Hysteresis Loops: The Gion Cover Up (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Following Mog's suggestion, Gruul moves to the intersection and then turns to face the left passage. He begins inspecting the area, hoping to discover any traps that might be hidden.

Perception, searching for traps: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

Surana follows a few feet behind, watching.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Surana inhales sharply, and speaks in a low voice. "Are you trying to lead us all into a trap, goblin? Look up!"

She points to a black cord strung across the tunnel entrance.

Hearing about the trap, Krevek immediately looks back to the goblin, a clear look of distrust in his eyes. He slowly pulls his sword and readies his shield. He takes up a defensive position near Surana.

Just in case it isn't clear, Mog wasn't trying to lead anyone into the tunnel. He was only peering in to find said trap. And heck, he even said so.

"Ah! Right! There it is," says Mog, scratching his chin again. "I knew it were there somewhere, right, but I couldn't spot where. That's why I wanted a bloomin' stick, right, to feel 'round wiv it."

"So good gobs, definitely right good. Yer'd 'ave ter be a bad gob or one of them filffy ugly's not ter ffink of sumfink like this. It's probably meant ter trip up any fairy tryin' ter follow the retreatin' goblins in; send them straight ter the ground so the bloody rats can bite off their toes." Then, clearing his throat, Mog turns to the two adventurers, a serious look on his face, not even a hint of a smile.

"And no, I'm not tryin' ter lead yer into a trap; that would be a bad joke. I said we're escortin' yer out and I meant it. It's me oaff ter make sure yor group makes it out okay." Then he flashes Krevek a smile. "Now put that sword away will ya? I saw what yer did to those machines and it's making me nervous."

"The sword is not for you, unless you were to come after the woman or myself." Krevek says to Mog "It is for the rats in the hole till they prove they are not enemies."

Grull looks up from his search as he hears the discussion. He walks over and places himself between Mog and the others, though he keeps his body casual and non threatening.

"I know it's tough, but for what it's worth, I trust Mog with my life." Gruul says making eye contact with first Krevek and then Surana.

The ranger turns and kneels to inspect the wire. "If you folks would stand back, I believe I can disable this." Gruul waits for the others to get to a safe distance and then turns and gets to work. A look of intense concentration takes him over, as he studies the wire intently.

Disable Device (traps): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Krevek waits for Surana to move back and then follows.

The blue-skinned woman meets the half-orc's gaze steadily until he turns away, then purses her lips and gives him some space. Her eyes do not leave him as he works with the tripwire, and there is a hint of a thoughtful expression on her face.

Looking at the thin, black cord, Gruul can easily see that the "trap" if you can call it one, is not as deadly as it seams.

In a crack in the ceiling,someone has stuffed rocks, and what appear to be metal pots, pans, and some assorted tools. All of this material is held in place by a crude net, and the cord, if pulled will pull the net off of a peg at one end. The material in the net would fall on the person who pulled the cord, but the material doesn't look as if it is enough to cause more than a few bruises, made a headache, but certainly a lot of noise.

It is a simple effort to untie the rope, from the proper end, naturally, and then tie a solid knot at the trigger pin and the "trap" is disarmed.

The passageway, this tunnel, is small, and has a low ceiling. If you intend to follow it, Gruul, Krevek, and Ryko will have to stoop, Surana will have to lower her head slightly, and of course Moq is sized just right for the tunnel. It is also narrow,fighting, swinging weapons, will be impossible if something attacks while you are in this tunnel, unless you have something that can be used as a thrusting weapon.

"Ahh, see?" Gruul says as he re-ties a knot at the trigger of the crude device. "Nothing more than a noise maker, some sort of perimeter alarm I'd guess."

"Well, if it is goblins, should Mog go in and see what we got here?" Krevek questions the goblin.

Shrugging, Mog goes in to scout out the tunnel.

"Keep yer head..." Gruul says, taking position at the entrance of the tunnel to be ready to respond to any sign of trouble.

Got your message, Terquem

Mog comes back through the tunnel with 5 Goblins in tow: 2 adult females, 2 children, and an adolescent female.

"Right, ffen," says Mog to the adolescent. "The ffree longshanks and I are gonna finish clearin' out the place. Yer lot should stay out 'ere, in case any uvver Gobs decide ter come back. We'll be back this way in just a wee wile."

Mog turns to the Gruul and the others. "The way should be safe now, so Gruul can lead."

Gruul's face betrays a slight grin as he takes in his friend leading the family of goblins back to the group.

"Alright then, shall we proceed?" he asks, again looking at Krevek and Surana. Without waiting for an answer, he turns back to the passage and prepares to enter.

"I am guessing I should start getting creative names for that little maggot if he is going to keep calling us names." Krevek says to Surana, he then asks "After you?"

Surana precedes Krevek, shaking her head softly. "Do not allow the younger ones to trap you with their foolish words, Krevek."

Krevek quietly scolds himself for once again letting some childish fool get a rise out of him. This is why I could never make it being in the front of the shop he thinks to himself as he follows the orc.

Mog brings up the rear, as usual.

Gruul proceeds carefully down the passage, keeping an eye out for anything unusual. There may be more than just noise makers down here, no time to slack off...

