Kayne sighs as he trails behind the rest of the group, finding himself wishing once again for companions with more social graces, more cunning, and even a dash of subtlety. At least the elf is quiet.
In the room, he stands behind the others, and though he doesn't openly chuckle at Flint's comment, he blinks a couple times and nods. "Honestly, if we could get an answer to that question, it would be of interest. Could probably solve a few other mysteries if we went off of it. Secrets of the dwarven people, and so on."
Of course, with his scarf in place, it's hard to tell if the man is smirking or just squinting his eyes.
When Kiril demands to know where the princess is, three of the dwarves look startled, as if they have no idea what he is talking about, while the forth, a portly fellow with a thick black beard, turns his head away and scratches the back of his head.
It is clear to the group that this fellow is hiding something, and soon Kiril and Flint have this fellow backed into a corner and are determined to make him talk.
In just a few moments, the dwarf breaks down, throwing his hands up to try to keep Kiril from punching him in the face yet again, he reveals what he knows
He has heard his boss talk to another bandit leader, who lives on the next level below, and they have mentioned that a dwarven maiden, with hair that is as white as snow. Was taken to the lowest level of this place by men, human men who can take on the shape of wolves.
The maintenance soldiers were sold off to different monsters, some to the goblins, and some to the orcs on the level below this one.
There were two tribes of Goblins on this level, and the boss made a deal with one of the tribes to get rid of the other tribe, which these dwarves did, last week, and now they’ve been cleaning out this area (which used to belong to the goblins that they killed)
"Sounds like we have work to do. What about these dwarves? Kill them?"
"Naahhhhhh..." Flint says lazily, coming up with an idea. He switches to dwarvern and talks to the lot of prisoners.
<"Alright lads, here's how it's going to go. Empty your pockets and take your boots off. We've got a pile of your dead allies that we've been trying to figure out what to do with. If you know the way out, your job is to haul them out and give them a burial, understand? As far as I'm concerned, you're free to go after that, so long as you stay out of our way. Make their graves obvious. My friend here...>" gesturing to Morgrym <"... may want to give them last rites as warrior dead. That's up to him. But do right by them, and by us, and you'll leave without my shoving your stinky f*$&ing boots down your throats, agreed?">
If they agree: "Oh, one last question. The goblins that are still alive... Their boss got a name?"
Myna watches Flint as he give their demands to the dwarves. He is impressed with the halfling's idea on how to deal with the dwarves and gives him a nod.
While Flint and the others are focusing on the dwarves, Myna starts to rummage through their belongings to see if there is anything worthwhile for the party.
Perception?:
or
Investigation: (also a +5)
Myna approaches the two large wooden chests against the south wall, opening the first he finds some adventurer’s gear, armor, weapons and a pack. In the second he finds blankets, an empty back pack, and two pairs of workman’s boots sized for a dwarf.
Kiril hooks his handaxe on his belt, sighing. "Was really hoping to kill some dwarves," he looks around, and sees Myna bent over a chest. He walks up. "Nice view, think there's more at the bottom, if you want to lean down a bit more." He gets distracted when he sees the gear in the chest, nearly shoving Myna aside to dig into it. "Anything in there mine?"
"Vitheras' bloody f+~#ing cock--it's my gear!"
Kiril excitedly digs through, tossing into a pile a suit of fur-trimmed chain mail armor, a half dozen huge weapons, a set of iron manacles that clatter on the floor, a whole block and tackle of ropes and pulleys, a portable battering ram, a wooden dragonchess set box, a backpack, a whetstone, a book, and finally something wrapped up in rags. His shoulders relax and he grins fiercely as he unwraps it. A bottle of wine.
"Still in one piece," he says under his breath, and wraps it up again. Then he starts organizing and storing his gear, putting on the fur-trimmed chainmail and strapping weapons all over himself. He slings the halberd and battering ram onto his back and turns to the group, holding a very long pike with a dark well-seasoned ash shaft. Altogether it looks like he's carrying as much as, if you had to guess, five Flint of Irons.
"Yeah. Where's these Goblins? I need to work out some anger."
