"Keep it down back der. Before ya get us all killed." Cyrus grumbles from the front.
The group spends their first day looking for the incredible lost Entmoch's Boon. But they find nothing but stone corridor after stone corridor the first day.
You rest up in Blingdenstone and decide to try again.
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Having spent most of the day wandering around, Kar takes a much earned rest, decided on keeping the search tomorrow.
When he wakes up, he already has a plan in mind. He didn't locate many interesting things, but the place where they're searching is finite anyways. They should probably divide the zone, and so he comments to his colleagues.
Once he's set, he consults his notes. Some of the places he's been yesterday, and some of the people he has crossed ways with, were worth a mention on his notebook. He's going to press things a little further, and will use his divine gifts on those suspect of being relevant to the quest.
Waagic consults with Odak, hoping to glean something from the earth-touched dwarf's knowledge.
Cyrus once again takes the lead as the group searches for an ancient treasure.
Myras eyes Kar suspiciously as he starts communing with the divine, not sure what to make of the paladin. He keeps wracking his brain, looking for the lost verse he'd heard an enslaved deep gnome reciting to himself, hauling minerals from the mine. If only I'd paid closer attention... he thought. Something to do with a crystal? He walks over to the cavern and listens to their resonating frequencies. Nothing to see here. Frustrated, he shouts: "Oh stone and crystal, rocks below, show me where I've gotta go!" and tosses a small rock into the center of the bowl-shaped floor.
Huffing and puffing the gnome continues with the plan they had. It wasn't a good plan and he hated it but he did his best.
It's like a living book... But it would be so much easier if I had some kind of reference.
On your second day of careful searching, Myras' music helps clarify your senses. Wagic, Myras, and Cyrus note a small, neatly-stacked pyramid of fist-sized stones next to an otherwise-unassuming tunnel and conclude it forms an ancient wayfinder of some sort. You head down this tunnel with a hunch you've slightly narrowed the search for Entmoch's Boon.
When the group shares their discoveries, some of its members mention a tunnel beside a small pyramid. Kar agrees that the place is worth a closer look, and he prepares to explore the tunnel with the others.
When he's in front of the pyramid, just before entering the tunnel, Kar tries a holy divination at the place .
Cyrus presses on searching carefully for even the smallest of clues.
"There.", Waagic notes.
”Brilliant! The rocks showed us where to go! This way, everyone!” Myras shouts gleefully as he points to the stacked stones. He sings a tune praising the group’s efforts as they pass through the cave. ”Ohhhh there lived a great hero named Myras the bold, skillful a skald it shall be of him told, leading companions to eternal fame, he struck down the enemy Ogremoch’s Bane!” he scratches his head thoughtfully. ”Hmm… perhaps on a plucked instrument would be better. More evocative, maybe.” He drops his pack and begins rummaging through it…
Cantrips (0th) – Acid Splash, Guidance
1st – 4/day – Alarm (Rit), Identify (Rit), Faerie Fire, Absorb Elements, Healing Word**, Ray of Sickness**
2nd - 2/day - Enhance Ability, Web, Flaming Sphere**, Melf's Acid Arrow**
Seeing that some work is getting done, the gnome finds himself at a loss again. "Fine maybe your method of brute force searching has done some work, but you know what this whole boon thing might be easier than we think you know? " He listens to Myras' song and huffs, "Doesn't seem like much of a skald when you put yourself in your stories, aren't you supposed to be talking about things that are larger than us? And I don't mean larger like size because frankly many thingsa re larger than me, or us for that matter, but it seems a little inconsequential and frankly I don't think it---" He keeps yammering on and on in an attempt to make himself feel like he's useful.
... However he talks himself into some kind of loop and actually manages to make some progress when he starts pointing out the flaws in the plan.
Your spirits lifted high on the winds of hope, you push on, searching for the smallest clues. But you find nothing but walls and pebbles. Tired, you head back to Blingdenstone and come back the next day to try again.
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"Today's the day fellas, I feel it in me bones."
Myras scowls at the deep gnome. "Have you never heard the saga of Mysli the brave? Cutting wit, sharp mind, and deadly with a sword, all the while one of the finest poets this world has ever seen?"
He goes to bed encouraged by the lead they'd found and by the progress made on his song about himself and the group's bold deeds. The next morning he examines the pyramid more carefully for clues and tries to discern what sort of hands might have stacked the stones, in the hopes that he might have a greater idea of what to search for deep in the dark cavern.
Myras determines the pile of stones was made by the small, clever hands of svirfneblin.
The exploration of the tunnels wasn't fruitful yesterday. Today, Kar wakes up full of determination. "We've narrowed the circle. It must be here; if we don't it today, it will be tomorrow or the day after, but eventually we'll succeed."
Kar proposes that they work in pairs. "Four eyes see better than two" he says, convinced that this way it will be way harder for anyone to just skip a detail - there'll always be a backup pair of eyes to check.
"... And that's when I told him that there was no reason for him to be bringing a gelatinous cube indoors with him? Unbelievable right?! Well anyway that is only the..."
He keeps muttering on.
Even though his makeshift dowsing rod lets off some beeps and boops he doesn't really make the note of the tracks mixed in all of the frustration.
Waagic does his best to attune himself to the stone, seeking traces of elemental power in passing.
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“Waagic, come over here a minute, would you? To my keen eye this pyramid appears to be crafted by a race not unlike yours... have you ever seen such things before? Would you know if it leads us to another pyramid?”
You come back the next day, determined to find answers, and search carefully. Cyrus, Waagic, and Kargoroth, with the help of Myras' music, find a tunnel flanked by two rough statues, heavily weathered and barely visible after years of aging. Looking closely, you make out a male deep gnome statue on the left side of a the tunnel entrance and a female deep gnome on the right side. You've definitely gotten much closer to Entmoch's Boon. You head into the tunnel where there are many side passages, all concealed by different rock formations.
