Umberto stands ready to repel the attackers.
"Back off boys. Im the law in town, you dont want this."
"We specifically asked Terran if the magic items in that room were owned by the Brotherhood.
If he had answered us, we would have put them back. Are you now claiming ownership?
Perhaps actually talking to us would be a better approach than simply attacking us, since we are obviously making no attempt to sneak away with the items."
Daphnes patients with this pseudo courtly intrigue, while her town is in peril, has just about worn out.
"Oh enough of this. You lurk in shadows and question us while claiming some soft of ownership of items that could be used in the towns defense? Enough of your coward's lip. Take your stash of tools and go defend the town or silence yourself and move while your betters work to protect your cowardly back sides."
With the last comment she levels her crossbow at Derek.
"I have give you two choices now show me what kind of man you want to be."
Terran looks very, very, intimidated. Sounds good to me. He says, starting forward.
Derek grabs him by the arm and yells at Daphne. I'll tell you what kind of man I am! I am a thief lord! I run criminal enterprises all over your little city, right below Vira's nose. But that's not all. I have agents all over. I do not care if this town falls to the Orcs. Good riddance to the town. I'll just go somewhere else. Never did give me much profit anyway.
Can I stab him yet? Vira asks
"Vira, we have more important things to do than get involved in your turf war.
Feel free to stab him all you like, but we will be heading on."
Now addressing the thugs.
"Well, gentlemen, now loyalties are out in the open. Terran says to let us go, Derek wants to wage a turf war and town-be damned.
Where do you stand? Do you want to engage in a petty turf war with people who aren't even involved? Do none of you have family or a sweetheart in the town above that Derek is so willing to sacrifice to the coming orcs?
Do you know what the orcs are going to do to them. Some of them may only be severely beaten, taken into slavery, and forced to toil until they drop dead from exhaustion and exposure. They will be the lucky ones.
The children will be cooked alive and devoured. The women will be raped repeatedly and totured. Men will be torn apart limb from limb and pitted against monsters in tournaments simply to sate the orcs bloodlust.
Trust me, I have seen it. So, you have a choice to make. Follow Derek's orders and hope that he will deign to take you with him to the next town or step aside and let us defend the town. They choice is yours."
Ebonfeather will step out of the room and head toward the door to the vault.
The thugs look at eachother, and then scatter - anything to stay out of your path. Derek looks flustered. To hell with the town. I'm off to Golarion. And he runs out of the room. Terran looks equally flustered and mutters Keep the artifacts. They're only worth a few thousand gold pieces.
I was really looking forward to stabbing them... Vira says quite sadly.
"Terran, we thank you for the Brotherhood's contribution to our effort.
I swear that if I survive, I shall return these items to the Brotherhood. As a matter of fact, this wand of Charm Person is of no use to us, so please take it back.
We reiterate that the town could use your help against the orcs. If you were to go up and pledge your magics in defense of the town, I am sure the town itself would hold you in great esteem.
Now, come Mushroom, off to the vault."
Ebonfeather hands the wand of Charm Person to Terran and proceeds to the door to the vault, waiting for the other team members before opening the door.
Umberto waits patiently through the unfathomable drama. He is disappointed that the conflict ends peacefully. When Ebonfeather moves toward the vault, he follows.
Mumbeling to herself as the move she follows along with Ebonfeather
"Coming back down here with the guards when this is all over."
Vira follows whoever leads back to the door to the Vault.
Through the door is a large cavern. The walls are rugged stone. Tall stalactites hang from the ceiling - the tops too far away too see.
A stone path - roughly 10 feet wide, begins in front of you. To either side is an abyss. The tips of stalagmites can be seen below. Those of you with good eye site can see a body speared on one of them.
A narrow passage above instant death. Sounds like fun! Vira states with almost childish excitement.
Seeing Vira's excitement, Ebonfeather bows her forward.
"After you then. Show us how it is done.
You know, it may seem silly, but this bird-like body doesn't prevent me from being scared of heights."
If Vira won't move forward, Ebonfeather will walk carefully staying toward the center of the path.
He will occaisionally scan the ceiling looking for any potential enemies.
Umberto seeks a comfortable spot in the middle of the party. If push comes to shove, he will follow at the back of the party to see how Vira and the others handle any obstacles. "A ten foot wide path? This is almost too easy."
Daphne will move forward with the others, towards the front of the party this time, scanning for traps or anything unusual.
Your perception reveals nothing. The path appears clean.
Vira gleefully runs out onto the path. She goes about 20 feet, and then stops and turns around. This place was made by the greatest architects ever! Of course it can hold-
She stops suddenly, looking up.
We look up.
