A cloying musky scent lies heavy in the air here. A matted nest of red and black hair sits to the east. Bones of small animals are scattered around the nest.
Its clear that this was where red kitty slept.
It looks like there is another clearing beyond this one.
No magical hairballs here...
Going on to the next 'room', you see a tangle of vines hang from the thorny ceiling of this chamber, each suspending a clattering collection of bird skulls, rib bones, teeth, and other bits of gruesome decor. In a few places the vines droop all the way to the floor. A large nest of
nettles and thorny vines sits to the south, a halo of half-eaten dead birds and rats indicating that whatever sleeps there eats in its bed.
There are 3 empty potion bottles in the middle of the room. Detect magic reveals nothing.
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Meanwhile, Snowflake has been busy
While walking, Snowflake concentrates on Oskar, and activates a Live Link. After that, Vy uses lay on hands to heal himself some more, twice
Vitro quickly glances around to see if there's something worth further investigation.
(Most likely) not seeing anything, he hurries the group along to scout the bridge while Reduction lasts.
Dayo watches Snowflake with amazement.
"My mentor, Jötunn, told me that, as my faith in the divine grew over time, I too might eventually be blessed with the ability to heal with a touch..." he says as his off-hand slowly begins to glow with a soft light.
When he casually wipes the sweat off of his forehead, the light soaks into his skin, wiping away the remaining scratches from the briars.
"Oh! I suddenly feel really... Pleasant!"
Your quick search turns up nothing, but the nest isnt that inviting for a thorough search anyway...
With all the fetishes hanging from the 'ceiling', this probably was the 'room' of the goblin druid.
Approaching the bridge, you see the dragmarks continue on. Whatever it was, it must have been dragged over the bridge to the other side.
There are three 'thistle doors' in the side of the corridor approaching the bridge. They look out over the sea.
A rope bridge spans the gulf between the cliff and a roundish, flat-topped island sixty-some feet to the north. Thick patches of nettles and briars grow here and there atop the island, but its most impressive feature is a wooden one-story stockade. Two thirty-foot-tall watchtowers guard the stockade’s southern facade.
The rope bridge itself is made of hairy rope and thick wooden planks; the whole thing creaks and sways in the wind above the churning surf eighty feet below.
dice=perception Vitro]1d20 + 2[/dice]
It might be the soft morning light... but that rock the stockade is on... it looks a lot like a big stone head. See? There is the nose, and those outcroppings look like ears. And those holes could be the eyes...
Enjoying the relative cover from the shrub, Vitro peers at the watchtowers, trying to see if they're currently manned, and if so, if the party has been noticed.
At first, Oskar is too busy muttering to himself what it might take to bring down the bramble patches. "Defoliant's too slow-acting for this. Figure string efreeti cord all through here, augment it with fire flasks co-located, oh let's say every five, ten feet depending on how much we can get. It can be done, yeah, but the doin's gonna take some doin'..."
"I've been spending too much time interpreting childrens scribblings... is that a giant? "
Using the "g-word" grabs Oskar's attention, and he whips his head around.
"A giant? Shit. Where?"
"This looks safe!"
Snowflake in full earnest, says
"Well, if there was a sign saying 'only one man at a time can pass', then that man shouldn't"
He waits for Dayo to grasp what he's saying.
"Because a warned man, counts as two"
Vy harks
"Anyway, the nice thing about that bridge, is that I could finally walk upright again"
Vitro hears the waves crashing against the rocks below. And a seagul squacking.
Wait. That is odd. You'd expect more seagulls at the shore, but you dont see any flying around.
"What a beautiful poem!"
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"Okay, so plan A, you all run over the bridge while you're pint sized and weightless. I'll stay here and shoot at one of the goblins that's going to pop up and kill you. Plan B, we go down the hole, hope for a boat, go around to the other side of the island and then get shot at coming up to the fort. "
"Sounds good!"
Dayo sprints across the bridge.
"Goblins aren't particularly know for their redundancy. I would not believe there to be a boat"
Oskar watches as Dayo sprints across the bridge. "I thought I was s'posed t'be the reckless one here. Can't let him go alone, can I...?" With that, Oskar takes off after Dayo.
Now that Oskar and Dayo are approaching the island, the shrieks of the seagull become louder. You can also hear barking and faint cheering.
"wait! How long is that bridge? I only have a vague idea how close we need to be for the life link to work!This might not be the time to test that out!
Snowflake becomes anxious, but he won't run over that bridge the same time as Oskar, while wearing his armor and shield
"What? We were going to pull back! Crap!"
Vitro hesitates to run after them.
Ah! Fresh air at last!
The sounds of the gull and the barking come from the west side of the island.
When Oskar catches up to Dayo, he puts a hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing? Was this part of the plan?"
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Dayo smiles, places his hand on Oskar's, takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, as though he were about to recite something from memory.
"When my purpose is unclear, I will walk the roads of the world to find a fresh focus."
He opens his bright eyes and locks gaze with Oskar.
"...I just felt like running instead of walking!"
"C'mon. Let's stop screwin' around and find you some 'fresh focus' back over there, 'kay?" Oskar gestures with his head back toward the others.
Making your way back trough the bramble corridors, you lift the 'bramble door' masking the exit.
Shalelu is more or less where you left her, cleaning some arrows she clearly pulled from three goblin corpses who are laying nearby.
She raises an eyebrow at your reduced frames. "How did it go? It was quite a ruckus down there."
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"Oh, it was a real party," Oskar says. "Let's just say it reinforced the fact that I friggin' hate cats, and I'm gonna leave it at that, can we?"
Vitro also emerges, herding the rest, especially Dayo, back into the land of walking upright.
"We underestimated the danger badly, it was a whisker away from turning into our last adventure. We ran into a druid who used the terrain to his advantage masterfully. At least we took that one down. But we've lost the element of surprise. And we're going to need a trick to get past that stockade."
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"Turn the tables. Set the place on fire. They'll probably help us."
Justin now has Oskar's undivided attention. "Tell me again about the middle part, with the fires...?"
"Knowing goblins, they either stand stupified while watching the fire, or scurry into what ever caves there are beneath the building. Maybe, going by sea, and find a sneaky way in is actually the thing to do. Your plan B"
Vy looks at the water, and thumbs his armor.
"Only...how to get there?"
Shalelu kicks a goblin corpse under a bush.
"Hm. I am very sorry. My intell indicated that there was a goblin druid in the region, but that he had been killed in a power grab. Either there used to be two of them, or someone has been telling me lies."
"As for the element of surprise, I think the cover of early morning has helped considerably. I havent heard or seen signals from the stockade from here. So either they did not spot you, or if they did they did not take it seriously. As for a route by sea... I dont have a boat. Nearest one might be back in Sandpoint. Unless we build something like raft."
Vitro stands there hesitating.
"We could go back in, try to press our surprise. I think I can do a few more tricks. I could either prepare a spell to further shield myself and make it pretty hard for them to hit me, throw a few mean snowballs, or raise a few curtains of mist to baffle archers. Which do you think might help most?"
"Balancing on a roof sounds easy! Much wider than a balance beam."