"Looks Like I don't have any worries, as I'm not wearing any metal or use metal weapons."
'He eats this armor, he won't be leaping up on much of anything.' Dugan warns with a scowl.
"Here was me thinking you had befriended a goblin or something. We'll throw it the pot first and steer clear, I'll toss the sword if needed on the way back but we'll hopefully find something else on our way down."
"I have no objection. Let us press on."
The guards open first the inner iron gate, then the outer darkwood gate, and they usher you into the arching cavern beyond.
Shaped like an overturned bowl, this cavern is cold and damp. The walls are surprisingly clear of mold and fungus, likely kept regularly clean by an unlucky detail of soldiers. A few tiny lizards and mice scatter as light spills out from the opened gates, but there is no sign of anything resembling "Scamp."
About twenty feet ahead, the way narrows into a downward sloping tunnel, but it is still wide enough that you can walk two abreast without having to stoop down.
The unworked stone is wet and slick. Small bits of light filter from tiny openings above. As betrayed by the odor, you fear that the privies empty down upon this slope, running down to the caverns below. As you brace your noses against the pungent air haunting the passages, you realize that you must be cautious not to slip as you descend.
Dugan keeps the pot in hand as he picks his way down the tunnel.
Micheo stomps forward, as is his way.
Ulark tried his best to keep his footing, a task he was not especially adept at.
Micheo is unable to manage the weight of his armor while struggling to keep his footing, and he tumbles onto the sloping passage floor.
Thankfully, he manages to grab onto a natural handhold in the earth and rock, thus preventing himself from sliding all the way down to the unknown cavern at the bottom. Although his armor is now slick, slimy, and smelly, the paladin is at least safe.
Years of travel on muddy back roads and icy cobblestones help Iconnu keep his footing.
Micheo is mildly annoyed, but continues on regardless.
"Once we are on firmer ground, I can summon fresh water to rinse us off.", he offers.
Joanne and Ulark, less than gracefully, maintain their balance as they slowly make their way down, while Inconnu and Dugan make the descent look easy and reach the bottom first. Micheo follows along, struggling to avoid another tumble.
The cavern below is an oblong chamber whose floor is carpeted in moss and fungus, fertilized by the waste fed from above. Many small crevices and crannies line the walls, although none appear large enough to allow anything bigger than a rat to squeeze through.
Dugan edges into the chamber, holding the pot out in front of him.
Inconnu looks back up the way they came. "You know what I regret not securing a rope, the ascent might be more challenging."
”Oh...damn. That would have been a good idea.”
"That it would have. Hindsight is the best we can generally rely on. Would anyone else like a rinse?"
As he speaks, Micheo draws upon a fragment of Sarenrae's mercy - to cause water to appear above himself and flow down.
Micheo is too distracted by cleansing his armor with an impromptu shower to notice anything else in the cavern.
Inspecting it closer, you find that it is a simple silver ring with the name "Jorr" etched within band's inner face.
You suspect you see something moving within the shadows of the burrow.
Although some light creeps down from the gate atop the slope at your back, the periphery of the cavern remains swathed in deep shadows.
Dugan stoops to scoop up the ring. Eyeing the inscription he reads aloud 'Jorr?'
”Hold.” Ulark said firmly. ”Up there. The burrow. Something is moving inside there.” He held his axe at the ready as he slowly inches forward.
Micheo looks up, trying to see what Ulark is pointing at, dripping arms and armour ready.
"What's that? One second." Inconnu cast's light on his shield.
As the magical light cast upon Inconnu's shield flares to life, it reveals the mottled brown scales of whatever lurks in the burrow atop the ledge. Owing to how it's coiled up, it is hard to even discern what shape this creature might take. However, it is surely at least the size of one of you.
The worm-like grick is a terror of the caverns and tunnels in which it dwells, lying in wait near heavily traveled underground passages or subterranean cities for the chance to reach forth from the darkness and take its prey. Those laid low by a grick are rarely consumed on the spot. Instead, fresh food is hauled back to the grick’s lair in a tight burrow or high on a cavern ledge, where it is consumed in small bites at the grick’s leisure.
Capable predators, gricks also have a strangely weapon-resistant hide that makes them especially dangerous. Many novice adventurers have fallen to grick attacks merely because they were unable to damage the creature with their nonmagical weapons.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
'Stay back, Scamp!' Dugan yells, hurling the cooking pot at the burrow.
The cooking pot clatters upon the top of the ledge and rolls harmlessly into the burrow, but it nudges and disturbs the creature lairing within. Rather than the oversized but friendly "cricket" that the soldiers described Scamp as, what emerges is a slimy, worm-like creature the size of a human. Its mouth opens hissingly wide, a sickening tangle of tentacles and hooked jaws.
Micheo feels his tongue swell and visions of futures that may yet come to pass. He staggers forward, his rapier and shield out.
"That's no bloody scamp it's a grick. They're tough to hurt without an enchanted weapon." Inconnu warns the others before casting grease on the ledge hoping to knock the creature down.
The worm-like creature resists the magic grease, but it slithers out and descends of its own accord. As it moves, it jostles a small shower of bones and other items from its lair that slide down, aided by the grease.
The grick lashes at Micheo with its tentacles and beak-like jaws, but he easily defends himself from the cave predator with his shield.
