Ezekias can cast the Light cantrip and will do so on a sling stone which he will hold in his hand while exploring.
Ah, this is a veritable treasure trove. What do we have here?
He attempts to identify the contents of the backpack.
Unfortunately, Spellcraft can only be used if you have ranks in it.
EDIT: You can use Perception to identify potions, though.
Kaa identifies the potions as: 1 Barkskin, 2 Cure Light Wounds, 1 Featherstep, 1 Vanish.
Using Read Magic, Luna is able to decipher the scrolls as: Entangle, Gust of Wind, Identify, Mage Armor (CL6), and Obscuring Mist.
@Luna: You may want to roll your Spellcraft checks, as the DCs for the wands are all at least 16.
Luna fails to identify the first wand, but identifies the second wand as a Wand of Cure Light Wounds (CL 3 w/ 8 charges).
As you take inventory and distribute the contents of the backpack, you move on into the cavern. The cave system streetches deep below the foothills of the Kortos Mounts. The caves are damp, and water occasionally drips from the stalactites. Among the otherwise silent cave system is a distant rushing of underground streams. The caves' walls are patterned with blue-green luminescent fungi providing dim light. Petroglyphs, mostly depicting marine animals or spiral shapes, periodically decorate the tunnel walls.
The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage. A large hole spans the cave's width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the 20' pit lies a small bundle of cloth.
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Brud will look over the various items from the backpack. He looks through the vial of acid, then puts it down. The only thing that interests him is the strange tube, that seems fairly flimsy. He turns it over in his hands, then places it back down.
He than digs through his backpack, grabs the flint and steel along with a torch. He takes a few seconds, and stands up with a lit torch. He places it in his shield sconce, and heads on.
He looks at the pit, and wonders how hard it would be to jump it. He looks down into the pit, and decides climbing is the easier option as he has had lots of practice on the ice cliffs back home.
Both Kaa and Brud start to climb down, but are unable to find proper footing and fail to make any progress down the hole.
Assuming someone is holding on to the rope to anchor it, Brud (taking 10) easily makes it down into the hole.
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Eazy selects a potion of CLW, the scroll of Gust of Wind, the acid flask, one of the alchemist fire, the antitoxin, and a sunrod. If Luna doesn't want the other scrolls, Eazy will take them as the only other arcane caster in the team.
He will carry the unidentified wand and anything else not claimed for safekeeping.
potion Barkskin (Kaa)
potion CLW (Kaa)
potion CLW (Eazy)
potion Featherstep (Vigny)
potion Vanish (Kaa)
scroll Entangle
scroll Gust of Wind (Eazy)
scroll Identify
scroll Mage Armor (CL6)
scroll Obscuring Mist
wand CLW (CL3, 8 charges) (Vigny)
wand (Eazy)
acid flask (Eazy)
alchemist fire (Eazy)
alchemist fire
holy water
smoke stick
tanglefoot bag
thunderstone
antitoxin (Eazy)
sunrod (Eazy)
sunrod
As Kaa descends the pit, Eazy keeps watch along the corridor.
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Vigny holds the rope and braces it for Brud's climb down into the pit.
"I can hold the rope for anyone else who needs a hand climbing down, but I'm going to need someone to do the same for me. Maybe the best climber could stay up with the rope until everyone else is down. Then on the other side go up first with it. Then the smaller and lighter among us will go up and help with the rope. The largest and heaviest of us will then come up last when more people can brace the rope. What do you think?
Is Ezekias the last one down? If so, Luna gets down the rope easily. Only the last person needs to make climb checks down. Only the first person needs to make climb checks back up.
I believe everyone but Ezekias and Vigny are down in the pit.
Ezekias helps Vigny down, then attempts to jump the pit. As he makes his jump his foot slips a bit and he slams up against the side of the pit. He is able to recover a bit, slowing his fall, but still falls hard.
Now Everyone is at the bottom of the pit.
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Jumalallinen juominen kupit! Vigny curses in Skald when she sees Ezekias slam into the side of the pit and roll down into it.
She rushes over to him and helps him to his feet. You don't have wings you foolish man! How badly have you hurt yourself? Looking him over and finding nothing too terribly broken or slashed up, she uses the wand from Janira's pack to heal his cuts and bruises.
Yes, this is serious business, but she can't help laughing just a little bit.
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Brud, once at the bottom, try to climb up the other side too allow the others to get across. He fails to get a good foot hold, but after the second try he manages to hopefully get to the top of the other side. Once there, he lowers a rope to allow everyone else an easier time.
The icecliffs seem so much easier than this damned pit!
Brud starts up the pit wall and a chunk of the wall falls out from under his feet, nearly toppling him. Having some trouble finding a good foot hold, he eventually makes his way up to the top.
Brud lowers the knotted rope into the pit and everyone climbs out.
Kaa unfolds the bundle of cloth and finds it to be an extremely well sewn cloak.
The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway’s walls.
As you look at the carvings on the cave wall. Everyone can make one of the following skill checks:
Knowledge (History)
Knowledge (Religion)
Linguistics
Perception (at a -2)
Appraise (at a -2)
Anyone who speaks Auquan or Azlanti gains a +2 for each language.
The party starts scans the cavern, looking at the carvings. The carvings here are far different from the petroglyphs you've seen thus far. Most of the carvings are eroded away, but a few remain. Scattered throughout the room are inscriptions from the History and Future of Humanity, the principle holy text of Aroden, and images that depict these passages.
Those able to decipher some of the images are able to see that these carvings focus on parables that feature Aroden’s 12 guises, meant to illustrate his hopes for humanity.
Ezekias: Using appraise, is able to decipher: The Soldier is depicted bearing a lantern through the streets of a city, following the dead god’s prophecy that the vigilant shall carry light to the darkest corners of the world to banish the shadows.
Kaa: Using perception is able to decipher: The Hunter is depicted slaying a giant serpentine creature and then parading a trophy through the city streets—a sign to all humanity that the wilds are safe
to inhabit once the monsters are slain.
Vigny: Is unable to decipher the carving she is looking at.
Still waiting on Luna, Brud, and Volyana to make a skill check.
Luna and Ezekias are unable to identify the cloak Kaa is wearing.
Ahh, Arcane wasn't one of the choices, that's why it was confusing.
Replacing your roll with a Linguistics check gets you a 14.
Brud spots a carving: The Thief is depicted stealing a gem from a shop while whispering a prayer, an allusion to a passage saying that larceny—though illegal—is a form of praise, for anything worth stealing is also worthy of praise for its craftsmanship.
As he's finishing up Brud notices Luna struggling with another carving right next to it and helps decipher: The Tailor is depicted sewing together a long cloth of featuring many patterns that wraps around a city like a moat, referencing Aroden’s proclamation that when the fate of all peoples is woven together, it shall be humanity’s greatest strength.
As the party searches the rest of the room, everything else is undecipherable.
Moving to the passage to the south, The soft light of the surrounding fungus mixes with the flickering glow of the nearby torches to reveal a grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling overhead. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west. Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semiprecious stones, and ornately braided loops of string are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. The smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey.
Kneeling in the water is a lone humanoid figure kneeling before the miniature city.