The tunnel curves to the left, and isn’t very long. You come to a place in the tunnel where you can see that just ahead it ends and there is a large room or chamber of some kind. The chamber looks as if it was once a large “lived” in room, for a human sized person or persons. There is a large canopy bed, several dressers, a wardrobe, a large, high table, and a second shorter, smaller table. By judging how far you travelled, and by the look of two white panels, similar to the ones seen in the hallway before, this is a large room on the other side of the two doors in the “T” intersection.

Gruul slows down and approaches the threshold of the room. "What do you make of this?" he calls back to the group.

The ranger begins inspecting the area around the threshold for signs of anything dangerous.

Perception, searching for traps: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Mog pipes up. "This is where I found the Gobs. There's nuffink damgerous 'ere. Though there was that thing about 'a hole in the wall below' that leads to great caverns."

Gruul abandons his search and enters the chamber.

"Any idea where?" he asks as he surveys the room.

As Grull moves cautiously into the room, his view of the other side of the canopy bed reveals an open trap door, similar to the one in the room where he first saw the mechanical monsters. The door, a hinged, flat section of the floor, is opened and leaning against the wall next to the head of the bed.

Surana follows Gruul, her eyes scanning the room. "This is strange," she muses, "very strange. Why... and how?"

Krevek enters the chamber looking around it, at a lost for what time make of the chamber.

Gruul walks over to the trap door and looks down into its depths.

There is a ladder, in a round hole, similar to the one before, but this hole extends down into the depths beyond the range of your vision.

Gruul thinks for a moment and pulls a copper piece from his belt. He holds it over the dark shaft. As he releases the coin, he begins to count aloud, waiting to hear the coin hit bottom. "One owlbear, two owlbears..."

Before he can say "two owl bears," Gruul hears the coin bounce or strike something metallic, and then it is silent for another owl bear, and then you hear it hit metal again, bounce and rattle

Cringing at the sound of the falling coin, Mog goes over to Gruul and says, "Tell me that were a copper. I'll faint uvverwise"

Krevek moves over to Gruul, looks down the hole. He lifts the sunrod from his pack and shines it down seeing how far it illuminates. He then moves to the ladder, and proceeds to climb down the holes slowly.

"There'll be enough to buy our pints tonight, if that's what you're worried about." Gruul says to Mog as he mounts the ladder after Krevek.

As he begins descending he continues,"Sounds like it hit something just out of my sight, and then the floor another 30 feet down or so after that, I'd guess."

When Krevek shines a light down the shaft, everyone can see that it is deep.

It extends to a depth beyond the range of the light (more than 80 feet at least.

I'm not sure I should make Surana follow you down the tunnel, but here's what I will do,

Gruul and Krevek climb down one hundred feet, and find themselves on a metal platform. The floor of the platform is some kind of grate. The spaces between the "ribs" of the grate is only an inch, and the platform seems sturdy. It is attached to a wall, and at this place, the area around you is open, and seems to be a very expansive cavern. You can hear the sound of a waterfall in the distance. Extending from the platform downward, ten feet away from the ladder, is another ladder, but, with Krevel's light, you can see that this ladder is damaged just after it goes down five feet. The ladder, a good eight feet of it is missing, has been repaired, with bits of wood and rope. It does not look safe. It looks as though it was work done by goblins. Below the repaired section of the ladder, you can see the rest of the undamaged ladder, going down about twenty feet, to a metal floor with a pool of water all around it on three sides. There is a raft, made of wood, tied to a pole in the platform, floating on the pool.

Krevek takes the entire scene of the cavern in slowly, circling the open cavern. This is weird, I never imagined this could all be under a city.

Mog stays up top.

"What now?" Gruul says, looking down at the ladder below the grate he's standing on.

"I've got some rope we could tie here to climb down further." he continues, addressing the man beside him.

looking at the makeshift ladder, krevek thinks a moment, "Can we take a moment to secure the previous work, it looks like they were on the right track, just a bit shoddy and I would hate to fall getting to the bottom of all this, using our ropes and there prior work, I would be willing to bet we can come up with something?"

Gruul nods and begins removing his coil of hemp rope from his backpack.

We can begin fixing up this ladder then, I guess. Wanted to give other folks a chance to wake up... not sure if you're waiting or absent.

Krevek looks at the ropes, not sure where to begin. Never been great with ropes or ladders. "Where do we want to start?"

Escape Artist to assist Gruul with the ropes. 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Assuming escape artist since it is used for tying ropes and stuff, let me know if it would be different. And with that assist, I think I am just in the way!

You would need some kind of "Craft" or "Profession" skill here, to examine the stability of the Goblin ladder (maybe it's safe to use), and effect improvements (if you determine it needs them), but I have another question. What do you think you are going to do once you get down to the platform that is surrounded by water? Yes, there is a raft there, and yes you could try to navigate it across the lake to whatever lies beyond, but, seriously? You know you left Moq, Surana, and Ryko behind already right?

We are looking at the moment, I have no intentions of going to the bottom, just looking at the moment and seeing if the ropes can even be repaired