While the wolves look fearsome, they don´t seem to be a big threat to you.
Between Sritaro, his beast Kamu and Valya, you find yourself feeding Kamu with their remains after some seconds and nobody got hurt.
Janira looks quite impressed:
It seems the master of the sword did a good job with you lot! Congratulations on your first successful battle together here. We should pack up now though and move quickly, so we can reach the caves by dusk. It´s really important we reach them tonight, else any gillmen there could already be gone, what would be a complete failure then.
You follow Janiras wishes and go on your way. After a short time, you find your trails more and more blocked by fallen objects in the wilderness, shortcuts are overgrown and impossible to pass, some pathways too muddy to walk from the last rain and the progress you make is coming to a halt. At this rate, you will arrive late. Janira begins to look worried. If you only had someone who is able to find the right path for you, either through or around all that obstacles, you could make a faster progress.
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After realizing that the group isn't really getting anywhere, and no-one seems to be stepping forward to lead, Valya turns to everyone
Sritaro, can you or Kamu assist with navigating? I fear our learned friends here Valya indicates the two humans and the elf are likely as poor as I at finding our way in the wilderness
I will try to help as best I can she prays quietly under her breath and looks around for a moment before continuing I'm pretty sure that rock formation means we've been traveling in this general direction for an hour...
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"Your bladeskill is impressssive... Valya.", finally calling the paladin by name as he rushes skinning one of the wolves. Enough meat for one ration, but duty presses him forward.
After the party's progress slows down, Sritaro takes the lead a few steps and surveys the territory. Much cooler than his homeland, although the moist air is somewhat refreshing. He tries to get Kamu to look for something significant as a trail, as if on a hunt, while the warrior studies the surroundings to look for a suitable path.
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"Well, that was exciting. I am not used to these wolf creatures. Plenty of jackals where I come from ... but no wolves. They are much hairier."
Later, when he learns that the way ahead seems unsure, Rani sheds his longspear, crossbow, and backpack, and quickly climbs a tree to see if he can help Sritaro find a better path through the foothills. After he knocks his head on a branch and gets completely turned around, however, he sadly does not contribute much.
You are are able to find your way around and through the wilderness and it´s obstacles amazingly well. Janira is very impressed with you and lauds your skill without end untill you arrive at your destination.
The dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines, Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. This is where I saw the gillmen enter. As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us! As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group. Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’capabilities, Janira screams, A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag, she continues, pulling off her backpack, and head deeper into the caves. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO! She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away.
You´re standing sveral feet away from the hidden five feet wide entrance into the cave, where now Janira´s backpack lies.
What do you do?
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I suggest we take advantage of both our colleague's advice and distraction, given that she's already begun that course of action. I acknowledge her as the more experienced person, as well as nominal leader of our party
She turns to Sritaro
She ushers everyone else in to the cave before her to make sure she is outside to defend in case the minotaur comes back. Once everyone is inside, she'll suggest going first because she can see in the dark. She won't move to pick up Janira's backpack, but will suggest someone does.
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With the minotaur in sight, Sritaro's blood boils. He unsheathes his nodaichi and is about to give commands to Kamu before Valya speaks. He growls at first, but then turns to her. "Very well. You do speak wisely angel... Valya.".
He then sends Kamu to the rear with the paladin before heading inside to make sure the initial entrance is secure.
see the minotaur chasing after Janira through the trees,fighting its way through the dense undergrowth. Soon the cacophony of the chase fades and the sounds of the forest slowly return to normal.
Faeranduils horse wanders off into direction of the city.
The cave entrance is only 5 feet wide and extends 20 feet into the rock before widening into a broader tunnel. Just at the entrance lies Janiras backpack, containging her gear:
potion of barkskin, potions of cure light wounds (2), potion of feather step, potion of vanish, scroll of entangle, scroll of gust of wind, scroll of identify, scroll of mage armor, scroll of obscuring mist, wand of burning hands, wand of cure light wounds, acid, alchemist’s fire (2), holy water, smokestick, tanglefoot bag, thunderstone.