A loud rumbling noise starts to drown out everything below a yell, as you notice several stalactites are shaking and seem to be getting lower. Then one drops. It smashes to pieces in front of Vira. She looks at it, then screams RUN!
Ebonfeather will attempt to run across the bridge.
Trying to anticipate what rolls might be needed:
Change Mushroom's boost to +Dex
I'm thinking reflex works better for this scenario. Everyone that runs along the path gets to dodge 3 falling stalactites. Since they take a while to go from shaking to falling, I am ruling the DC to be 10. So Ebonfeather makes it to the end of the pathway, joining Vira. Mushroom, however, gets hit by the first one taking 6 damage, and the last one, taking an additional 7 damage, but makes it across.
Zapping Mushroom with the Wand of CLW with fewer charges:
Wand (-1 charges)
Wand (-2 charges)
Wand now has -3 charges, Mushroom back to full health.
Daphne starts to dash over the bridge but mistimes a leap out of the way of the second falling object.
"Gahh."
Umberto jogs along, but he is not quite fast enough. Not by a long shot.
The Gods have pitty on you, slowing the descents of the
Drahz takes 5 damage
Daphne takes 6 damage
Umberto takes a total of 8 damage
Vira thrusts open the door and steps out onto a small stone platform. It is a large tunnel. It extends upward and down. Neither the bottom nor the top are vissible. Writing on the ground says
Your survived the falling stones, but can you survive the fall?
"Oh fantastic. Who builds all this crap?"
Using healing charges:
Wand now -4, Drazh full
Wand now -5
Wand now -6, Daphne full
Wand now -7
Wand now -8, Umberto full
"Thank you Ebonfeather. So what do we do now? I don't carry a rope or anything, I travel lite."
I also don't carry a rope. That may be a problem soon.
However, Daphne, have you forgotten your new Ring of Climbing?
Drazh also has a ring of Featherfall. It seems the only decision to make is up or down. One of you can hold onto an end of rope and explore in one of the directions."
"Thank you for healing me, Ebonfeather. I have rope." He looks for something to tie one end of the rope to.
The end of the platform has a large stone book that has a sphere shape on top, looks like it could hold a rope with several people on it.
Something tells me this is a trick. The tunnel must extent upwards for a reason. I vote those of us good at climbing go up first and find out what there is to find. Vira says. She looks to you guys, as if to say If you don't trust my reasoning, just ask about it.
"Well I had forgotten about my new trinket. I can test out the ring and see how well it works."
Daphne trys to climb a bit near the platform to test how much it helps.
"It is possible this ring should be used by someone else. I had no idea I was so bad of a a climber even magic couldn't help."
"I'm not exactly good at climbing, but at least I'm not wearing heavy armor."
Ebonfeather will swap out his rings for the ring of climbing and ring of featherfall.
Before starting out, he will examine the walls looking for handholds.
He will then tie an end of the rope to his waist and attempt to start climbing hoping that he will be able to brace against both sides of the tunnel.
Ebonfeather makes it all the way down without falling. The wall expands disappears as you get lower, so that you just have to shimmy down the rope (but your checks make even that possible). The ground is just out of the darkvision of the rest of the group, however the ground is lit by mysterious calm blue light, giving you the ability to see the center of the tunnel.
Cross section of the cave:
The ledge with the group
-------v
EEE|E_|Stalag(mite/tite) room_____|Ballroom/Mage Guild____|
EEE|EE|______________________|___________________|
EEE|EE|
EEE|EE|
EEE/EE\
EE/EEEE\
E/EEEEEE\
/EE____EE\
-----^
The area that Ebonfeather descends to, can see the area with the black ground.
E is for empty, so the lines match up
Whoops, my bad. After climbing up, you see a platform with an archway. Through the archway is dark.
Cast Light on my bow and hold it out like a lantern.
The feeble light shines into the archway revealing scattered bodies of dead dwarves.
Anything good up there? Vira calls.
"I see a bunch of dead dwarves. Is that "good" in your opinion?"
If there is something to tie the rope off on, I will ask the others to untie the lower end. I will then knot the rope to make climbing easier, then put the rings of climbing and featherfall in my belt pouch and tie that to the last knot on the rope before lowering it down.
There are plenty of rocky outcroppers to tie the rope on.
The stuff makes it down to the bottom. Where would you like to stand?
I will begin by examining the archway for traps.
After that revelation, I am assuming Drazh (and his darkvision) will be scrambling up the rope next. If there is enough room on the ledge for two people, I will wait to give him a hand up over the edge.
I will not pass through the archway unless there is no other place to stand.
there is a ledge outside of the archway.
Inside the cave you can hear faint scuttling noises.
"I hear something up here, but it's really dark. If Drazh could get up here, I think that would be great!"