He was supposed to be near the mouth of the cave, not down in the slope. But the way I wrote it, I can totally see where the lack of clarity is.
To be clear, he is up near the entrance, not down the slope.
Brinda moves towards the huddling man, still limping from her fall. "You're Padraig? Where are the children?" she asks bluntly, her tone firm, on the brink of angry.
After examining the entrance Crashing Waves speaks to the man, "Are you Padraig?"
Jexen advances, still a bit creaky after his fall.
The man seems to have no awareness of you, mumbling to himself about how wrong he was. He seems to tell fragments of what happened to himself, and by listening long enough you can connect some pieces together.
This was an ancient cave that was purported to heal the sick. He took the kids here, and pushed them down the hole to be healed. But they immediately went silent. He's been growing more and more mad ever since, too afraid to go down but driven insane with worry about their fate.
"Now that's just plain irresponsible, abandoning teens in a cave without a cursory examination." Crashing Waves shakes his head and continues, "hopefully this cave is more of a tunnel than a den of monstrosities. I am also concerned about the entrance, the things that may help us in look like the could be a hindrance on the way out."
Jexen eyes up the man huddling before him/
"Irresponsible for certain. They may have fallen silent due to their illness. Luckily for them, we have arrived."
Jexen turns towards the tunnel and prepares to climb.
Depsite the steep slope, getting down is easy enough.
At the bottom of the slope, bones cover the floor.
Once you enter this chamber, you can feel a noticeable breeze headed inwards toward the cave.
Leaving this area, there are two seemingly identical exists, on toward the left and one towards the right, although both lead in the same forward direction deeper into the cave, branching off in a sort of Y pattern.
Jexen walks over to the bones, examining them for signs of freshness - and of human size.
Crashing Waves looks around the cave floor for tracks be they human or otherwise.
Most of the bones look human. None of them look whole, they're all broken and old. What new ones there are do not seem human.
The ground here doesn't seem like rock or earth; it's some sort of other material, but you can't tell what. There are no tracks. You don't even leave tracks behind when you walk.
Brinda seems fascinated by the ground. She peers at it intently.
"Nothing for it then, but onwards."
Jexen puts away his sword and affixes his torch to the side of his arm, as he prepares to climb.
The floor is just that - not natural. It's difficult to tell what exactly it is. It acts like rock in that it's a solid floor. But it isn't rock as it has no dust or debris. The floor, walls, and celling all are the same material, forming a hollow tube shaped cavern.
"Let's go this way. I have... a feeling," Brinda says motioning to the left tunnel.
Jexen moves down the Left tunnel. As you round the bend, you can see light eminating from the cavern. A soft bluish-green light. Soon, the source is revealed - the cavern is full of a phosphorescent fungus that gives off a small glow. The combination of all the fungus together brightens the room enough to grant full light conditions.
Brinda casts her eye about the cavern, looking for anything suspicious or interesting.
Jexen draws sword in hand and torch in the other, looking about him.
Sköllji draws his axe and eyes the room.
"Interesting..." Crashing Waves says as he inspects the fungus.
Crashing Waves inspects the fungus more closely than the rest, and discovers it rather sticky. In addition, the fungal.bramches are slightly mobile, as they reach in to stick to him.
As you investigate the fungal cavern, one of the fungal pods *pops.* A proof of spores fills the air with a half meter or so around it. Once that happens, another pod pops, and then another and another. Soon, the entire room is filled with spores.
The spores start to coalesce into a vaguely humanoid shape, looking like an enormous mushroom with a drooping, perforated cap, a thick trunk with two armlike appendages ending in heavy knobs, and two rubbery legs.
Crashing Waves whirls away from the overly touchy fungi. "Careful, its sticky and..." his sentence is cut short as the sporific humanoid tracks shape, "Oh that's not good..."
"Oh hells! E'eryone, get out!" Sköllji shouts as he covers his mouth and nose with his left hand and runs back the way they came.
Jexen shouts:
"Run! I will cover the rear!"
With sword and shield, Jexen will not run past the slowest of the party, and keeps looking back to halt the advance or blows of the fungoid thing.
Brinda shouts out arcane words, and uses her hand to direct the strange spore like creature from a distance.
Everyone makes it out of the room. The fungal monster chases after you, but stops short at the edge of the fungal Flora.
Crashing Waves noticed the creature halting at the edge, he stopped and turn back toward the fungus. Keeping a good distance between him and it. "Can you communicate?" he asked the mobile mushroom.
"Be ready, in case it follows us.", says Jexen, trying to keep himself between the others and the mushroom.
The fungal creature does not respond to any inquiries for communication, but it does prowl the border where the Grove ends.
From here, you can try and push your way through, you can head back up to the mouth of the cave, or you can try going down the other passagway.
Or something else.
"Perhaps we should try the other path," Brinda suggests. "I have no problem destroying a creature made of fungus, but if the children are in here somewhere they could be more likely to be down the tunnel that isn't guarded by a plant monster. But then again, who would know?" She looks around to hear the others' thoughts.
Looking down the other path, I looks like a mirror image of the first.
Looking down the other path, "Well can't be any worse than the other one, right?" Crashing Waves advances down the new pathway.
Knowing that you must he extra careful not to disturb the fungus, you try to leave your way through the stalks and bulbs, hoping you don't touch one.
Sköllji is careful to keep away from walls as he walks down the path.
Between Brinda and Jexen, enough of the fungus were disturbed that the pods start popping, releasing spores into the air. Once again, like the other room, the spores coalesce into a humanoid shaphed fungus monster, with a large mushroom cap and thick stalky legs.
Jexen realises his error, and the monstrous form rising in front of him.
And he turns, shouting as he raises sword and shield!
"WITHDRAW!"
My fault, my holding action.
"It's either fight them or give up on the children..." Crashing Waves says as he drives a focused fist into the humongous fungus.
Seeing Crashing Waves clash with the fungoid, Brinda holds her hand out, fingers spread, and spits out two powerful words. Darts of pure shadow shoot from her fingers at the creature.
Since the others are not fleeing, Jexen advances on the fungoid, sword drawn.
Crashing Waves charges the fungal monster and slams into it. In response, a cloud of spores releases. The spores burn upon contact; they have some sort of corrosive property about them.
When Jexen enters the cloud of spores to attack it, he also feels the burn.
Brinda's darts strike true.
The fungal beast punches back with its hand-less arms.
Brinda fires another shadow dart at the creature, hoping to damage it more solidly than last time. She bares her teeth, eyes narrowed, as she spits out the arcane words and hurls the dart with all her might.
Unfortunately, in her passion and fury she misjudges the trajectory, and the shadow missile flies past the fungus man and into the cave wall.