|
Ai follows a bit behind the dwarf, thinking of cave-exploration jokes. Her mind isn't working so quickly, though, and all she's able to do is mutter "Spelunking, spelunking, spelunking" over and over while giggling to herself. She does manage to keep her dancing lights dancing, though, and occasionally takes a look around.
|
As the party starts down the tunnel they notice the undead Uori was talking about, unfortunately, they are not fast enough to defend themselves from attack.
Two skeletal gillmen shamble forward into the tunnel, eager to kill the living, but only one of them is able to attack thanks to the bottleneck that is the tunnel. The front most skeleton swings it's sword at Ollo and manages a shallow cut on the dwarf. The other two shamble in the back of the cave, unable to see the party through their fellow undead.
Bold May Post
Skeletons
Ollo -3 dmg
Talon
Narika
Marock
Ai
|
|
"Which one do you think would win the skeleton beauty contest?" Ai draws and fires her crossbow, sending the bold skittering down the narrow tunnel. Images of her terrible shots against the troglodytes below the Wounded Wisp flash through her mind, and she nearly shouts the punchline of her joke. "No body!"
|
|
Narika blasts a skeleton with magical energy nearly killing it on her own. Marock hits the same skeleton and drops his foe.Ollo, instead of screaming in fear, steps up and drops the next skeleton with a strong blow. Ai takes aim down the tunnel at the next visible target but does not hit. Talon rushes forward and swings his greatsword, hoping to prevent the next two skeletons from occupying the tunnel. One of the skeletons uses this opportunity to take a swing at him but misses, the blow deflected thanks to the efforts of Narika's mage armor and Talon's familiar, unfortunately his own swing also misses. The Skeletons both swing their swords at Talon but neither are able to hit the young man.
Bold May Post
Skeletons
Ollo -3 dmg
Talon
Narika
Marock
Ai
|
|
Talon kicks at the still bodies a few times to make sure they stay down, then he stoops to inspect them. It's the same kind of study he gave the troglodyte in their time beneath the Wounded Wisp's floors.
After a few minutes, he stands back up and claps Marock and Ollo on the back. Then he helps the team with any investigations.
|
Ollo witches the last of the undead fall back to scatter on the cave floor and wipes his forehead with the back of one arm. As he carefully cleans his mace and returns it to his side, he looks at the others and says "Well done, me friends. Very well done indeed!" before searching the dead body in the corner, turrning out the pockets and looking it over.
"Well, it looks like lunch was already served! I wonder how long this has been down here.. and what it was.. he mutters.
|
|
From what you can tell the body belonged to a Damphir. You find a small journal without many entries, what is scrawled on the pages is an outline of his plan to turn dead gillmen into his undead slaves, to what end, you aren't sure, but he's dead so it hardly matters.
Also on his body are a pair of bracers and a ring.
There doesn't seem to be anything else in the cave.
|
|
”Looks like we know what’s killing the gillmen,” Talon mutters as he stands back up.
He looks at the reclaimed items. ”Bracers of armor. Don’t know about the ring.” He looks over to Narika, ”Bracers might be good in those moments when you don’t have your spells up.” He seems disinclined to wear it himself.
He takes another few moments to pull out his journal, scribbling furiously as he tries to recall everything they’ve run across since his last entry.
Down the left cave branch, found undead gillmen and a dead body. After dispatching the undead, we discovered the body to be that of a dhampir. His journal indicated a plan to turn dead gillmen into slaves, but we don’t know to what end. My guess is that the lost control of his own creations. A good lesson in playing with fire, I would say.
Once finished, he stows his journal once more and gives the cave one last search.
he re-checks his blade’s light spell and nods his readiness to move on to the crew.
|
|
Marock sits down and takes advantage of the magical light in the room. He pulls out his journal,pen, and ink, and begins updating the journal.
I start this ledger on the first day of my conformation. I have been asked to keep this document in order to comprise useful information that we come across along our journey. To this end, I now intend to compile my thoughts and experiences with this log.
Day one, we have been sent by the society to investigate a mysterious cave where reports have a race called Gillmen habiting. The witness, a Halfling woman named Janira Gavix, has agreed to travel with us on this mission of discovery.
On the path to the cave we encountered a small pack of hungry wolves. Unfortunately we were forced to dispatch the canines in order to preserve the group’s life. Killing the wolves was undesirable, but the only course of action.
With a combined effort, we discovered the entrance of the cave. Upon the discovery we were set upon by a tremendous creature that Janira referred to as a Minotaur. The beast was enormous and intended serious harm to the group. Ultimately Janira decided to bait the creature away, which allowed us to enter the cave unharmed.
