"Let's go! I'm excited!"
"And the secret door that will lead us to our quarry is at the top, Shefton?" Korynne asks as she eyes the cliff face. "I suppose there's no time like the present. Lead on."
Shefton, at least, isn't lying about the climb; it's a fairly easy one, even for the people who are less athletically-inclined. It leads to a clearing in the middle of the island; Shefton walks to the south end of the clearing, checks his bearings, and says "What'd I tell youse? Right here!" Moving some plants aside, he reveals a stone trap door, hidden among some boulders, which he pulls open. Inside, there's a 5-ft. wide shaft descending into the darkness, with a rope hanging from an iron ring set near the top.
"Okay, this is where I get off this roller coaster. I'll be in Shadowshore; if you send up some smoke or somethin', I'll see it and come get youse. Or, like yer fishy-looking friend sez, it's probably not too bad a swim, unless the current gets youse. Happy hunting!"
Spells prepared:
0: Detect Magic, Light, Read Magic
1: Detect Secret Doors*D, Bless
As Shefton leaves, Korynne casts a spell, touching the inside of the shaft and leaving a bright spot of light to see what the means of descent are, looking for ladders and such.
"I suppose we should head down. Let's keep an eye out for traps and whatnot. We did ask Shefton to take us to the lair of a rotten thief, after all. After you, my fine fellows," she concludes, gesturing politely toward the entrance in a way that says, "I'm not walking face first into a metal snake this time, thank you very much."
"Why don't we send one or two of us down there, first, verify that this isn't a pit that goes nowhere, and then the others can follow? If someone removes this rope while we're all down there, we might not be able to come back out this way.
"It's kind of like eating a pie, really."
"It's kind of like eating a pie, really."
"How so?"
"I'll go. I can see well down there without a torch calling attention to me." The orc gives the rope a few test tugs, then heads into the dark, dark death pit.
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Jym casts message on Uro, explaining that he can merely whisper any message to him for the next 10 minutes, assuming that there's not too much earth or rock between them to disrupt the spell. Jym will stay by the trapdoor.
"How so?"
"Pie is my go-to metaphor for most things, but usually when I'm hungry.
"Oh, hey! Seed cakes!" Jym pulls the seed cakes he borrowed from the Vanderboren estate the day before out of his pockets and shares them with Korynne and Gwlybwr, if they want.
The shaft seems to be about 30 feet deep -- Korynne's light spell is enough to leave the bottom shrouded in dim light. Uro's skill is hardly needed, as the rope is knotted for easy climbing ; he makes it to the bottom without any noticeable effort.
Uro:
Uro whispers the description of the room and tunnel to Jym through their connection, as quietly as possible.
Followed by;
"I cannot see very far. Too many tight corners."
Korynne takes a seed cake and nibbles on it. "If the coast is clear," she says quietly between bites, "we should head down there and group up. Don't want Uro to get caught alone or anything."
With that, Korynne finishes her snack and carefully makes her way down. Once at the bottom, she draws and loads her crossbow.
While Uro descends, Gwlywbwr buries his ratty satchel at the base of a nearby tree, wrapping it in his cloak and covering it with the loamy soil. He pushes the bushes at the tree's base back into position and wipes his hands on his filthy trousers. He looks around to make certain that Shefton isn't hanging around to steal it, then jumps into the pit after Korynne.
As he plummets down the shaft, instead of crashing, he briefly assumes a meditative pose and afterwards falls so slowly that he lands softly at the bottom . Once there, he wields his spear warily, and inspects slimy room, going so far as to lick the mossy walls.
Gwlybwr's keeps one fish-eye on Shefton, who by all appearances has turned his back and begun walking back towards the beach.
In the tunnels below, he can hear echoes of the waves, and can smell the ocean -- he's pretty sure there's an opening to the sea somewhere lower in the tunnels (which is only logical, if they were at one time a smugglers' hideout).
Jym gracelessly scrambles down Uro's rope.
"After you, my fine burly friends," Korynne graciously offers at a whisper, gesturing for Uro and Gwlybwr to go first around the corner. "Once Jym and I need it, I'll put up a light. Unless you'd like to do the honors, Jym."
In the diminished light of the room, Gwlybwr opens his eyes for the first time since meeting the group. They open unnervingly wide, taking a full quarter of his face, but they excel at gathering in the available light.
He cautiously approaches the corner of the tunnel and peers around.
Gwlybwr snarls as he sees another right-angle bend, 15 feet or so ahead. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to block direct lines of sight and magical message transmissions -- installing what amounts to a an "S" bend in an otherwise straight corridor.