The caves are damp, water dripping from stalactites and the distant rushing of underground streams creates an eerie backdrop as you advance in the tunnel. The caves’ walls are patterned with blue-green luminescent
fungi that provide dim light.
Petroglyphs — most depicting marine animals or spiral shapes — periodically decorate the tunnels’ walls.
The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage. A large hole spans the cave’s width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the pit lies a small bundle of cloth.
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Valya turns to the group
So, I can see in the dark so I could lead and you can follow with a light source. Otherwise open to suggestions team. In the meantime there could be someone down there under that bundle of rags who needs help she rummages in her pack for a moment, before bringing out some rope and starting to tie a knot.
So who's feeling nimble and not wearing much armor? she says, looking suggestively at the more lithe and unencumbered members of the party.
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Fearanduil:
scroll of identify
scroll of gust of wind
scroll of mage armor
Rani
acid
alchemist’s fire (2)
holy water
scroll of entangle
smokestick
tanglefoot bag
thunderstone
wand of cure light wounds
Sam
scroll of obscuring mist
wand of burning hands
Sritaro:
potion of barkskin
potion of CLW
potion of vanish
Valya:
potion of CLW
potion of featherstep
"Sam, didn't you have a grappling hook? I have some rope, I suggest we tie my rope to your grappling hook and try to lift the bundle of cloth from the pit."
Assuming that Sam agrees, Fearanduil tries to fish the cloth from the pit.
The 10-foot-square pit here was once a concealed pit trap, but seems to be abandoned. There is no easily accessible means to bypass it. Whoever created the pit rounded its walls to eliminate any corners that a trapped creature might brace against while trying to escape. The pit itself is 20 feet deep.
Rani can´t yet make sense of the petroglyphs, but he has a feeling that he should keep looking for them. Perhaps after seeing more in the deeper cave he could get a bigger picture.
Since the edges of the pit are rounded, it would be difficult to brace against while climbing or using a hook there. However, you ar sure you could use a stalagmite or stalaktite somehow.
The rock falls to the floor with a loud clang.
It seems nothing happens.
Sritaro climbs down the wall and finds taht the cloth is a cloak. Nothing else down there.
After shaking the dirt off the robe, you can see it is full of interesting patterns and glyphs just like some on the wall.
Sritaro is able to climb out on the other side, where the cave continues, but the tunnel goes around a corner.
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Valya grins wolfishly
Sritaro, if I throw you a rope we can each tie off our ends on nearby stalactite's so we can all have an easier time getting across, now you've done the hard work
The pit is only 10 feet long and wide, there is no space next to the cave walls left. Only the tunnel where you cam from and where Sritaro is now standing. YOu are able to build a "bridge" with two ropes easily, it looks very difficult though to balance on one rope while holding only to one other rope for support. You quickly realize that it would probably have been much easier just to climb down into the pit with a rope and then climb up on the other side again.
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Rani looks at the rope construction and then looks down at the pit. "I think I've jumped water canals wider than this back in Rahadoum." He takes off his backpack and throws it across to the nagaji, followed by his longspear, and his heavy crossbow. He then takes a few steps back and jumps across the pit with little difficulty. Once on the other side he politely asks for his equipment back and strips it on.
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"The wands each hold 50 charges, while the cloak is a cloak of resistance. It makes it easier for the wearer to resist offensive magic. Sritaro, as you where the one to retrieve it I suggest you don the cloak"
Faeranduil climbs down and up the other side again.
"No harm done Rani, just practising my Draconic."
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"Very good, Sir Elf, thank you for that information." Rani sticks the expensive wand in the top of his boot and nods at the explanation, "Well, if it's only for practice. Just be sure to share any pertinent information with the rest of us. After all, one of the Pathfinder Society's tenets is cooperation!"
Rani jumps over the pit gracefully, everyone else climbed it the safe way. Just as you go around the next corner, you see a plank lying there, more than long and sturdy enough to make a safe passage over the pit.
The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway’s walls.
The carvings here are different in style from the petroglyphs found elsewhere in the caves. Deciphering the images and writing is difficult because of their eroded state.