"Wait... Yeah!" realizing he forgot a detail. "So yer living in the one of the goblin's areas around HERE, where are the OTHER goblins on this floor?"
The dwarf shrugs and says
I don’t know, for certain. There were some goblins living near the entrance, maybe that was them, but the ones that were living in this area we ki…drove out of here a week ago. We’ve been working night and day to clean this place up. The boss has a plan for this place, but we don’t know what that is. I took this job because the money was good, yeah they paid us in silver, but damn, the foreman hasn’t given us one day off to even go into the Black Village and spend some time with the warren folk. Now if you ask me, this place gives me the willies. I even heard tell that there were skeletal dwarves that roam these halls wearing ancient armor and carrying old weapons, and they'll attack anyone they see immediately, which is funny cause I don't see how a skeleton sees at all, you know what I mean?
"Shut up," Kiril tells the dwarf, a little annoyed.
"Let's go look for these goblins--you sure we don't want to kill these dirty f*!&ers?" He asks the party, jabbing a thumb back at the dwarves.
"They're unarmed. They've surrendered. They've been helpful." Flint shrugs, disinterested. "Save your energy for the goblins and skeletons. They weren't lying about that, I've already fought some."
Assuming the others agree, Flint has the dwarves follow him to the pile of dead bandits. "Well, get to it. If you know of any shovels around here I'm fine if you take them to make your job easier. Oh, and if you see a small group of retainers by the entrance to this place, keep your hands off of them, they're with us."
"Lets continue down the corridor and see what we can find!"
Myna leads the party to the next set of doors. He examines them to ensure they are not locked or trapped.
Perception or Investigation:
The four dwarves look to one another, their faces showing different emotions, fear, confusion, frustration, finally the one who was brave enough to speak, shrugs, and says
Well, it looks like you’re giving us the short end of the stick, but, eh, at least it’s not a pointed stick he turns to the others elbowing the closest one in the ribs, am I right? I’m right. Let’s get to work fellows and then get the good riddance away from here.
The four dwarves march out of the room, and head straight to the room with the dead bandit dwarves.
As the party waits for Kiril to check his gear one more time, the see the four dwarves, working in pairs, each carrying the body of a dead dwarf between them, headed back to the north.
Myna hugs the wall and sneaks to the last set of doors at the end of the passageway, pressing his ear to the crack between the two doors he listens, but he hears nothing unusual. Taking a quick look at the doors and the frame, he sees no indication that there is any sort of trap here.
Kiril groans as Myna presses his ear to the doors, swapping out his lance for a heavy iron maul.
"F@!~ing...you make the elf listen at every door before going in? How long have you been searching this place, a year? If you hear bandits or goblins inside, we're kicking the door in and fighting them anyway, so let's skip the foreplay," Kiril complains as he walks into the room past Myna.
Before the party heads out to begin searching, Flint will nonchalantly (From the perspective of his party) approach one of the bandit dwarves as they pick up a body to take outside. He'll try to do this out of ear-shot of the others, talking softly.
"Thanks for helping us clean up. Sorry about your friends." and try to palm the guy one gold piece. "Look for the Kobold bar in the ruins down the mountain. They'll be able to provision you all."
Well, at least the orc will die before the rest of us. At least, you got that going for you knife-ears.
Shaking his head, Myna lets Kiril stomp out ahead of him.
"Lets hope it does not take too long!", the elf quips.
"Guess he hasn't been bit in the ass by any traps yet." Flint says, smiling, following Kiril into the room after giving the proper time for darts, jets of fire, or arcane explosions to emanate from the surrounding area.
As Myna prepares to give the large stone doors the careful once over they deserve, Kiril shoves his way into the room beyond, noticing once again the well balanced stone doors are much easier to open than they appear to be.
The room is empty.
Kiril sighs. "Looks empty." He stays alert but waits for the others do whatever they want with the room, leaning on his maul.
Flint stands in the empty room next to Kiril, his torch burning away in his hand. "Eehhh.... What did you expect? No lock? No Trap? No treasure. That dagger at least was in a secret room in a weird device with a bunch of bugs."
