Hinkle and Fillia both manage to connect with their attacks, each damaging the creature slightly.
Eoswulf manages to slash the creature's head, bringing it down.
With the threat eliminated, Janira congratulates you all on your first successful battle together, and offers healing to any of those in need.
Once everyone is healed and ready, she says "Let's move on. We must reach those caves before dusk."
As you continue to travel through the wilderness, you find trails blocked by fallen objects, shortcuts overgrown, and other minor delays that cost you precious time time.
Maximos keeps the party on track, so you arrive at the cave area before dark.
The dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. “Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines,” Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. “This is where I saw the gillmen enter.”
As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth.The halfling worriedly remarks, “Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us!” As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group.
Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’ capabilities, Janira screams, “A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag,” she continues, pulling off her backpack, “and head deeper into the caves. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO!” She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away.
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Ēoswulf eyes the mighty beast, a lust for battle in his eyes. At Janira's command the light fades. Must not forget the mission. "As you say. May your heart be strong, small one." he turns and enters the cave.
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This cave system stretches deep below the foothills of the Kortos Mounts, though most of it is accessible only through a narrow keyhole tunnel. All of the tunnels in this area are between 3 and 10 feet wide and vary equally in height, though most are a comfortable 7 or more feet wide in each dimension.
The caves are damp (increases the DC of all Acrobatics checks by 2). Water dripping from stalactites and the distant rushing of underground streams creates an eerie backdrop as you enter and explore. The caves’ walls are patterned with blue-green luminescent fungi that provide dim light.
Petroglyphs—most depicting marine animals or spiral shapes—periodically decorate the tunnels’ walls, becoming increasingly frequent as you explore deeper in.
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 pit lies a small bundle of cloth.
You easily make it to the bottom of the pit, and the cloth appears to be a rather fine cloak.
Fillia falls in the pit, just missing Dunbar and hitting the ground.
The bag contains a potion of barkskin, potions of cure light wounds (2),
potion of feather step, potion of vanishA, scroll of entangle, scroll of gust of wind, scroll of identify, scroll of mage armor (CL 6), scroll of obscuring mist, wand of burning hands (CL 3rd, 4 charges), wand of cure light wounds (CL 3rd, 8 charges), acid, alchemist’s fire (2), holy water, smokestick, tanglefoot bags (2), thunderstone;
She obviously came prepared!
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Ēoswulf shakes his head. He secures a rope, then climbs down into the pit. He reaches into his pack and a puzzled look comes over his face. He blushes a slight pink, then looks to his companions. "Do you have a grappling hook?"
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Ēoswulf attaches the grappling hook to his rope, then throws it over the top of the pit at the other side. Once secured, he climbs up, then offers to aid anyone who needs a hand getting up.
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With the ropes in place, you are all able to successfully navigate the pit without further harm.
Someone hands Fillia the potion of CLW, and she drinks it, feeling better immediately.
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.
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Having had the Potion, Fillia feels alot better as the fog on her mind eases up. She blushes as she hears Dunbar's Comment.
"I've lived among the trees back home....Not so many pits and holes in a forest."
Accepting the Brawny Ulfen's aid, Fillia manages to clamber out of the pit.
"I'm afraid magic is not what I've learnt either. My training has not progressed that far yet."
You are able to decypher a few of the murals, and discover that they are parables that feature Aroden’s guises. You also discover that they are not exactly as those you know from the History and Future of Humanity. These may, in fact, be earlier versions! It is quite a discovery.
In particular, Eoswulf is able to read two of these: the Artist, and the Craftsman.
The Artist is depicted painting murals on the walls of impressive buildings, associated with Aroden having painted the city of Absalom with beautiful colors so that it might awe all who visited.
The Craftsman is depicted creating shoes, pots, jewelry, and other moveable goods, referencing Aroden’s delight at seeing his people express their ingenuity in creating new products from raw materials.
Fillia discovers the the Hunter and the Shepherd.
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.
The Shepherd is depicted herding animals out of a crowded city to the pastures beyond, just as Aroden blessed leaders with the foresight to direct people to the tasks and places that best suit them.
It is a very fine cloak.
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Having shared all he saw on the wall, Ēoswulf looks around. "Let's, uh, note that down. But, what else is here?"
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I might be missing it, but I didn't see any use of spellcraft or detect magic. It is a very fine cloak.
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It is a cloak of resistance +1. Fillia notices that the caves continue. She also finds a large plank that looks like it could be used to cross the pit.
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.
The cavern’s ceiling stretches 20 feet overhead and is crowded by dozens of stalactites, some measuring 10 feet long from base to tip. Despite the impressive geology, the cave’s focus is the sloping, 15-foot-deep pool and its tiny city.
Kneeling in the water is a lone figure, back turned to you.
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Dunbar will go place the plank over the pit just in case Jinara doubbles back and comes this way. He then remembers his in- brief and the importance of reporting, so he takes a moment to sketch out the carvings as their age and artistry would surely be of intrest to the Society. Lastly, in the large cavern, the Dwarf will ready his crossbow at the sight of the solitary silhouette in the pool, looking for any other interlopers that may be about.
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