Golaripalooza [1e, Rotating GMs]

Game Master dien

"Aye? Suppose'n so." Roger shrugs vaguely sorta affirmatively, why not?

The gnome scratches at her chin. "We may as well, yes. If you've an inclination, it's more than I've got."

Just to be sure I understand - the direct line from the green arrow I drew on the map to the exit/entrance, is that a tunnel traversible by medium creatures? Or small ones? Or neither?

You continue along the (roughly) north passage and find several possible paths as the sewers spiderweb out. There is nothing of particular note. The scuff marks appear reasonably dense in both of the parallel northern paths. You also see scuffs (but not nearly as many) in the narrower passage heading west.

The west passage is about 5’ wide. The two northern ones are 10-15’ wide. Where would you like to go?

Majara scrunches up her nose and gazes between the myriad paths. "Let's stick to the most traveled, as near as we can tell what that might be. Though that still gives us a choice, here."

She draws a copper out from her belt pouch and flips it. "Crown - the more easterly passage. Cross - western."

1 is Crown, 2 is Cross: 1d2 ⇒ 2

Slapping the coin onto the back of other hand, she raises her fingers. "West it is, unless someone has an objection."

If nobody raises one, she walks that way.

Suggesting we go up the route I put an arrow on.

"Fine with me," Hannelia agrees, having little to add on the matter and follows the group in the direction of Majara's coin toss.

Our intrepid heroes wander a bit further guided by a flip of a coin... They encounter a curious ‘jog’ in the passageway. After a moment of thinking and a look at the differing wall materials, Hannelia poses a likely hypothesis – this is the location where two separately dug sewer systems were joined up, and the engineer in charged sucked at geometry (hence the rough connection).

The group also note, from the sounds filtering down into the sewer and the remnants of baked goods being washed along, they are close to Gunty’s. Finally, peeking down the eastern side tunnel in passing, there are hints of a wider passageway or chamber in that direction.

The corridor they stand in currently also continues on in a gentle curve that vanishes into the distance.

Hannelia K:Engineer: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Map and position updated

Hannelia explains her thoughts on the rough joining of the sewer systems. "I suppose it makes sense that it wouldn't all be built simultaneously. Especially given settlements tend to grow over time." Peering down the side passage she asks Nerissia, "Do you think Alocer could take a look down there? It looks like it's opening up wider than anywhere else we've been so far."

I'm assuming the side passage is the same size as the ones from earlier, i.e. too tight for most of us to move through, at least without squeezing.

This is where maps in Roll20 are better because you can scale it. The east passage to the ‘chamber’ is 5-7’ wide. You guys could travel in single file or just send a scout, if you prefer.

unless someone has an objection.

Nerissia shakes her head at the gnome she knows so well, somehow still amused. "That's just like you, Majara. Leaving things up to fate instead of choosing your path. I suppose I don't have an objection, we can trust your...coin.'

Do you think Alocer could take a look down there? It looks like it's opening up wider than anywhere else we've been so far.

The tiefling nods, understanding the benefit of this particular course of action. "Alocer, seek." and points down the hall indicated by Hannelia.

Seek: "The animal moves into an area and looks around for anything that is obviously alive or animate." Gonna have him look around a bit, see what's up over there. Will probably be using this one a lot in here.

Nodding in thanks, Hannelia takes her bow off her shoulder and flexes her fingers near her quiver, just in case Alocer should come dashing back in need of support.

Alocer sneaks forward... Does he see anything obviously alive? No, definitely not obviously alive. What about animated? No, nothing is really moving at this moment.