As Gwylbwyr peers ahead, a voice calls out from above, "This is for messing around with my sister -- say hi to Penkus for me!" The voice is cruel and has a slightly insane edge to it. It is not Shefton's. Those in the room see this guy; sneering, he seizes the trapdoor lid.
In this alternative universe, Vanthus assassinates Shefton after he leaves the clearing, and then takes a full-round move past the body, into the clearing, and over to the entrance.
Looks like he's ready to, but if you're fast enough you might get the drop on him.
Korynne says hello - with a crossbow bolt.
Korynne shouldn't have too much trouble beating that, but sadly misses with the bolt.
Uro snarls as he pulls a hand axe and hurls it at the edge of the trap door.
"Keep him up top," Gwlybwr hisses at his companions. "I will catch him outs-side."
Knowing the sea has to be accessable from somewhere in the tunnels in front of him, Gwlybwr sets down them, hoping Vanthus will misjudge his swimming abilities.
Korynne reloads with a muttered curse before turning toward Vanthus with a scowl. "You're the one who stole from your own sister! Now hold still so I can plant a bolt in your head."
Jym casts his ghost sound cantrip to make it sound like there are footsteps from multiple sources in the dirt behind Vanthus.
Vanthus, hurriedly looking over his shoulder at the sound behind him, slams the lid. This splinters the handle of Uro's hand axe -- but the axe head still keeps a gap open, and a thin sliver of sunlight still makes it down into the room you're in .
Uro feels a surge of pride as he recalls adding a bit of extra spin to the throw at the last second, not sure why he was doing so but trusting his own instincts -- without it the axe would have bounced off the rim instead of sticking there.
Jym notes that the rope is still in place.
Gwlybwr edges around the corner --
"Uro, CLIMB!"
"I'd give you a boost, but when was the last time you cleaned those boots? Seriously!"
Staring uneasily at the approaching men, Gwlybwr calls back to his companions, while he tries to place the drowned horrors in his mind.
"There are some drowned men down here. They look hungry, like they've been feeding."
He sets his spear and readies to attack if the shamble-men close.
for
Gwlybwr:
The first zombie takes a spear to the face, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on him -- he's already dead, after all. The other two shamble forward as well. Luckily, it seems like they're too clumsy to rush you; they just move into position, and it's their obvious intention to bite you, but they're slow to get into position. One of them moans eerily, and further off in the tunnels, you can hear others doing the same.
Fighting down his panic and abandoning his whispers, he yells, "Uro! My s-spear doesn't s-seem to hurt the drowned ones. Going to need your help. Your axe. S-soon!"
Looking frantically back and forth between the rope and Gwlybwr's direction, Jym casts magic stone.
Uro's eyes widen as he hears the panic in Gwlybwr's voice. As much as he wants to tear into Vanthus, the safety of his companions is more important. The massive orc holds his great axe high over his shoulder, ready to come down on the head of whatever he meets.
Once he sees the undead horrors: "Get back Gwlybwr!! Up the rope!"
Round 3
"Drowned men?!" Korynne asks, the question both rhetorical and horrified. With a shiver she scrambles for her holy symbol, muttering prayers to the laughing rogue. "Keep them off me!"
The zombies seem very tough, but when Uro puts his "all" into an axe swing, tough becomes very relative. One of the zombies goes down immediately, its head split like a melon.
Uro and Gwlybwyr are each assaulted by one of the remaining zombies:
Uro takes a nasty bite, and what's worse, the zombie sets its jaws and hangs on, chewing!
Round 3 is just about to begin.
Uro pull grab the zombies jaw and attempt to pry it open.
He wil then use his move action to flank with Gwlybwr unless that already happens on Gwlybwr's turn.
Korynne averts her eyes as the corpse bites into Uro with a sickened sound. She summons back her nerve and finishes her prayer, sending a wave of energy through the air that tears at the zombie flesh and adds to the damp hole's musk a faint smell of wine.
DC 12 Will for half.
Wil stabs ferociously at the zombie that bit Uro, then moves back into the room carefully.
"They don't s-seem to mind being s-stabbed. Do you have another axe, Uro? Or s-something I could cut them with? Jym, do you?"
Gwlybwr deals another 4 hp to the one that took the brunt of the positive energy; with each stab a little of the weapon's effect gets through the thing's sodden, undead flesh. The other zombie seems none the worse for wear, but at least Uro is loose, and, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Gwlybwr, the two are able to assist one another to some degree.
As Jym is about to act, there is a terrifically loud crash from the trapdoor, which is now sagged almost entirely closed except where the axe head is propping an inch gap. It almost seems as if some dastard dislodged a boulder down onto it.
You're down to the little light reaching the bottom from Korynne's spell