First inspection of the cave reviled a small pit that posed a minor obstacle, which we by passed quickly. Noteworthy information would include a bundle that was found in the bottom of the pit that contained a magical cloak. The cloak bestowed some miner protections upon its wearer. I found this noteworthy because of its implications of intelligent life inhabiting the cave. That and the fact that a wooden plank was laid next to the pit, for easy navigation, concludes that someone is using the cave.
Further into the cave we came across some old relief carvings. The carvings have endured a long passage of time. Many of the carvings show a great deal of weather damage, leaving only four that can be interpreted clearly. The ones we can decipher are as follows.
The Scholar, depicted writing on parchment and reading his work to passers by.
The Soldier, depicted carrying a lantern through a city, driving back the shadows with light.
The Fisherman, depicted hauling a large amount of small fish.
The Hunter, depicted slaying a large serpentine creature and parading his trophy through the city streets.
After moving deeper into the care we came across one of the alleged Gillmen that were reported using the cave. The bipedal humanoid seemed vastly intelligent, which lends to the thought that they could be a formidable race. After investigating into the creatures intent, we discovered that he has been using the cave for some sort of religious practice. The Gillman advised us of a couple perils within the cave that we have decided to investigate.
After investigating one of the perils, we came across a small group of undead. After destroying the abominations we inspected area and found a deceased necromancer. It appeared that he had fallen victim to his own creation. We collected a couple magical items that he had on his person, and then decided to move onto the next peril.
|
|
As the party returns to Uori, they find the old gillman waiting patiently for them, visibly relieved to see them unharmed.
"Thank you, it's not often I can rely on the kindness of anyone other than my own kind. You had questions about why we frequent this cave, yes?" He smiles and kneels back down into the water surrounding the shrine. "The water here is pure, despite all that lives in this cave and all the years that go by, it has always been clear and pure. To my kind, that is a reason to revere this as a holy place and so we make pilgrimage here. We listen to the holy waters and make peace with out lives."
Glancing over to the shrine, he continues. "It seems we are not the only people who once worshiped here. I'm sure you noticed the engravings on the way here. When I was a child, the older men and woman spoke of blessings the shrine would bestow on those who performed the rituals displayed in the pictures. I however have no interest in the blessings of Aroden."
"If you wish to leave, you may take the tunnel opposite from the one you just came from, you will have to fight more creatures I'm afraid but you seem competent. You should be able to find an exit, though it will take some searching." He nods at each of you and thanks you all one more time, before returning to his prayers.
|
|
"Not over, in. Place your offers in the city."
Another warm glow bathes the party as the dagger is placed within.
The four that you read should have enough in their descriptions to figure them out, if you have any questions I can answer them too. Two rituals remain.
The Fisherman, depicted hauling a large amount of small fish.
The Hunter, depicted slaying a large serpentine creature and parading his trophy through the city streets.
|
|
There are plenty of fish, easy to catch, while there aren't any snakes there are several foot long centipedes. Assuming you place both within the shrine you get the following two bonuses.
+1 dodge bonus to AC against charge attacks
+2 insight bonus on a single combat maneuver check made over the next 24 hours
As you travel through the opposite tunnel you find the walls coated with luminescent fungi. Though the tunnel branches off multiple times you all the paths narrow beyond your ability to pass and you always return to the main tunnel, it takes about 20 minutes before you find any sort of opening but finally The tunnels broaden to reveal a shallow river that bisects an immense tunnel stretching to the north and south. To the east a small passage exits the chamber at a steep incline.
As you exit the smaller tunnel you hear a screeching noise. Across the river is a pair of Kobolds, readying their slings to attack the party, but they're faster than expected and react first.
Bold May Post
Marock
Ai
Talon
Ollo
Narika
Kobolds
|
|
Ollo leads the way into the next chamber after departing from the gillmans cave. He is deep in thought about the origons of the gods, and how ancient they must really be when he spots some hated kobolds across the river! He dashes forwards and tries to get a shot off with his bow before he closes for hand to hand fighting.
|
|
Narika casts magic missile and hits one of the far kobolds. Ai stares down that same kobold while loading her crossbow. Ollo proves to be a crack shot and looses an arrow directly into the neck of one of his foes, dropping it immediately. Talon leaps mightily across the river. Marock moves up, ready to follow in Talon's footsteps.
The remaining Kobold lashes out at Talon but misses and stands where he is, ready to accept his fate.
The Party is Up Unless you all miss, the first person to hit will drop the Kobold so I don't see a reason to keep the round counter up.