"I'll stay here."
Go safe, little one Mischa says to Newt.
On reflection she addresses Bec. We should light torches to be safe as well in case Newt disturbs the creatures that live here. A swarm of bats would shy away from fire.
"Newt wait! What if we were to light the guano, If the bats would shy away from the flame..."
"Do you know how much that would stink? Eww, I don't want to think about that!" he says with a look of repulsion on his face.
Newt watched the bats impatiently from the passage, not yet ready to enter the cave proper, even the conversation he was having this close to them seem to upset a few of the bats, he was sure the light source Bec was holding did not help either but he would need to carry it with him if he was going to see any further into the cave. While his eyes was sharp he could not see in the dark like some folks thought of his race.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:04 pm
Bec tosses Mischa's light stone forward to Newt before pulling out another torch and handing it to the woods witch. If y'wan'fire, I've all these flasks o'oil fer th'lamp. He proffers a pair to Mischa, and some to Anya, Bowen, and Casimir as well, before lighting his own torch with his flint and steel. Are we safe, Newt? he asks, ready to begin to make his way across the floor. Should I toss yer'ope back t'ye? Could tie't off on somethin, and make th'climb a mite easier...
Mischa pulls a face. It would not be pleasant but perhaps we could crawl to the door. That should keep us from falling and making a noise
Lighting her own torch Mischa stands back from the entrance. Let us keep the fire away from the bats for now. It is only if they swarm that we will need to use it
Would crawling work? And torches to doing fire damage to a swarm is reasonable right?
Softly, Anya offers... Never been a climber excepting stairs. But, logic dictates if we secure a safety rope like a rail, we could... mitigate slipping.
A climber might know better.
"If we crawl, we stink. And if we stink, the Ogre could smell us."
Newt gratefully accepts the lighted stone with a small bow. He then continues his way slowly into the cave.
Newt takes the lighted pebble from Bec and makes his way as quietly as he can toward the center of the cavern, the bats overhead flinch and move at the sight of the light but all of them still hang from the ceiling. So far so good, the light didn't seem to be bothering the bats bad enought to swarm.
As Newt looked ahead to the exit on the opposite side of the cavern he saw that it split off in to two different directions.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:05 pm
Bec shrugs and grumbles I may's well ge'up there too. He moves forward slowly, his lit torch held low.
Newt continues to move until he is at the point where the passage splits in two directions.
Bec makes his way into the cavern, holding his torch low, the smoke from the torch seems to upset the bats quite a bit but they do not swarm, however one single bat takes off from the ceiling then flies around squeaking and then flies out of the cave to the outside flapping against Bowen on his way out. The bats are restless.
Newt makes his way across the cavern, looking down both tunnels. To the north he sees after about 20 feet or so the tunnel opens up into another cavern, to the south the tunnel keeps going for as far as he can see.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:06 pm
Noting that one source of light at a time seemed to be within the bat's tolerance Mischa waits until both Bec and Newt have moved away from their cavern and the bats have settled down again before mimcking Bec and keeping her torch low to pass through and follow them both.
Bec moves forward after Newt, doing his best to remain quiet.
Bowens slightly deeper in to the cavern to give Mischa and Bec more room.
As Mischa passes, he says "I'll cover the entrance until we're all inside."
Casimir nods to Bowen as he comes in, as stealthily as he can.
Not having much luck with stealth, Anya stays near the rear with Bowen.
Mischa will try to make it past K3 to get out of the cavern.
Newt continues to stealthily move further into the cave.
Some of the group make it safely across the bat cave and move north toward another cavern. Casimir, Anya and Bowen stay back a little as the dim light overtakes the center of the batcave between them and the lead group as the torches move away. This seems to calm the bats back to quietly hanging above.
Meanwhile in the front ranks Newt silently moves up on another cavern....
The corridor opens into a low-ceilinged chamber about 35 feet in diameter. A pair of massive stalagmites, including one fused to a stalactite to form a natural column, are positioned in the north and south parts of the chamber. To the west is a large pile of leaves, branches and other debris.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:07 pm
Mischa calls softly out to the others. One light does not seem to be bothering them. Extinguish any torches you might have and use Bec's illumination to move carefully to us. Mischa then moves to stand next to Newt keeping her own torch lit just in case but moving further out of the range of the bats. She focuses on the debris, not moving to it but trying to see if she can glean any information on them from where she is.
