Rowena puts away her bow and runs to Anevia. "Let me help with that...I can set the leg. I'm Rowena, priestess of Pharasma."
She looks around the cave with disgust "I smell abomination everywhere...unspeakable things that defy life and death..." Rowena takes out her small, old dagger and recites a small prayer.
"I can heal the rest of you, Pharasma help us all.."
Rowena expertly strips back Anevia's trouser leg and with an apologetic look, sets the leg before retrieving some wooden debris to create a makeshift splint. Once complete, she chants to Pharasma and sends a mild wave of healing energy. It is enough to heal many scratches and bruises and create some relief in the party.
Anevia winces as she tries to put weight on the leg. "I'm afraid I'll need a regeneration spell or just some bed rest before this is better, but I can move around now. Thank you so much Rowena."
She hobbles around a bit. "Ugh, this is inconvenient. I won't be a burden though. I can certainly hold my own in a fight and I'm a good shot, although..." She shifts her quiver around to shake out several broken arrows. "A little short on arrows. I'm going to rest a bit longer, let me know when we can start moving. I'm worried sick about my wife."
Aravashnial taps his staff on the ground a few times as he gets used to navigating the cave. Although still very banged up, he seems to be working through the pain and his voice is much clearer. He places a hand on Ayesha's shoulder to steady himself.
"Alright, good. Now according to local rumour, and probably a reliable one, these tunnels are inhabited by the mole people. In fact, I was doing some research on them and am quite convinced that the demonic cultists that plague Kenabres - and may in fact be responsible for the destruction we saw up top - could even be involved with the mole people too! This fascinating--"
Sarkast kneels down in the southern passage. He calls back to the group, "I see signs that others have been here before. Boot prints, perhaps a few weeks old. And this ..."
He examines the leather strap, checking to be sure that moving it won't dislodge any rocks or otherwise cause a disturbance. Once certain, he pulls it back, attempting to retrieve whatever is attached to it.
As he examines the area to determine its safety, he adds to Anevia, "Save your arrowheads and fletchings, and if we find something to make new shafts from, I can see about assembling some new arrows for you."
"Oh shut up. Your theories are poor and your research shoddy as you were forced to publicly admit. The damage you did to the good name of Gwerm with your hogwash was almost more than I can bear! But you aer right, I'm sure we'll meet filthy mongrels down here and may have to deal with them. Ugh, the outrage. Now what are these things? Don't touch things you don't understand!"
With that, Horgus scoops up a dragon scale and stares at it a moment before looking extremely uncomfortable and placing it back down on the ground.
"Ahh... I'll let you lot take those. Nothing I care about."
With the arguments behind him, Sarkas nimbly scampers up the slippery ridge and settles down a distance from the pack. From there, he takes a good while to examine the pack. It is most certainly safe.
The pack itself is of masterwork quality and it contains 10 days trail rations, a flint and steel, a set of caltrops, a bundle of 12 arrows, and three potions, one which is light blue and two which are green.
Sarkast shoulders the extra pack, and carefully makes his way back down to the group. He offers the arrows to Anevia with a grin. "Or perhaps I can simply find some for you."
Showing the rest of the contents of the pack, he says, "Can one of you identify these vials? They may be more healing, or otherwise useful. It would appear that whoever brought these here is no longer around, so we should make use of them."
"The dragon scales are useful, when I picked this one up" he shows the rest of the group the one he picked up"I felt It's magical properties. I don't think we should leave Terendeleve's gift behind here in this...this place."
"Very well spotted, Sarkast. Those could indeed come in handy. AS for the potions, I could perhaps take a look. I never really had much experience with potions, but maybe..." Ayesha wrinkled her brow in concentration, focusing on the properties of the vials. She really hadn't had much practice with this sort of thing. As a concubine, she was encouraged to use her gifts only for entertainment or pleasure. Since leaving Sedeq she had learned other ways to focus those gifts - ways that had saved her life or virtue more than once - but it was still difficult to apply her skills this way.
"I did not really prepare any spells for detection and identification of magic items today. Perhaps Ronan might be of better help."
The bickering of Horgus and Aravashnial was starting to annoy Ayesha, but her training allowed her to easily put that aside. In a smooth tone, she said, "Gentlemen, please. There is no need for bickering here. We must work together to reach the surface, and I for one have little experience below ground. Any help we can give each other would be a blessing."
Ronan and Rowena both cast detect magic and take a look over the potions.
Both Ronan and Rowena cast their spells and look over the potions for a while. The light blue potion is identified as cure light wounds. The green one is unknown.
Aravashnial fumbles his way over and holds out a hand for the potion.