He walks a quick perimeter of the room, keeping his eyes out for anything hidden.
Assuming he finds nothing, he'll return the hallway.
Kayne follows along with the others, still less than thrilled about their new companion. Big and strong, probably has his uses. Might make things go faster, true. But probably going to get us all killed. The warlock smiles under his scarf for a moment. Well, most of us.
He glances back toward where the dwarves were found. Just hope they don't cause any trouble.
"So, nothing to be found here? No magic swords or ancient tomes of forgotten knowledge? No dwarven princess, either, I'd imagine." The man's tone indicates mild boredom. "We should keep moving."
Day 5, Tuesday approximately 10:00 am (turn 61, turn 6 of 6) It is morning, the eighteenth day of Mergunum, the last month of the twelve calendar year (the beginning of Spring time).
Once the room has been thoroughly examined, and no secrets are revealed the party decides it is time t move on, and swiftly they make their way back to the open pit at the north end of this ten foot wide passageway. Here the dungeon fog is heavier, but the group can still see the planks laid down to make crossing the pit safe.
They wait, the group of adventurers, as the dwarven workers cross the pit coming this way, headed back to the south to recover more bodies. The workers pass in silence.
Kiril sniffs the air, then grunts. "If I were a goblin, which way would I be..."
He squints then turns to the party. "Let's go to the big doors?"
"Well your the battering ram, so batter away!", Myna says.
Flint nods and gets into position on one side of the door.
Kiril waits a moment for input from the others, then shrugs broad shoulders and kicks the doors in, maul at the ready.
Kayne stands behind the others, ready for another fight--sword in one hand, gauntlet ready on the other. Never a dull moment in the dungeon, eh?
Day 5 Tuesday, approximately 10:10 am (turn 62, turn 1 of 6) It is morning, the eighteenth day of Mergunum, the last month of the twelve calendar year (the beginning of Spring time).
Kiril shoves and the huge stone door on the left, and to his surprise it swings inward far more easily than he was expecting.
The passageway here, seems to have less fog, and the fog from behind him rolls over him to sweep into the passageway ahead of him. By the light of Flint’s torch, Kiril is able to get a good look down the passageway a short distance before the fog can fill in.
There is a twenty foot wide passageway, going north, on the other side of these doors. Fifteen feet to the north, on the left and right hand side walls, are pairs of stone doors ten feet wide standing directly opposite each other, and then the passageway continues on to the north into darkness which is quickly filling up with dense fog.
"Quick! Get in! Lets block off this fog before it fills this area too.", Myna says as he moves into the hall.
At Myna's word, Flint swiftly follows and pushes the closest person hesitating person along (Morgrym or Kayne) if either hesitates.
"Gah!" Flint complains quietly. "More endless corridors and doors. Dwarves might be great architects when it comes to stability, but they need some work on the scenery. This is a palace! Where are the vast bath houses and feast halls filled with heraldry and ornate carvings?"
Kiril grunts in agreement, keeping watch then shutting the door behind them once they're all in. "More like a dungeon..." he agrees with Flint.
"Anyone know how to make maps? Or have some way to mark the path back?"
He tries scraping the wall with a weapon, to see if he could leave a mark or X on it.
Quickly realizing that the fog must not be coming from anywhere in this direction, the group
Kayne, leading his donkey
Kiril
Flint
Myna
and
Morgrym
Dash through the open stone door, and then everyone lends a hand swinging it shut. After a pause, the fog settles to the ground and eventually dissipates.
Two sets of doors can be seen by the light of Flint’s torch, while the passageway continues to the north into darkness.
Kiril moves to a wall, just south of the doors, and tries to scratch the stone with his weapon. He finds that the stone work of this strange underground place is made of a hard, semi-smooth stone fitted into place, with no motor. He tries harder, and manages to make only the smallest scratch, which he can tell right away he would need to be right up on with a torch or lantern to see again.
"Hells. How are we going to find our way back? Bah, I'm tired of standing around."
Kiril heads down the hall and takes the door to the left, opening it and walking in with his maul ready.
