The gang is back in the smaller room. Do you follow the path of the other tunnel?
Guruthos whispers a grunt and points to the other tunnel, then leads the way,watching for traps and ambushes, of course.
You encounter no traps in the tunnel, however, a thick layer of straw covers the floor of this cave. The cave's northern end hooks around a corner to the east, and is out of sight from the south. A large section of straw has been stained green and is still wet-looking.
Lying on top of the straw not far from the narrow portion of the cavern are the remnants of what looks to be a spring trap. The various parts have been tossed to the side and discarded, rendering it useless.
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"looks like someone peed on the straw. Or something, actually."
Joriannika made a face. "Well, let's not walk in it if we don't have to. Only..." She sighed gustily. "We have to, don't we? There could be more traps under the straw, and that's the only one we know for sure has already been sprung."
Hanzo whistled, low, and shook his head emphatically. "That's not pee, it's worse. It's greenblood oil. Poison. It has to break your skin to work, but it's nasty. And if there's a trap somewhere else, and we step in it, and then get hit by that oil... Man, I really should have brought a 10 foot pole."
Joriannika gasped, then peered closely at the straw.
Hanzo and Jori carefully forge a path, sifting through the straw, and encountering no other traps.
Around the curve is a hole in the floor and a rope dropping into it from the ceiling.
Hanzo peered down the hole. "I don't suppose anyone has another light they want to drop down there before we climb? I'm assuming Thomas doesn't want to pitch his weapon down there..."
Joriannika shook her head. "I guess we should have thought to bring torches to a kobold's lair. I'd suggest we twist some straw, set it alight, and drop that, but with that poison all over it, I don't think it's such a good idea."
She looked at Thomas and Guruthos. "Do either of you have anything that can help?"
"I wonder...."
Thomas grabs the rope and casts Light on it.
"how's that?"
Thanks to Thomas' cleverness, the rope now glows with a gentle brightness. Your eyes adjust to the change in light in a few seconds time. There's a momentary dull ache that quickly fades from your temples as your pupils contract. The hole appears to be about a 20ft descent.
The masked ef quietly steps past the party and looks down the hole. If there's no apparent danger, he will descend first.
Hanzo sighed melodramatically, but followed quickly after Guruthos.
When he reached the bottom, he quickly drew his weapons again, rubbernecking to make sure nothing was about to attack.
"You can go ahead and head down, so you can protect them," Joriannika said to Thomas with a smile, slinging her crossbow. "I'll be right behind you."
You all descend the rope, entering an ovoid cavern with two shallow pools and a path between them leading beyond. In the dim light from the rope, you can see that the tunnel-y hallway bends to the right and, at the corner, lies a dead kobold.
Hanzo was immediately wary. "Can you see what killed it, Guru?"
Reloading her crossbow, Jori looked at the kobold with much less sympathy than she might have the day before. "We're right behind you, Guruthos," she promised, raising her crossbow to firing height.
Guruthos easily sees that this creature was killed by some sort of weapon with a sharp edge.
Thomas is again providing illumination. "Killed???"
Hanzo looked a little relieved. "That might not be a bad thing, actually. Someone killing kobolds with weapons as opposed to some kind of big animal getting loose and doing it... that we'd have to deal with." He tilted his head, considering.
"Maybe whoever killed the kobold could be an ally to us."
The masked elf casts a sideways glance at the human rogue, then searches the kobold an surrounding area for traps. If he finds none, he makes a more through search of the body. Once complete, motions the spiral over his chest and says a prayer to Pharasma, making a mental note of the location of the body with the intention of returning to give it a proper burial.
there are no traps that you can find, and the corpse has nothing of value. However, searching the second half of the tunnel takes twice as long because it's practically collapsed, cluttered with so much rubble. A large, but low-ceilinged cave is where you find yourself at on the other side of this broken tunnel. In the middle of the cave sits a large pool of dark water.
Joriannika cautiously got a better look at the water. After the greenblood oil above, she wasn't taking any chances.
Glancing back at the rubble, her eyes were troubled. "I sure don't like our way out crowded like that." Then she shook her head, her normal smile resurfacing. "But let's get this done. There can't be much more left of this warren," she said optimistically.
"Go right?" Hanzo queried Guru, keeping an eye out for trouble. "I hear that's what they do in labyrinths."
"Sure, lead the way..."
Hanzo leads the way down a snaky path. You encounter nothing, but you do begin to hear some faint echoes coming from somewhere. Hanzo stops when he notices another path on the left hand side.
Guruthos turns down the left path.
"Hey, what about turning right? I don't want to get lost down here," Hanzo protested, but hurried after Guruthos.
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"I'm sure we'll be fine," Joriannika told him cheerily, and winked at Thomas. "Unless we run into land-sharks, of course!"
"Tunnels like these, I wouldn't be surprised. Sharks are bad enough in the water, where they belong," Hanzo grumbled, but otherwise didn't take the bait. He readied his weapon for whatever might come.
The ceiling of this chamber rises to a lofty twelve feet. The cave floor drops away into a pair of long, ten-foot-deep pits. Between them, a ridge of stone forms a dubious walkway to a landing on the opposite side, where a five-foot-wide shaft with a knotted rope hanging down into it awaits.
"Another stupid tunnel. Not again! I hate kobolds..."
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A voice shouts up from somewhere below
"Ahem! Whomever is up top we are just finishing up dispatching the Kobold Leader down below here with the help of the new Kobold leader who has agreed to remove the clan from the Baronesses lands!”
"Um oh! And he is the one riding a dinosaurus or whatever it’s called. For real! I’m not joking. His name is Nighttail.”
You then hear in a raspy voice, also in common, responding to the first voice,
"First off, I, Nighttail the Glib, am a female! Just like you....Claire. And second! That was a visiting priestess from a neighboring tribe who had overstayed her welcome. An annoying foe, for sure, but the leader? No. Roaghaz's chambers are further ahead, yet. her tone suddenly changes to casual, "who are you talking to?"