Yesss, all things seem quiet, dead, and unmoving. :)

Alocer returns no worse for wear or at a pace that indicates a lack of concern. Someone risks going forward to see... and finds something that isn't exactly a corridor or a chamber, with an appropriately large filth pool running the length of the room. The filth is draining sluggishly but thankfully it hasn’t overflowed onto the crude walkways around it. There are several exits from this room, all of them navigable. As our heroes look around there are three things of notes:
1. There are some patches of luminous gel-like liquids floating languidly in the pool, following the currents.
2. There are some puddles of filth in the pool that appear to have been eroded in some fashion, as if from chemicals.
3. Roger, while circumnavigating the pool, finds a filthy but rather high quality woolen scarf with a stitched floral motif.

Map updated

Quote:

unless someone has an objection.

Nerissia shakes her head at the gnome she knows so well, somehow still amused. "That's just like you, Majara. Leaving things up to fate instead of choosing your path. I suppose I don't have an objection, we can trust your...coin.'

"I choose my path when I see compelling evidence to pick a given one," Majara answers with a headshake. "In the absence of that evidence, I think it's better to let fate make the call rather than dither over what would, ultimately, come down to nothing but a gut sense anyway. If it's going to be arbitrary I might as well embrace that."

The large chamber has several things more immediately fascinating than continuing the philosophical debate, and Majara goes up on tiptoes in interest. Glowing liquids!! Chemical erosion! Now we're talking.

"Ahaha, what have we here?"

Alchemy would, I assume, be a useful skill here for analyzing some of the stuff!

Whatever is this glowing gel?: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31
And what's causing this erosion?: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

Majara uses all her senses in this process (or tries, before remembering scent is currently off limits to her). Touch is the last resort, however- she uses a crossbow bolt rather than her fingers to poke at substances as she tries to determine what they might be.

Following the fennec down to the most open space they've yet encountered in the sewers, Hannelia lets Majara lead on identifying the glowing substances, this being very much her area of expertise. Still, she racks her brains in case there's something which she can add from her hours of reading widely.

Knowledge re. gel: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13 Add +2 to the check if nature is the relevant skill.

As Roger brandishes the scarf, Hannelia says, "If you pass it here I can give it a quick clean." With the neckwear in hand, she uses a simple spell to give it a magical wash and takes a look. While she's not exactly a follower of fashion, it seems to be a piece of quality knitwear that suggests its owner may not be short of money, or at least is willing to invest what they do have in decent clothing. From a practical point of view she can't argue with the latter as a concept. She scrutinises the design in case it gives a clue to the wearer's identity, such as a family crest, religious symbol or similar.

Casting prestidigitation to give the scarf a clean.
Knowledge re. scarf motif: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 Add +2 to the check if nature is the relevant skill and +1 if it's history or planes.

"Aye- take it." The pirate may have braved a bilge or two in his day, but he's not eager to relive that particular glory, and happily gives the scarf to Hannelia.

As Hannelia takes the scarf from Roger, she feels a hand on her shoulder before she can work her cantrip. Nerissia explains that she’d like Alocer to take a sniff of it once they’ve returned to the surface and removed themselves from the stink of the sewers. It’s a sensible idea so Hannelia stows it away within a waterproof bag inside her pack after trying to distinguish the scarf’s design.

Minor retcon post in line with discussion. I’ll still try and identify the motif.

Majara examines the gel, testing it with a variety of tinctures in her portable kit and observing the chemical reactions. Curiously, she identifies the majority of the ingredients as those found in Stinkblock.

The erosion is harder to comprehend as it is found in an older, and heavily decayed 4 pound ‘lump’ of material. Using arrows to hook and drag the lump out the cesspool, enables the team to view it more closely from all angles. After a minute, Hannelia identifies the lump as the remains of the back of a giant rat. Much of the body (that would make it easy to identify as a rat) are gone – destroyed in the vile soup of the sewers. Looking at the area of erosion, as well as the surrounding tissue, Roger determines that the creature’s spine appears to have been bitten through. Between the sewage that corrupted the wound and the time the body has been festering down here, it is impossible to say much more about the bite. Majara, upon far too close an examination, does find one area of the bite that is relatively uncorrupted. And there another mystery begins. The ‘erosion’ appears almost like a cauterized wound. The flesh bears the signs of some sort of localized searing. It’s almost as if whatever bit into the rat had teeth that were super-heated.