"Give it here, I still have other senses."
With that he uncorks the potion and sniffs it for a little while before dipping his finger in and tasting it.
"Lesser restoration. Just ask." He hands the potions back over. "And these scales are magical you say?"
Aravashnial taps around with his staff until he hears a clink and reaches down to grab one. He holds it for a moment before shaking his head and dropping it.
"Strange, I wouldn't call it intelligent but this scale certainly has opinions, and is uninterested in being in my pocket. Very uncomfortable. Someone else try."
Anevia takes the arrows gratefully. "Thank you Sarkast. I may be a little bit of use now."
"You are welcome, Anevia." He nods, then turns to Aravashnial. As the elf puts down the scale, Sarkast picks it up to examine it.
"I'm Thora," Thora says distractedly as she stands over the lifeless hand and the familiar turkey leg. She kneels down beside them.
"This is my fault, isn't it? I threw that leg. Maybe you ran to pick it up. Maybe if I hadn't thrown it, you wouldn't have been anywhere near this mess. Maybe you'd still be alive. Maybe you'd still be doing, ah, whatever it is you did. I'm terribly sorry. I'm not very good at apologies, posthumous or not. So would it help your spirit if I just said I was sorry and vowed to stick an axe in the skull of whoever dropped us here?"
She gets up and wanders away from the body to the scales. Curiously, she picks one up and inspects it.
As you grasp the scale, you feel the heavy sadness of the thousands of deaths and the fall of the great silver dragon. With that comes a resolute determination.
You are immediately aware of the scale's properties. This scale will allow you to cast alter self three times per day as a standard action. While disguised, you gain a +4 bonus to bluff checks against evil creatures.
As you grasp the scale, you feel the heavy sadness of the thousands of deaths and the fall of the great silver dragon. With that comes a resolute determination.
You are immediately aware of the scale's properties. This scale will allow you to cast align weapon three times a day. You may only make the weapon lawful or good, but can cast it on natural attacks and unarmed strikes.
"Don't blame yourself, Thora. Your action did not cause this person to be nearby when this happened, it merely brought your attention to her fate."
Holding the scale, Sarkast gets an even more somber look on his face. "The noble dragon sacrificed much to defend this city, and even in its death its power reaches out to us. Let us take its gifts, and find our way out to see what we can do to help."
He slides the scale inside the layers of hides he wears, keeping it safe near his chest. He shoulders his pack, pulls a long leather strap from his belt and slots his spear into it.
He steps toward the opening, and pauses. "I will scout ahead and find the trail if we are ready to move. If any of you are skilled at underground exploration, I would welcome your assistance."
You creep through the narrow hallway and come to an open room with a small ledge you can easily climb over. This smaller cavern appears to have once served as a campsite or temporary lair. A torn bedroll lies next to the cold remains of a fair. A pile of bones, broken equipment, and rubble lies just past the campsite.
However, as you shine your light through the camp, you can see part of a giant cockroach peeking out from beneath the rubble. It is very aware of you, but has not moved to attack yet.
Ronan follows Sarkast at a distance, with Jinxx slightly ahead of him.
Sarkast moves back and reports his finding. "The chamber ahead looks like it was once used as a camp, but there is a large insect there now. It should not prove too difficult a barrier if we choose to go that direction."
Both directions involve a bit of a climb, but should be passable by Anevia without too much issue.
As the others talk about the scales, Meriui moves over and retrieves one, finding himself deeper in the dead dragon's debt. He places the scale within his shirt, above the belt line.
Shouldering his gear and keeping his shield on his arm, he takes the torch into his shield hand and moves with the group. He starts to move towards the front, staying back from Sarkast, but you see him visibly stop and turn to look at the injured and their movement. He seems to be reconsidering his place when Sarkast mentions the insect.
"Which way do you think is best? And how big is this insect that it is worth mentioning?"
Sarkast did not see the entire cockroach but it is probably around the size of a dog.
As you grasp the scale, you feel the heavy sadness of the thousands of deaths and the fall of the great silver dragon. With that comes a resolute determination.
You are immediately aware of the scale's powers. Three times a day as a standard action you can cast resist elements - but only against electricity and cold.
Sarkast grins as he looks at Meriui. "Well, it is big enough that I felt it worth mentioning ... "
More seriously, he says, "It is close to the size of a dog. It may simply ignore us, or it may attack. If we choose to pass it, we should be prepared."
With that, the scout returns to the southern passage, and investigates the chamber beyond, trying to determine if either one seems more inclined upward than the other, or otherwise appears a better choice for the entire group to travel.
