Fire Within (Inactive)

Game Master Brolof

Let's go to the south side, and if we don't see him, we just wait for him.

"Fine by me."

Flouncy grabs his gear and heads out.

We'll find him.

The party makes their way out of the inn with the staff and the Sheriff waving at them as they go. It's a quick walk to the south side of town, and assuming someone asks as to where Borr lives, it's also easy to find his stone hut. Thatch roof, no windows, a small hole for smoke to escape. A quick knock on the door will have Borr opening it within a minute, looking annoyed. "What?"

Quellina raises an eyebrow at Borr's brusque greeting. She completely understands it, because who likes being woken up? But he could at least make an effort for them.

"Well good morning to you too. We're sorry to trouble you, Borr, but we need your help with following up on the kobold's map."

diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

Borr squints his eyes at you all, reaching a hand up yo scratch at his head. "Give me a minute." He shuts the door and takes about about a minute before coming back out in his hunting outfit, his crossbow strapped across his back. "Where we going?

We're trying to figure out how far away the points marked on the map are, to see how many we can visit in a certain amount of time. I'm afraid we aren't too good at it.

"We want to check out the areas on these maps, but want to make sure we get to the meeting point early enough to scout it out before they arrive. Since you're familiar with the local wilderness we were hoping you could help us navigate the wilds in the most efficient way."

He leans forward to look the map over, rubbing his beard as he does so. His eyes land on the spot of the meeting and he shakes his head, pointing at the spot. "I'll help you, but I'm not going there. Strange things live in that part of the woods. Best to avoid it entirely."

Fair enough. Can you give us an idea of the distance and how long it will take to get to these spots?

"What strange things live in that part of the woods. If you won't come, thats fine, but we need all the information we can get to better prepare ourselves." Amaya responds lightly

He gives a quick estimate of the time it'd take if you're taking the best route he knows, pointing out some terrain features that the map woefully lacks. At Amaya's question, he rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably and looks off to the side, staring at one of the nearby houses roofs instead of the party. "...Angry things that don't like it when you intrude."

Aviz levels a frown. "Well we must go there. Do you not know what is there, only that it is dangerous?" He interjects.

Yes, a little specificity would be appreciated. If you don't know, exactly, that's fine.

Whether he can or can't tell us much, Flouncy follows up with;
Thank you for the help with the map, Borr. Now that we understand more about the distances and terrain, we'll be more prepared for the hike... Or hikes, as it may be. Thank you.

He scratches his head a bit, looking down at the ground before sighing. "Wait here a moment." He goes back into his hut, eventually returning with a bundle of cloth in his hands. Undoing it, he reveals a small broken arrow, made of wood with a bone head. "I ignored the warnings and went hunting in that area once. This is what drove me off."

Small as in category small, like it would be fired from a bow made for a small creature?

Aviz takes a look at the arrow, frowning. "Well they are intelligent, whoever they are. Little as well. High in numbers? Were there many arrows?"

Borr shook his head, wrapping the arrow back up after everyone is done looking at it. "I don't know, they only ever fired this one arrow. There could have been one, there could have been twenty. I never saw hide nor hair of whatever shot it."

Mhm, it looks around the right size category for a halfling, gnome, goblin, etc etc.

Maybe more kobolds. Well, thanks, Borr. Let's go to the closest one and see what we see.

He seems very afraid given the fact that the only thing he saw was one arrow come at him. I don't think Borr is much of a fighter :P

Quellina peeks around Aviz and Flouncy, catching a glimpse of the arrow. "That scared you off?" Quellina looks to the others, and chuckles slightly. "I think we'll be fine. But thanks for the warning anyway, Borr."

Borr grumbles, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "You try having an arrow striking a tree right in front of your face, and having no clue where it came from."

Borr wouldn't last two minutes in a fight. "Thank you for the help. Well time is of the essence, let's get out into the wilderness. We want to scout as much as he can before getting to the meeting."

Off we go!

The party sets off out of town and into the wilderness. It's early in the morning, giving you a full ten hours of daylight to work with. With Borr's help, an hour can be shaved off walking to any of the sites, leaving with it taking three hours to get to the closest, and five to get to the meeting site. This just leaves of the question of what will they visit? Will they go straight to the meeting site, to try and get as much time as humanly possible? Or will they visit one of the trap sites on the way, or even maybe the camp, costing them some precious time before the meeting?