Hannelia looks at the motif on the scarf but she doesn’t recognize it, or rather, it appears to be decorative embroidery but nothing of particular note. Majara looks at the cleaned area of the scarf and comments on the quality of the wool, believing the scarf is probably worth as much as five gold crowns and certainly wasn’t made locally.

Majara rocks back on her heels, having crouched to examine everything.

"Perhaps we weren't the first to figure these sewers would be better explored with a plugged nose," she muses. "The gel here... many ingredients in common with the stuff I used to block our nasal passages from the horrors around us. As for this mass over here..."

Majara turns it over with the tip of her dagger. "I wonder if something with a fiery, flaming bite took out this sewer rat. The mastiff had the teeth for it, but not the heat. That would be what-- a hellhound? Perhaps..."

The riddle is delightful to Majara but they don't have quite enough evidence to solve it, it seems. She stands back up and brushes off her hands and cleans her dagger before sliding it away again.

"So POSSIBLY someone else came down here with a nose for not-smelling, and POSSIBLY a fiery hound, or something else, munched a rat near in half. And we've a scarf to show Sofie. But also a great deal of sewer untrampled. Anyone have a claim on our next direction? A hunch, a nudge, a ghostling clue? Hannelia - did you check this chamber for magic yet? I was enraptured in the rat corpse, sorry."

"I dunno, is there some kind of devil or demon hound what'd have a fiery bite? Not sure I should always jump to that sort of tale, but it is Saringallow, we've a bit of a history."

Kn Planes: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (12) + 13 = 25

"True enough, Roger. And yes, there are devil hounds-- creatures of flame and malice. Love to harry prey in a pack. Let's hope we don't meet any- the shadow mastiff was enough extraplanar dog for me today."

Majara idly uses her just-cleaned dagger tip to scratch a rough map of their passage so far into the algae on the nearest wall.

"We've been here, here, here. A sense of completion bids me suggest we finish checking out that corridor to the south of our present spot-- I don't think we got all the way to the end of it, or did we? Ultimately the question is begged of how long we intend to look down here, if we don't find something more significant soon. This rat could have died weeks ago, if not longer."

Suggest the blue dot path on the map to confirm we've explored the end of that corridor, or at least its wide part. It seems we're exploring blind to a certain degree-- we can't be sure we haven't missed something if we don't investigate every traversible path, but most of them are probably dead ends and empty of clues. Anyone else in the party have a sense of the best way to proceed here?

"That's as good as anything," Hannelia says regarding the next direction of travel. "We've not got a whole lot to go on, just more bits and pieces and potentially more mysteries like the magical power source. And indeed at least the suggestion of somebody else spending enough time down here with the knowledge and resources to counter the smell." She looks from Majara to the glowing gel. "Overall though we don't know as much as we'd like so that does make it more difficult to gauge the significance of anything we find."

"The completionist in me definitely want to explore everywhere down here but I don't know if that's a good idea, or at least the best use of our time." She indicates her backpack where the scarf is now safely stored away. "Supposing that it is Verno's scarf, that's a very solid clue. In that case I think we should both explore thoroughly down here and, if it's possible, see whether we can follow the passage of the flow that leads to this point. That means spots where it could have been deposited, whether from down here or from the streets above. So logically maybe the most sensible thing to do is to call it off down here for now and go and find Sofie and see if we can get a positive identification on the scarf."

She finally addresses Majara's other question with a smile. "I was engrossed with the scarf," she says. "The pattern is just decorative, as far as I can tell," she adds. "But I'll do so now." With that Hannelia works through her magical detection spell once more.

Casting detect magic.

