Mothman's Whispering Cairn

Game Master Mothman

As you move towards the masked, tattooed humanoid he slashes at you with the scythe, but over reaches and half stumbles, an attack that you easily sidestep. However at almost the same time an arrow whistles out from somewhere in the darkness, striking deeply into your arm for 8 points of damage.

Your turn in round 4.

Perception check to see if i can tell where arrow came from 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
power attack 1d20 + 10 - 1 ⇒ (19) + 10 - 1 = 28 damage 1d12 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 3 = 15 Miss chance 1d100 ⇒ 29

Looking and listening about, you get no sign of where the arrow came from ... but a moment later you hear a dull banging sound coming from the darkness somewhere on the other side of the scaffolding.

Brash will stoop and scoop up the lighted bolt with one hand holding the axe in his other. He then moves as quickly as he can towards the sound at the scaffolding, intending to drop the light when he gets there and get a proper grip back on his axe.

Brash will follow the sound as best he can, and as quickly as he can perception check 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

I need to go down 20 more feet then spend a turn to tie my rope to the grappling hook head and secure it somewhere. Then I'll shimmy down the rope as fast as I can. I don't know if it is any faster, but it seems like it could be.
Btw- I'm assuming the grappling hook is a small one, not a giant thing that wouldn't fit in a backpack. If I am wrong it is home and I just continue taking 10 climbing all the way down.

You pass another enormous column, stretching up into the darkness above, then see a hewn stone wall ahead of you. There is an arched opening in the wall, some ten feet wide and fifteen feet high at its apex, with a tunnel beyond leading away from this chamber. The noise seemed to have come from somewhere in that direction.

Another perception check if you would.

Reaching the ground, and looking about with the virtue of his darkvision, Harrigan can see no immediate sign of Brashen. Two bodies lie nearby, one actually within the lift shaft formed by the scaffolding and one outside of it. Both bodies are humanoid, but with their features obscured by chainmail tunics and tabards bearing a sinister looking symbol (a gauntleted fist clutching three barbed arrows), as well as masks of chainmail hanging down from their helms. Both dead men have tattoos covering their bare arms, with various grotesque and blasphemous symbols and scenes depicted. Both men appear to have been killed by single, grievous axe blows to their torsos.

Looking about, Harrigan spots a mining helmet lying on the ground nearby. Getting his bearings, the dwarf figures he is standing near the south side of the elevator shaft. To the north and south the chamber stretches away beyond the limit of his vision, with rows of enormous, hewn stone columns marching to both sides of the lift shaft from north to south. To east and west Harrigan sees a hint of the walls of the chamber, and there is a dim glow, somewhat obscured by a column coming from a point to the east.

Perception checks please.

Glancing about you can see nothing nearby, but looking back towards the scaffolding (about forty feet away) you can see that the light from Boland’s helmet appears to be almost down to your level.

Perception: 10 + 2 = 12.

Perception:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Would it sound at all like alarm bells? I think either way I'll continue with the above action

The dwarf slips the silver morningstar out of his bag and heads toward the dim light to see if it is Brashen.
Perception 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

You hurry towards where you heard the sound. Suddenly an arrow whirs out of the darkness ahead, straight for you. You barely have time to react before the long shaft punches through your chainmail and buries itself into your chest, knocking you from your feet. As the pain sears through your flesh you can only hope that the arrow has missed any major organs. 17 points of damage – critical hit.

No sign of the archer, but you can dimly hear the sound of footsteps.

"Lower us down! I'll hold them off!"

Not about to blindly fire on what may well be perfectly innocent miners, Damion will not attack unless they attack first.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Andolphas mutters something and drops his pack on the floor of the lift as Damion gives him a shove. The priest is clearly worried because he did not have the time to put his armour back on. He does as the inquisitor says, and does his best to lower the lift quickly but steadily.

Not sure what kind of check might be needed here?

You need to release a braking mechanism – easy to do – to allow the handle to turn ... then turn the handle. You are strong enough to turn the handle without making strength checks, but it is very difficult – you get a lot of resistance as you turn it.

Andolphas releases the brake and begins to turn the handle with both hands, putting his back into it, sweat beading on his brow. The platform lurches, then begins to descend slowly downwards as the spool turns, unrolling the chain attached to the timber assembly above. The wooden and metal scaffolding below has rails inside, keeping the platform from swinging about (and fairly level) as it descends.

Initiative checks please.

Initiative: 6.

You can also hear the chain in the middle of the lift shaft begin to rattle and clank.

Init:
Harrigan 23
Bad guys 18
Boland 13
Brashen 7

Approaching footsteps 15
Damion 12
Andolphas 6

The footsteps continue to approach as the platform drops down below eyelevel of the floor. A voice calls out in the common tongue, “Who’s there?”

At this point the lift is about 10 feet down. Continuing? Damion, I will assume you are changing the angle of your crossbow, ie, holding it pointing up at this stage.

My next stabilization role 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Andolphas continues to lower the platform even when the voice above calls out to them. He murmurs a quiet prayer to the Green Lady, hoping that she will keep him safe from harm.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23

Take 10 on climb check, for a 12

When he reaches the bottom he pulls a sunrod from his pack, preparing to light it and try and light up the area a little better.

Harrigan hustles across to where Brashen lies – and it is Brashen – drawing a smokestick as he goes. The big warrior lies unmoving on the ground, his face pale and eyes closed, breathing shallowly as blood pools slowly beneath him. He appears to have suffered a number of wounds apart from the arrow in his chest.

Just as Harrigan reaches Brashen he notices movement from the corner of his eye with his darkvision – about fifty five feet away to the south, lurking in the dark next to a pillar, is a humanoid similarly attired to the dead ones by the lift shaft – chain shirt, chain link mask and tabard ... this one is pointing a longbow at Harrigan.

The figure with the longbow fires in Harrigan’s direction, but the nimble dwarf manages to dodge the arrow. It occurs to Harrigan that Brashen, with his meagre light source, would not have even been able to see his attacker.

From the eastern tunnel nearby, Harrigan can hear what sounds like the jingling of tiny little bells.

Boland spends his turn climbing and retrieving a sunrod. Boland, you can’t actually see the guy firing arrows at Harrigan, though you probably saw the arrow fly by in the light of the faintly glowing crossbow bolt beside Brashen.

Back to Harrigan.

Andolphas inhales deeply and holds his breath for a long moment, worrying that projectiles might rain down on them at any moment. He continues to lower the lift until the platform reaches ground level.