"As we have injured with us I think we should take the passage to the right. I can send Jinxx on to the right to scout some, he can see just fine in the dark."
'Jinxx go scout out the passage to the right and let me know what you find'
As you grasp the scale, you feel the heavy sadness of the thousands of deaths and the fall of the great silver dragon. With that comes a resolute determination.
You are immediately aware of the scales' properties. This scale will cast levitate three times a day as a standard action. A pillar of roiling clouds will rise below the levitating object or creature, growing and shrinking with altitude. The pillar is 5' in diameter and will provide 20% concealment to anything wholly contained inside the pillar.
The rest of the group moves up a little bit to the space between two passages.
You have to move forwards a bit as Jinxx is only so great at scouting - if goes farther than 100' Jinxx will become greatly weakened. That said, he can tell the two passages join up into one and continue on in one main passage to the east.
"What's that monkeydog doing? How are we going to know anything?" Horgus has begun pacing. His face is pale and sweaty and if possible he looks even grumpier. "Betcha the Mole People will get it and make... dog stew. Or something similarly unpleasant."
Anevia slowly limps up behind the group, her bow slung over her shoulder. She stares at Horgus' back and silently mocks him, screwing up her face into a nasty expression to mime his words. Sensing something, he turns around to glare at her.
"What?! Can't a woman limp around without getting stared at? Turn around, yer slowing me up."
Rowena strokes the scale, soaking in the sadness from all of those dead people and the poor dragon. She pockets the scale and says a final prayer for those dead souls before speaking to the group.
"I agree with Ronan. It might be best to head right.
With no complaints about heading eastwards, the group begins their trek.
As the group makes its way through the tunnels, keeping close, Anevia looks over her shoulder to the cockroach and can in fact spot two more hiding amongst the junk that Sarkast did not originally spot. All three are very keenly watching the party but have not moved yet. In the light you get a good look at the debris as well - some rope, candles, a ruind tent, and a copper brooch of a bat studded with amethysts.
Sarkast notes the supplies. "I wonder if those belonged to the same person as left that pack behind. It doesn't look like any of it is important enough to bother with the creatures to take."
"Maybe, maybe not. We're in some natural caverns, right? That rope could become important."
Ayesha said nothing. The items may well be inconsequential, and the danger to get them very real. At the same time, you never knew what might come in handy in a situation like this.
Finally she spoke. "The materials may be necessary at some point. I would hate to need them, and then have to backtrack all the way here. And then there is the brooch. It might just identify someone who died here, either long ago or from today's catastrophe. If returned to its owner or family, it could offer comfort. If we are worried about the insects, we can shoot them from here and form a defensive line to minimize potential for danger."
Ronan casts grease in front of the bugs to put a defensive barrier. And he gets his crossbow ready.
"Or," Thora muses, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "We could skip a defensive line and just run and and hack 'em all up, really fine-paste like."
She runs up to the edge of the grease and waits to chop into the first bug that gets close enough.
Ayesha pulls her longbow from her back and draws an arrow. She waits until the others are ready, nodes to Aneiva then looses at the closest bug.
Casting the spell is enough to trigger the bugs into action and the cockroaches burst forth from the garbage to attack! The three cockroaches skitter over the grease spell but one can't get its bearing and can't proceed. An arrow thrums in as the cockroaches attack, sticking deeply into the blue cockroach!
Two of them move up to Thora and try to overwhelm her, but the doughty dwarf manages to avoid their attacks.
Round 1
Done
Blue Cockroach (heavily injured)
Yellow Cockroach
Green Cockroach
Up
Rowena
Thora
Meriui
Ayesha
Ronan
Jinxx
Sarkast
Anevia
Aravashnial
Horgus
Thora swings at the blue bug.
Ronan fires his crossbow at the yellow bug (when he can that is)
Or we could do that. The dwarf would get along well with Zorkas back home...
Sarkast drops his pack, then carefully picks out a path. "Pardon me, Thora..."
In a burst of motion, the Kellid moves up and slips past Thora on the right. Running on his toes, he attempts to pass the bug and avoid the grease on the ground...
With a mighty swipe of her axe, Thora downs the cockroach before looking up to see Ronan's bolt fly harmlessly into the air. Meanwhile, Sarkast breaks into a dead run before he tries to vault over the cockroaches. However, the cockroach is quite nimble and lunges out to bite him. Sarkast manages to avoid the attack and winds up behind Thora.
Sarkast pulls up short as the giant bug snaps at him, moving back to stay out of Thora's way.
Ayesha cursed as her line of sight was blocked by the offensively defensive line. She dropped her bow to the ground and drew her kukri before moving up to stand beside Thora.