”You will not stand in the way of my redemption!” Ulark roared, bringing his axe down squarely upon the creature’s head.
With righteous fury, Ulark cleaves the thick cavern worm in twain with a single swing of his axe.
Once the steaming gore from the writhing body slows, blending with the other offal lining the cavern floor, you are able to take stock of what else had emerged from the burrow above.
The sturdy, gnawed bones of some humanoid lay scattered among the corpse of its presumed killer. The leg and foot bones still sit within boots made from unusual leather. A thick dagger of dwarven make, forged from blackened iron, also lies among the bones, in addition to an untorn leather canteen and a ripped pouch spilling a handful of coins.
'Damn, boy!' Dugan laughs at Ulark, his hand only halfway to his own axe. Then, with a groan, Dugan remembers his pot. 'Gonna have to fetch that.'
He scrambles up to the burrow to retrieve his Scamp bait.
"Or you could do that I guess..." Inconnu takes a moment to appreciate the sheer power of the strike. He then sets about trying to identify the potion.
One would suspect that his suit of mithral plates was merely made of paper and cloth for how easily Dugan scales the cavern wall. He needs only briefly endure the rank odor wafting out of the grick's now-vacant burrow as he reaches up and seizes the cooking pot, then eases himself back down.
Although Inconnu easily gleans, using Detect Magic, that the contents of the leather canteen are indeed some potion and not merely ale or water, the purpose and properties remain elusive. This is a very unfamiliar potion.
Shaking off the bits of Grick from his axe, Ulark said ”I don’t think that this will be enough. But still...” He took a claw as proof of the deed.
Micheo's speech is restored before he even has a chance to reply.
"That was an amazing strike, Ulark. Well done."
He gazes at the remains.
"The skull is of dwarf-kin.", he adds with a trace of mournfulness.
The grick has done such a thorough job stripping the flesh from the bones of its hapless prey that it's rather difficult to determine how long ago this dwarven traveler died. It could have been as recent as only a couple days ago.
”A dwarf or deurgar?” Ulark mused.
"Hard to tell I'd warrant... think of your killing blow against tue first beast that assailed us as a good omen Ulark "
Dugan slides back down the slope on his backside, sending a shower of loose rocks bouncing down around him. He nods to the skull. 'We wanna try to bury him or say some words?'
Inconnu rubs the ring on his finger. "Kind of a miserable spot to leave him. I'll admit I regret in our rush to get the mushrooms we couldn't spare the time to bury the dwarven prisoners from the monastery."
"Then I forgot in the rush to get the children into safety.... and the running from the Lumber Consortium."
Deciding that he didn’t quite care whether the body was or a dwarf or gray dwarf, Ulark quietly began making a cairn. He decided that putting a dwarf beneath stone was as respectful a method as he could think of.
As a Sarenite paladin, Micheo knows that cremation is a common ritual in his faith for consecrating the dead. This serves to both symbolically commend the deceased to the cleansing light and healing flame of the sun goddess while also preventing their return as undead.
Of course, creating even a small funerary pyre down here would be difficult and unwise.
Nevertheless, as Ulark constructs the fitting cairn for the deceased, Micheo remembers a short Sarenite litany for the dead.
Thinking someone should say a few words Inconnu clears his throat. "Long ago there was a prophecy given to the Dwarven people. The Quest for the Sky. When the omens came the dwarven people undertook this sacred journey. But it was from the stone and earth the dwarves first came. It is a fitting place that this unknown dwarf has come to rest, may his spirit join that of his ancestors while the remains stay here amongst the stone and earth."
Micheo feels the old discomfort as he remembers how much easier he learned how to hurt people than to comfort them. But that inspired him to practice the latter even harder.
He clears his throat and speaks after Ulark finishes the impromptu cairn.
"Sarenrae, I know not if this dwarf worshiped you or even knew your name. But please see fit to draw your eye to them, and give their soul aid should they need it, to reach their final resting place."
'And if he was a bad dwarf I hope there's not enough of him left to come after us for messing with his parts.' Dugan seals this by spitting on the cavern floor and grinding it into the stone with a boot. 'Let's find that Scamp.'
The dwarf presses further into the cave system.
Micheo turns from the cairn, to likewise delve deeper into the caves.
The lone passage from this initial cavern plunges forward into the earth beneath Adamas, eventually leading to another, albeit smaller cavern. Several other narrow, twisting tunnels branch off from here. As you explore them, you find that they all eventually lead to dead ends. Nothing more than moss, harmless fungi, and the occasional tiny lizard are to be found.
However, while exploring these upper caverns, almost the entire party hears the soft padding of feet upon the uneven natural rock floor. Turning quickly, you find a creature barreling towards you that better fits the description offered by the gate wardens above. This insect-like creature bounds on four legs, and it possesses both a strange propeller-shaped protrusion at the end of its tail and two long, feathery antennae.
The creature pauses, and its antennae wiggle as though "tasting" the air. Seeming to sense something to its liking, it hops about eagerly. You sense that you only have a moment before the cricket-like creature rushes forth and climbs atop one of you like a hound.
After the barest of pauses, Dugan hurls the pot towards the strange creature. 'This has got to be Scamp.'
If the creature seems uninterested in the pot then Inconnu will offer it his old longsword... but hopes it will be happy with the pot.