"Look, if you want to make I map I'll thank ya, but as I've got the torch in one hand and a slab of metal in the other, I'd sooner leave it to the planners amongst us." Flint says, looking back towards Kayne.
"Hey Myna. You and Morgrym and those others that vanished had been down here before I came about, have you been keeping a map?"
Myna looks to the halfling and shakes his head.
"Nope, never thought we would be travelling this far or this deep. Maybe we should think about it though."
Kayne sighs. "Well, I suppose it would be prudent to start keeping track of our location. A shame to put my talents to such base tasks, but even so." He goes to Alighieri's pack saddle, rummages around for a few moments, and eventually pulls out the necessary supplies . "Of course, this is just for this area. The map probably won't stay at all to scale... And being that we're starting somewhere in the middle, it'll be a confusing wreck at best."
Not at all the proper conditions for something like this.
Kiril takes a quick, sharp look around the room, noting every detail in a warrior's adrenaline rush then charges, screaming, at the emaciated dwarves.
Sliding into the room in a more cautious manner, Myna sees the creatures surrounding the female dwarf and he releases a bolt of fire at one of the cadavers.
Firebolt:
Damage:
Also stepping into the room, Kayne releases Alighieri's bridle as he draws his sword. Good, maybe now they'll stop complaining about having to find their princess. Assuming this is her. Raising his hand, Kayne whispers a few arcane words, and a bolt of force flies across the room toward one of the emaciated dwarves.
Round 1...
Immediately recognizing the danger, Kiril charges into the room and strikes the closest shambling dwarf. Swinging his heavy club in a wide roundhouse attack he bashes the dwarf to the side, opening an escape path for the threatened woman.
Finally, my prayers have been answered the Dwarven woman sighs, and then rushes toward the safety of the doors.
Myna watches Kiril disappear into the room, and feels compelled to follow close on his heels. Once he is inside, and sees Kiril attack a creature, the elf lets lose with a minor spell, and a small dart of bright green flame shoots into the same creature
Once he is satisfied he has found, and organized, the necessary supplies o begin making a map, Kayne leads Alighieri into the room, just as he enters he sees Myna throwing a spell, and he quickly follows that missile with his own attack
The Eldritch Blast, surrounds the creature with a wavering wash of mystical power. As it seems as if the attack will finish the creature, it reaches out with a boney, flesh covered fist and strikes at Kiril
While the other two monsters turn their attention away from the girl and attack Myna and Kayne
Kiril’s armor staves off the blow, but Myna and Kayne are both struck by the slow moving creatures, the blows are strong, and cold
Myna - takes 4 damage
Kayne - takes 7 damage
One Zombie - reduced to 1 hp, gets up!
Save w +0
If reduced to 0 hp, make a con save (5 +damage) if successful reduced to 1 hp instead
Melee attack, +3, d6+1 | xp 20 +2 per hp = 64 each
Stopping at the door, the girl turns, the look on her face is one of both fear, and determination.
Round 2...
The party takes the Initiative, their attacks, and damage will be counted before the monsters can attack. Will they drop the Zombies this round?
What should I do Sandy thinks to herself, as she watches these strangers charge into the zombies I’ve exhausted all my power, and my skill in combat is no match for the relentless dead, still there must be something I can do to help these ones who came to my rescue
The pretty dwarven woman, steps to Flint, and says
Stranger, may the shining light of my faith in our Mother’s Patience guide your hand
Kiril shouts, grinning ferociously at the dwarf as she passes, then bellowing as he brings the iron maul down on the shambler that tried to attack him in a massive overhead swing.
"Feels good to smash dwarves--no offense, m'lady!" Kiril calls over the melee.
Nearly bouncing into the room, Flint engages them passively at first, working to get between them and the maiden. He'd drop the torch in the center of the room and draw a weapon as he does. When she casts upon him, he flashes her a charming grin.
"May she indeed!" he says, and works towards attacking the nearest enemy with his warhammer, trying to draw the attention away from her.
Myna works his way over to the zombie Flint is fighting and stabs at it with his sword.
Attack-melee:
Damage:
Kayne falls back as the blow smashes into his chest, and he brings up his gauntlet again. "Dammit, die."