"You two go on ahead," Bowen says huskily to Anya'drea and Casimir as he casts wary look up at the bats. "I'll guard the rear."
Bec grunts and nods at Mischa's suggestion as he peers into the next cavern.
See anythin', Newt? he whispers.
"Not much. I'm going further in."
Moving over to the debris pile, Newt looks it over to see if anything is of value there.
If he finds something of value he will quietly call out to the others. If not, he will resume searching silently to the rest of the cavern he is currently in.
Newt continues to move farther in while looking for anything that catches his eye for importance.
Mischa helps in the search
As Newt moves toward the debris pile and the light from his stone falls upon it all of a suddenly a creature comes dashing out of it and assumes a defensive position. The creature's fur bristles on end, while it holds its tail up high.
Built like a very large dog, this creature has black fur with white stripes running from its face to its fluffy tail, which is raised in warning.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:08 pm
Looking at the strange creature, Newt attempts to identify it.
"Umm, I don't know what that is. Anyone else?" Newt asks any others close by.
Newt and Mischa recognize the creature as a skunk but this one was way bigger than skunks should be and they had never heard of one being this big.
Newt carefully backs away from the creature. He attempts to stealthily make his way to the other side of the cavern.
"No skunky for me!" Newt says to Mischa.
Pole cat, huh? Big'n, too, 'splains th' smell. Mebbe back outta'ere, Newt... An'see if'n e'll leave us be if we do th'same.
Bec sets down his torch and takes a step forward, leveling his spear.
Mischa nods. Agreed, I do not think any of us want a confrontation. backs away to L12 to get away from the skunk and the bats.
As Newt moves toward the other side of the cave and Bec lowers his torch to the ground and takes a step forward, the skunk moves slowly closer toward Bec. Tail still held high in the air.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:09 pm
Newt sneaks further up away from smelly skunk.
Newt sneaks further up away from smelly skunk. The skunk holds his ground.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:10 pm
"No time to stand around gawking," Bowen mutters to Anya and Casimir. "We're gonna be left behind."
Bowne picks his way through the cavern to meet up with Mischa at the fork in tunnel.
"I guess not." Casimir follows Bowen into the cave, motioning for Anya to follow.
Mischa will move to L14 to make way for the rest of the group as they filter in.
While moving across the cavern with the bats, bowen slips and falls in the thick bat guano. His chainmail clanking off the cavern floor loudly. The bats jitter and a few take flight and exit the cavern but the swarm was not disturbed. He picks himself up, rather covered in bat dung at the moment and makes his way over by Mischa.
Lord Casimir heads across the cave and slips and falls almost in the same exact spot that Bowen fell in. His breastplate slamming hard against the cavern floor. Again a few bats fly out of the cave and the bats look rather restless but do not swarm. Lord Casimir picks himself up and joins Bowen, both men looking at the mess the other had made on the crossing.
[dice=Bowen Acrobatics]1d20+3[/ooc]
[dice=Casimir Acrobatics]1d20-6[/ooc]
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:12 pm
Anya, suddenly feels alone and self conscious.
She begins to carefully traverse the space between herself and the others... any of the others, towards the glowing distant light sources.
"Smelly skunk needs to go away. Hmm, maybe I can distract it."
Being in a cave, Newt looks about for small rocks he can throw. If he can find some, he throws two of them over to the debris pile and waits to see the animal's reaction.
Anya begins to make her way across the cave using the cave wall for stability and moving at a very slow pace. Meanwhile Newt throws two stones over into the debris pile and waits to see the animal's reaction.
The stones frighten the skunk as it jumps at the sound of the stones hitting the debris pile. Its fur bristles and it raises its tail high in the air and takes a step toward the exit and then releases its spray down the corridor toward Bec. While the scent is not enough to make any of the skunk's three targets sick, it is overwhelmingly potent and now covers Bec, Bowen and Casimir . Even Anya can smell it as it fills the entire area. It also seems to make the bats restless.
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Current Location: The Back Door: The Bat Cave Time: 12:13 pm
Mischa wrinkles her nose as the stench reaches her. We must kill it quick so Newt and Anya can make it across.