Thundering Bull continues his slow, but steady work at removing the debris, and eventually the way is clear.
Also, his climbing gear is still attached to the side of the cliff.
You continue your trek.
A shallow cave in the mountainside bears a carving that depicts an erupting, snow-capped volcano. Two timeworn stone statues flank the entrance to the cave. Near the cave, there is a stone fire ring with a long, semicircular stone bench around it.
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"Thundering Bull see pictures. Like volcano. Make big " he says enthusiastically. While he waits for his companions to do the heavy thinking, he has a seat on the bench. While facing away from the fire ring, with his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees, he contemplates the raw destructive might of a volcano versus an emberstorm of the Cinderlands. Volcano bigger boom, but emberstorm bigger. Emberstorm also burn many orcs. Does volcano burn many orcs? Hrmmm...
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While approaching this wayside shrine along the winding path, Henrikuaxian notices three statues standing near it, but curiously, only two remain by the time you at the shrine.
He also recognizes the carving as the holy symbol of Yamatsumi, and points out that the fire ring has not been used in at least 2 months.
One of the statues depicts a female monk holding an old, pitted bronze gong in her hands. A small bronze mallet hangs on a chain from the statue. Kelumur knows that the locals believe gongs are a connection between mortals and the supernatural world, and sounding a wayside gong symbolizes announcing one’s arrival.
The second statue depicts a monk with a bowl in his hands. Barid realizes that pilgrims in Dtang Ma often leave votive offerings for the kami.
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Kelumur looks uneasy at Korez's suggestion. "While the lore might suggest it be a good idea, the act of surprise can be to one's advantage." He pauses, looks uncertain, and walks away towards the entrance while not giving any conclusion to the matter.
"Do what you need to before heading in." He mumbles on his way.
Nothing here appears to be magical.
As Korez and Henrikuaxian compare notes, they realize that rice is a favored food of the kami.
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"Thundering Bull want a turn," he says and takes the mallet. Comically small in his big hands, he does his best to grasp it gently and ring the gong.
Very content with himself, he then sets up the necessary equipment to cook rice and works away. The smell of food making him hungry, he snacks on a hunk of cheese and bread from his bucket.
Surprising many, Thundering Bull is a wiz with a cook pot. His rice is particularly delicious.
Barid, on the other hand, smacks the gong so oddly that it sounds like it cracked. Upon more careful inspection, it does not appear broken. Bull sounded it again, and it was a more pleasant sound.
After a few hours’ hike, you can clearly see the temple looming above you. But getting up there may be difficult, because Hao Jin’s magic created an enormous hole in the mountainside!
After a tough hike up a narrow trail along the face of the mountain, the Pilgrim’s Path suddenly ends. A cylindrical portion of the mountainous landscape—one hundred and fifty feet in diameter—is simply missing. An old milestone still points southwest toward the strangely symmetrical crater, but an arrow engraved in the cliff face points west toward a series of water-slicked steps carved into the unnatural cliff.
Tanbaru wails quietly and his tiny body shakes in disgust as he sees what is left of his former ward. Tanbaru says, “It was here! This is the place where my ward, my path, was sundered.”
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The bottom of the crater is 60 feet below area B1. You are at the bottom.
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As they walk down the trail, Kelumur glances at the stone steps and makes an observation, "These steps are clearly man-made using rock-cutting tools. However, they also show signs of great wear, erosion over centuries of walking perhaps."
At the bottom of the crater, Kelumur looks up trying to discern if there is another way around, or if it is safe to climb.
Climbing the slippery, nearly vertical cliff face is difficult (DC 19), but traversing the narrow ledge carved into the cliff face is much easier - but not without it's challenges.
There are two 10-foot gaps and one 5-foot gap in the ledge. Assuming a running start (2 squares with no other creatures in the way), a PC must succeed at a DC 10 Acrobatics check (or DC 5 for the smaller gap) to get across. There are also many handholds and footholds carved into the wall, and climbing horizontally only requires a successful DC 11 Climb check. (You can take 10 as long as no distractions.)
Spider climb would make it a non-issue to get to the top.
The climb is to get up to the bottom of the stairs marked with a -40ft. It is an almost straight climb and is slippery as well, so with a rope is still won't be DC 5, but DC 10. Also note, this is about 60 feet, so falling is going to be up to 6d6 damage.
The alternate route leads you up along the bottom edge of the map to B1 (-50ft). Then the ledge you will be navigating is in front of you along the left edge, and again gets you to the spot marked -40ft.
And remember, normal climbing is 1/4 your move speed, so you are going to have to make more than one check to climb all the way up (unless your move rate is 240'!) Of course, if you are taking 10, that's not a huge deal.
Sorry - the -40' is 40' below the top. It is 60' above the ground you stand on.
Once you get to the -40' spot, it is assumed you can just climb the stairs the rest of the way up.
I suppose you could wait until they climb 30', then jaunt them the additional 30'. It would minimize the number of checks and the height of a potential fall.
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"I think the path is the safest route." "We can easily jump one of the gaps and the other two with our climbing kits in place will be quite safe as long as we take our time."
Korez, maybe if someone is especially afraid of the jump and can't or won't climb, maybe you could do your dimension shift on them to get them across instead?"
Whendel starts up the path, stops and looks back, raises his eyebrows and gestures as if to say 'my choice, door number two'.
It looks like everyone is taking the path. Yes, Kelumur - you can climb or jump. I think they were trying to allow for either Dex or Str as an option.
It is a narrow ledge, though, so before we go any further, I need a marching order. Since Whendel will be using his climbing kit, anyone after him could take advantage of the +2.
Scruffy simply cannot make the climb checks for vertical climbing. I will allow that he can try to jump the gaps, although the image in my head is odd. You can, as someone suggested, tie a rope (or 2) to him and pull him up - what is his weight?
Finding the alternate path up, Kelumur leads the way. Korez removes his armor and straps it on his back, and Whendel and Barid work on some rope harness to tie around the crocodile.
He easily leaps the first 10' gap, and then barely notices the five foot gap.
Thundering Bull is not feeling as agile, but isn't concerned as he simple grabs hold of some handholds in the cliff and shimmies across.
As Kelumur takes a running leap to clear the last gap, Bull works his way past the 5' gap. Whendle, following behind, is afraid to leap the larger gap, so he uses his climbing gear to add some pitons and ropes to the numerous handholds. Using both to his advantage, he climbs across the larger gap.
At this point, unfortunately, life gets more exciting. Constrictor snakes slither down from above, and attack you from 5' above the ledge you are standing on.
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Upon observing the reptilian threat, Kelumur withdraws two daggers, one made of silver and another cold iron, throwing both of them in the direction of the closest snake.
"We've got company! Prepare yourselves."
Upon flinging his daggers, he immediately moves to retrieve his shield holding it in high front of him, waiting for a possible retaliation.
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"Good golly, those are big!" Henrik squeaks, as he moves back away from the slithery fiend. Once he is a decent way back, and out of the way of any other braver companions, the gnome will flick a wrist and cause a wand to pop out of the sheathe there. He will trigger the wand, and cause a bolt of energy to go seeking in toward the closest snake.