefully for that sort of thing. We don't want a repeat of the grindylow caves."
"That sounds like a good idea," Kari replied to Fenna.
Urram follows the women, quite content with his positions (hopefully) further away from anything likely to eat him!
A section of the northern wall in this spacious cavern has been hollowed out and veins of various crystals exposed, which refract any light cast upon their surface. Small piles of rock are heaped on the ground nearby, where the earth has been carefully chiseled away to expose the potentially precious stones.
To the north, faint sounds of the surface trickle down the hall.
The signs of mining in the cave show the excavation is not a full-blown effort to mine the cave, but is instead the effort of a singular or small group of creatures with a specific purpose in mind.
Before you approach the shiny pile, you all have a cautious look around the room. Urram and Fenna notice something peculiar on the southern wall, a dim light shining from beneath the rock wall.
"Oooh, shiny!", Kari said. She took a step forward and cast a spell, and looked for magic auras.
"Careful!" Urram warns. "This looks like the efforts of some sort of digging creature, and I think something just tried to use magic upon me. Move carefully..."
He crouches, attempting to get a better look at the light without getting any closer.
"Think this is an old mine?"
Fenna creeps over to the shiny stones.
As you look over the scattering of gems, the specific type seems to vary. The stones do not radiate any magical aura, but you can all plainly tell that many of them would be useful in the crafting of ioun stones.
Kari advanced towards the gems, scanning the area in front of her for traps.