Amélie approaches the group as they're about to set off. She listens to Benedict's instructions, nodding. "Shall I come along with you? Or do you want me to stay with ze camp?"
"Yes Amélie, your assistance would be most welcome. Take one or two of those healing potions just in case."
"By all means come along, Amélie. You are more than welcome." Jie says while preparing to leave.
The party moves through the forest back to where they encountered the troglodytes. As they travel, they spook a large stag which bounds away from the adventurers.
Amélie looks wide-eyed and her fingers twitch on her bow string.
Jie reacts without thinking, shooting at the buck.
Grum and Jie's bow shots are on target and bring down the stag before it is able to bound out of view. It crashes to the ground.
Amélie pouts briefly because the buck was felled before she got a shot off. She slides the arrow back in its quiver then beams at Grum and Jie. "Good shots! Zis deer will provide lots of meat!"
She assists in dressing the carcass, which yields 5 Provision Points of meat.
Jie helps Amélie with the carcass, giving a little prayer of thanks to the forest for the meat and a prayer to the stag itself. "Do you want the antlers as a trophy?" she asks Grum.
Jie laughs, remembering similar conversations she had with rangers growning up. "That's really not my style. It's yours if you want it."
"Nice shooting!"
Benedict helps with dressing the carcass before the party moves on.
Once the stag is cleaned and dressed, and the meat packed away in a satchel, the party continues onward. The gray and bleary weather makes travel uncomfortable, but inevitably they reach the area where they had fought the troglodytes.
In a burst of light and feathers, a cute songbird appears in the place of the feather. It chirps a few times, waiting for a message to be given to it. Eventually, it speeds off through the swampy valley.
It's a race, to follow the yellow-and-black bird through the underbrush, but its bright plumage stands out amidst the grays and greens. It flits into the narrower gorge that the party had explored to some degree the day before. It alights on a twisted old tree half-fallen into the muddy creek, chirps once, then takes flight one more time. It flies into a mass of tangled roots and vines that hang down from the high and rocky ridge twenty feet above the sandy shore. It disappears within the mass of vegetation.
"Phew!" Amélie says slightly out of breath. "Zhat was quite ze chase. If zhat is the entrance, I can see how you missed it. It is well-hidden."
"No, that's a good thing. If we bring our refugees here then it will be just as hard for the hobgoblins to find us." She frowns. "Well they know we're here." she says as she examines the tangled web of vegetation, trying to figure out where the actual entrance is.
"I agree, a good hiding place."
Bow in hand, Benedict takes a look into the tangled roots, and listens for the sound of troglodytes reacting to the bird.
Once the tangle is pushed aside, a cave mouth is revealed. It is dark, lacking any natural light. Only the gray light of the day filters through the hanging plants, revealing a narrow tunnel sloping sharply down. The tips of tree roots protrude from the ceiling like stained teeth. Faint light from outside catches on a streak of cloudy teal crystal running along the length of one wall. Bulbous brown and purple fungal growths sprout from the ground, and an unpleasant, slightly sulfurous odor hangs in the air.
A number of large, bulbous mushrooms are in fact shriekers, a form of fungus that emit a piercing shrieking sound if disturbed either by bright light or something moving too close (within 10')
Benedict doesn't know anything about the crystals or the mushrooms. He slings his bow across his back, draws the battleaxe, and follows close behind Grum. He and Grum both have Darkvision and so are the best to have in front.
Jie puts away her bow, and takes the hooded lantern out of her backpack, taking a few minutes to light it. She takes out the Scent Cloak alchemical vial that she has a soaks a strip of cloth in it, wrapping it around her nose. She then proceeds with the lantern in her left hand and her sword in her right behind Benedict and Grum.
As Grum and Benedict move forward to take advantage of their darkvision, a trio of bulbous fungi roughly the size of a person begin pulsing and emitting a deafening shriek. The noise rings in your ears for several seconds until it finally ceases, leaving a residual whine in your heads until it clears.
Amélie had dug into her pack and fished out a torch. She was in the business of lighting it when the shrieking mushrooms erupted. She shakes her head for a moment to clear the ringing in her ears.
"Oh. Nothing like ringing ze door bell, no?"
Amkarang readies his meteor hammer as the sound ends and mutters, "Damn that was loud. Guess stealth is out of the picture."
Jie jumps when the shrill noise goes off. She readies her sword, certain that something will answer the dinner bell.
Benedict holds his new axe ready, waiting to see who shows up.
The natural sounds of the area slowly return after the deafening screeches. The entrance to the cave remains silent and dark. Nothing immediately comes rushing out of the caves.
Benedict waits about three minutes, listens for any other sound, then motions to Grum to continue forward. If the corridor narrows so that only one can proceed, he'll go in front (better AC).
Jie follows along, providing light.
Amkarang follows along next to Grum, ready to dish out some hurt.
The tunnel bends sharply to the left, then opens up on the right, revealing a large chamber. A cylindrical mass of roots hangs from the exact center of this room. The roots have been braided together to form a cradle holding a giant violet crystal as big as a human head. Sparkling veins of crystal line the walls.
Benedict and Grum are the first to peer into this chamber, and notice that there are two additional exits on opposite sides of the cavern. Each passage deeper into the cave system is guarded by a troglodyte.
Amélie moves forward and drops her torch at her feet, which illuminates the whole chamber. She takes aim at the troglodyte on her left.
The arrow sinks deep into the creature's side, eliciting a pained hiss.
The wounded troglodyte throws a javelin at Amélie. The unwounded troglodyte flings a pouch of something at Benedict.
The javelin is wildly off the mark.
The bag is soft and as it scrapes along the ceiling, it catches on one of the protruding crystals. The contents burst well short of Benedict, so he only gets a whiff of the foul-smelling concoction within that could have had him retching if the bag had found its mark.
Then, the troglodytes issue forth their own foul musk and the entire chamber is filled with the stench.
Benedict tries to resist the stench, but starts gagging.
He moves and tries to attack the troglodyte on the right. In his condition, the blow is not a solid one.
Amkarang runs into the cave and lashes out at one of the troglodytes. However, he is distracted by his first contact with the horrendous smell, throwing his aim off.
Seeing the cluster around the easternmost trog, Jie moves to guard the northern passage while they finish off their opponent. The smell is awful and she finds herself almost ready to vomit.
Amélie makes a strangling noise in her throat as the trogs' musk hits her hard. She still tries to hit the remaining foe through her watering eyes.
One arrow manages to graze the troglodyte.
The remaining troglodyte swings its club at Benedict, then follows up with a claw and bite.
The clumsy swings are wild and don't come anywhere near to hitting the leader of the refugees. Perhaps there was a buzzing fly that it was more interested in swatting?
Benedict tries again to attack the last troglodyte, before stepping back to get out of the way of the archers.
Benedict draws another wound with his battleaxe, but his nausea weakens his blow just enough that the troglodyte remains standing. Grum is unable to maneuver around the reptilian humanoid to get into flanking since it had positioned itself at the entrance to a narrow corridor. His swing is ineffective.
Amkarang steps forward and swings twice at the troglodyte in front of him.
Amkarang finishes the troglodyte with his follow-up attack. His hammer sends it crashing against the stone wall with a sickening crunch.
Before the body has settled, the Unsinkable fighter notices that in the dim light of Amélie's torch, he can see that the passageway slopes downward steeply. A pair of troglodytes lurk in the chamber just at the edge of his sight.