So we have two hours? Let's spend some time at the closest trap site, spending maximum of one hour there, and then head to the meeting so we will have minimum one hour to scout the area.

Sounds like a plan.

It is a long walk to the closest trap site, through underbrush and up hillsides. Thanks to Borr's advice though, it's a lot easier than it could have been, as you aren't having to find paths yourself. You all eventually find yourselves at the bottom of a small cliff, a path leading to town situated above you.

I'm confused. Do we have to climb the cliff, or is the trap near us?

You don't know, the x seems to he here at the bottom of the cliff. But the map could possibly be just a bit off. The only thing to do is to take a look around.

Aviz searches the area.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

percep: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 5 + 1 = 20

Flouncy looks, too.

Quellina looks about for a trap.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

After twenty minutes or so of looking around, Flouncy and Quellina manage to notice something... off about the cliff face itself. Holes have been drilled into certain spots, and theres an alcove containing a pile of rocks from the top to the bottom. It's hard to guess the mechanics of how it works, but odds are if the rocks are removed... The cliffside comes tumbling down.

Flouncy studies the trap carefully to spot a way to disable it. He'll take 20, if that's possible.

disable device: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13

May not apply:

knowledge (dungeoneering): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

After poking around and inspecting the trap from various angles, Flouncy comes to the conclusion that there isn't any way to actually disable it. The cliff face has been strategically weakened to so as to collapse upon the removal of the pile of rocks. It won't collapse if the rocks aren't removed, but will if they are.

"Just set off the trap and let it fall safely." Aviz suggests.

Well, this isn't going anywhere until someone moves these rocks here, unless there's a way to do it from a distance. We'll just get crushed.

Can we redirect the collapse / rock fall GM and break the trap successfully? Its pretty awkward at present where we probably want to investigate further but its suicide doing so with the trap still up.

Perhaps drop it throw something in to set the trap off? Like a decent sized rock?

You could totally try to set the trap off by throwing something at the pile. You don't have the tools required to redirect the collapse, as it's mostly been done via the use of what looks like hand drills and other tools of that nature. Hitting the rock pile hard enough should cause it to fall over eventually.

Yeah we'll just do that then.

Aviz grabs some rocks, big enough to have an impact but small enough that he can throw them, and makes his way to the top of the cliff. "Stand clear!" He shouts. He starts lobbing the rocks into the trap, trying to set it off.

It takes a few tries, but eventually he knocks enough rocks out of place. It doesn't fall immediately, the cliff face slowly starting to sag in on itself. Eventually it reaches a tipping point, and the entire thing comes tumbling down in a small avalanche of dirt and rock.

Flouncy smiles.

Good work, guys. Let's move on.

So, you all leave the site of the newfound collapse of a trail to the dwarven lands, and head deeper into the foothills, towards the site of the meeting. It takes a good chunk of time, climbing over hill and walking through glen, but eventually you get close to the meeting site. It's a section of forest relatively close to the line where said forests stop in exchange for pure rugged mountainside. You all can already see one of the strange markings on a nearby tree. An area of the bark had been taken off and the tree flattened, an elaborate symbol having been etched into it. Stuck onto a spike in front of it, is the skull of a deer.

Quellina takes in the scene for a moment, then looks to the others. "This is all pretty grim, huh?" She takes a step forward, towards the tree. "And that's a weird symbol. I wonder..."

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

As far as Quellina can tell, the symbol is not for any sort of religion, it's not really like anything you've seen before.

It's a warning. But, we kicked this trap down, and we'll need to do more when we get back from this meeting.

K (dungeoneering): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

To get a sense of the symbol's meaning as a clearly visible trademark for somebody.

"We should push onwards. Symbols are Symbols, and sooner or later, whatever created it will probably find us. As long as we are prepared, we should be fine" Amaya responds, ever the practical sort, and not particularly superstitious as she steps past the tree.

If the magic types didn't seem bothered by it, neither was Aviz. He leads on.

You all start venturing forward into the woods, passing by the symbol. The skull almost seems like it's watching you all, but it's hidden by the tree quickly enough. This part of the woods feels different to the rest of the woods, in an odd way. There seems to actually be more wild life in this part, with more birds singing and squirrels leaping from tree to tree.