Majara can name a half dozen extra-planar creatures that are known to have a flaming bite… but there isn’t enough of a wound left to identify the creature’s type of teeth, maw, or what-have-you. Her best guess would be just that – a guess. The only thing she can say – for good or ill – is that the bite doesn’t indicate a creature any larger than a man and she saw no evidence of fang wounds in the remaining flesh… so probably not any sort of canine creature.

Hannelia casts a simple spell and regards the goods they’ve found and this area of the sewer in general. There are no traces of magic.

Standing to one side while the primary sleuths do some sleuthing, Nerissia and Roger try to pay attention but find their attentions wandering. Perhaps this is fortuitous… as their eyes are drawn to a hint of motion at the northern end of the room. Something, perhaps human-sized, like a blur against the backdrop of the chamber’s dirty wall, moved from east to west and seemed to have disappeared out the eastern exit.

The green arrow indicates where the ‘figure’ went.

With her talents mostly focused on actually dealing with the things she hunts once she chases them down, Nerissia does in fact lean against the wall in a relaxed pose, attempting to keep herself from becoming too tired before the hunt is done. She decides to let the others faff about, her mind running over the strange events of the past day.

When she spots the figure however, that all changes in an instant. All hint of relaxation gone in a flash, she is alert and sprinting towards the exit the figure took, not waning to give it a chance to escape.

”Alocer, come.” are her only words spoken, the next sounds made by her the crunch of her weathered boots against the disgusting floor, bow in hand.

Can’t move myself as I’m away from my PC but Nerissia and Alocer will chase the figure down ASAP.

I'm also not sure about exact map movement. But my intent is also to give chase.

Roger gives chase as well, intending to keep pace with Nerissia so that she won't be alone at the lead. Not that Alocer would let that be the case.

Looking up from her magical probing, which was turning out to be a fruitless exercise, Hannelia sees Nerissia, Alocer and Roger make a hasty exit through one of the tunnels. "What is it?" she calls after them in a hissed whisper. Then, to Emma and Majara, "Let's go. They must have seen or heard something to leave like that."

She unslings her bow and grips it tightly, then sets off after the trackers, looking back to beckon the remaining Saringallow Seekers to join the pursuit.

Majara glances up reluctantly from her chemical analyses. Only the sight of Hannelia gripping her bow convinces her it must be serious. With a sigh, the gnome trots after the others, leaving Emma to bring up the rear.

Sorry for the delay! I’ve added a zoomed in map and put you guys on it, showing your last moves. Let’s proceed as if we were in rounds just to keep it easy to manage.

Nerissia sprints forward along the filth-covered walkway around the pool of best-not-to-think-about-it. She rounds the corner and enters a close-to-claustrophobic corridor. Alocer is more sure-footed in this terrain, could possibly sprint past his mistress, but settles for dogging her footsteps instead. Seconds later, Roger’s piratey shadow eclipses the entrance of the side tunnel. And behind him, at varying distances, are the rest of the crew.

Nerissia, Alocer, and Roger see no one in front of them. They do hear what sounds like the echo of a footfall, possibly the slight splash of a running foot hitting a puddle. Sounds play tricks in hardened surroundings like this but given the distinct initial sound – before it is drowned in its echoes – they feel that the noise came from the larger corridor ahead… and a turn to the right, perhaps?

Give me a round’s worth of actions (or less) for each of you. You may as well include an init roll for each of you, too.

Majara hurries along with/after the others, unslinging her crossbow from her back as she goes and regretting the fact that many of her concoctions have already been drunk today.

Double moved, drew weapon as part of move, moved myself on the map

Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

Hannelia stalks down the tunnel, nocking an arrow and preparing to fire should a threat present itself.

Move and draw, ready attack if anything makes a hostile action towards a party member.

Initiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Readied attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14
Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

"Blast- If they're not here, they must be faster'n we can catch."

Looking around the big room and the corridor he can see, he doesn't see how they could've disappeared around a corner unless they were too fast to catch. Or hiding nearby.