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"Something about this place is both majestic and deeply unsettling..." Myras mutters to himself. He eyes the corners of the room carefully, not sure what they might uncover down here. As his hands reach out to feel the rock formations, his mind is stirred to a song.
By wan light | blurred behold
deep in dreary | tunnels of old
washed the sands | of time away
guiding traces | stone-grim faces
guarding homes | halls of night
hidden far from | crafted light
sediment | eons-sacred
holdeth secrets | 'neath blingenstone
hither hurry | heroes plenty
whatever betide | boon or bane
"Well I guess me bones be lying to me, but surely we be getting closer." Cyrus says with confidence.
Once in the tunnels, Kar hasn't got much to contribute, specially since several of the group members belong to races more connected with rocks and caves.
He, however, keeps trying to put his little grain of salt on the pile, doing what's suited to him and trying to free the expert spelunkers from those small tasks.
"I can feel a difference in the stone. We grow closer."
The gnome continues to be grouchy, when he wanted to go on an adventure he didn't mean like this. It was really the worst nightmare for him and he was certain that his feet were developing bruises and callouses. "You know this might be gnome built stuff but it doesn't mean anything! For all we know it might just be a trap can we please just make camp? I'm already tired and frankly this is going on for too long! Didn't you say the drow were chasing you or something?" Looking at Myras he distracts himself with some fake busywork, "I mean present company not included."
However as he continues to bother Myras he gets an idea, possibly from the skald himself but he wouldn't admit it, maybe if he cross referenced what the gnomes would have done with what the drow would have expected them to do... Yes and then if we take into account the centuries...
It seems like he manages to do some work, though the efficiency is still in question.
Your searches this day are fruitless, which is aggravating as you somehow feel you were so, so close.
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The party is still chomping away at the breakfast tables of a Blingdenstone inn when Myras stands up. "I can't wait any longer! I have this itching feeling we were so close yesterday. Let's return to the caves and pick up where we left off. Whatever you did yesterday, do it again, but better!" Still a little put off by Rankle's comments yesterday, Myras strides over to where he is seated and says: "I won't have another day of you moping about. We just clobbered a Medusa, do you understand? You don't come off of a high like that by whining like a little school-gnome! Your feet are going to hurt, your hands are going to get calloused and I want to see you digging around in that gnome-hole until we uncover something or your fingers go numb and you can't dig anymore, you hear me?"
Given his bold tongue, it's ironic that his survival intuitions are weak today, but he keeps on singing his strange Drow poetry to encourage the others.
At the sight of Myras giving a b!&&+@%ing to the group as a whole, and specifically Rankle, Kar can't help but quickly comment. "Calm down, we're all doing what we can." He doesn't really want to engage in a discussion, but won't also let frustration take out the worse of any of his new companions.
When he tries to think of a new plan for today, he can come with nothing at all. "In any case, I think you're right - I feel we were so close yesterday, we should just do the same, but better. Maybe we can use some way of marking the places we fully check." He knows it's a silly comment, but he only wants to change the direction of the conversation towards creative comments instead of destructive ones.
"Chalk marks on the walls perhaps.", notes Waagic as he eyes the stone with care.
The gnome looks at Myras and starts to answer only to hear the voice of the paladin, "Fine." He keeps himself busy tinkering with some items that are scattered about on the table, until he gets an idea. "Its just that this method is so... Pedestrian."
His eyes glint, challenged by Myras. "Now then. I won't be doing any good digging, but this here thing might help us find some magic." A tiny clockwork owl sits on his shoulder, "... Maybe."
Rankle waits a moment when he hears Kargoroth, "... I mean we don't need chalk." He kind of waits for someone to ask so he can make a dramatic reveal. "I can memorize exactly where we have been, the way they look, the way it smells and sounds, all of it." He huffs, "Its why its so frustrating not being able to do anything about it!"
Although the gnome is a little upset at the way he handled breakfast, his pride won't allow him to apologize for his behaviour, instead he gets galvanized to do things better.
"What are ye jabbering about back there? We've got treasure ta find." Cyrus grumbles.
Determined and driven, the group quickly hunts down the next passageway, marked by some old, worn glyphs in deep gnome barely visible distinguishing a branching of old passages. Several times you have to stop and clear rubble out of the way but you set to the labor with confidence in your navigational skills. Then the glyphs and the culmination of all the clues so far definitively lead you to a dead end. A stone passageway about 30 feet deep, 10 feet across, and 8 feet high.
Waagic approaches the apparently blank stone, touching it, looking at it, even sniffing at it in places, seeking any irregularity.
Myras bursts out laughing at the stone-licking deep gnome. ”Oh this is definitely going in a song!” he says. Even so, he’s not sure what to do next so he feels the walls of stone and speaks some gibberish intended to mimic Gnim.
The curious gnome looks at the room, and focuses on his Detect Magic owl. "Come on little guy, hoot for me." He taps it on the head a few times, "I know you're working, I can see that you see my own stuff!"
If no one finds anything of note he will pull out his wand of secrets and scope around with it.
When they finally find something, Kar smiles. "This must be it. I knew it!"
Trying not to let the impressive structure fascinate him, he invokes his special divination power in an attempt to confirm what he and everyone suspect.
The wand pulses and points to the left side of the passage, about ten feet from the end. Waagic examines there closely and perceives a slight crack indicating a secret door.
You note the that a small rock nearby forms the catch. Pressing slightly should release it and then you can simply push the secret door open.
Waagic feels around the rock and seizes upon a small rock. He gently applies pressure.
As he does so, he says:
"There. We should now be able to push the door open."