Tanlen stares at the ceiling hoping that it is strong enough to hold. It is impossible for him to tell what is a recent collapse and what has been there for an extended time. Dust covers everything.
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Jangis carefully walks down the passageway, his progress hampered by the rubble on the floor. He as he approaches the door he looks to his right to see the hallway continue south and then turn east. There is a door on the western wall near the turn. The door he is approaching, like many encountered so far is open. Rubble covers the floor and spills out into the hallway. On the other side of the room is a collapsed archway that appears to give access to a further room. An earthquake has obviously damage this room rather heavily and the rubble is piled up at least knee deep.
The door was safe to open and reveals a passage on the other side. The passage runs north beyond your vision, and east for about 40 feet before turning south. There is a door in the north east corner of the passageway.
This area appears to be more affected by the tremor. The rubble strewn around in this area hampers movement (difficult terrain). Parts of the ceiling have fallen away. Tanlen searches through his memory of any mention of this vast systems of rooms and cooridors but comes up empty. He finds it hard to believe such a complex could go unnoticed or unmentioned for any length of time.
The dungeon structure does not seem effected by the small tremor, although the dust did diminish vision for about a minute. Tanlen and Jangis lead the party down the passageway which widened slightly as it turned left. The passage continues a few feet and ends in a door.
The dust obsures any obvious tracks that may have been left.
Tanlen peeks through the secret door revealing a passage not much wider than 5 feet heading south. Even with the his light spell bouncing off of the stone walls, the passageway continues beyon his vision range, although there may be a turn to the east right at the end. As Tanlen investigates the whole party feels a minor rumbling and shifting. Dust falls from the ceiling, but it does not seem to do any structural damage.
Summary: The Ghawn family has entered a cave upon the request of the clan leader. Entering from two different entrances only to reunite shortly after entering massive underground complex. It is unclear how something this large could go without mention in their town. They met a group of orcs suffering from battle shock but were unable to ascertain what dangers caused them to be in this condition. Since then the party has found evidence of troglodytes, orcs and kolbolds living in the dungeons. They have fought a krenshar, fiendish dark mantels, and two fiendish rat swarms. The dark mantles rattled half of the party, specifically Grandma and they remained in this room while others ventured on. The underground complex radiates magic from everything and gives the summoner and his eidolon a strange feeling they cannot quite pinpoint. The adventuring part of the party has entered what appears to be a large personal room of an orc. This orc must have been a leader of sorts because he has a crude strategy pit made of a pile of dirt with six stools around it. He used this to sketch out plans. The party has thoroughly searched the room. A hollowed out kobold skull sits on the desk along with a backscratcher carved out of lizardfolk thighbone. The bed, a plank with four legs, still holds a blanket and pillow made from troglodyte skin and stuffed with the hair of orcs. The room has two exits, one the double doors in the north that the party came through and the second and open secret door on the east wall. Tanlen searching the bed revealed a hollowed out leg with seven small pieces of jade worth 690 gp. The rest of the party is unaware of his discovery
Dhrek and Tanlen's searches do not reveal any thing new.
The Ghawns enter what appears to be some sort of sleeping quarters. Jangis notices that the tracks in the room are almost all from orcs. He also sees a hollowed out kobold skull on a desk, sitting along side the backscratcher made of lizardfolk bone. The bed, a basic plank with four large legs, has on it a blancket and pillow made of troglodyte skin. Dhreck looking at the circle and six chairs surrounding a pile of dirt surmises that this might be a way of communicating plans or drawings using it as a chalk board. The writings have all been wiped away. Fang relates to Gromor that the owner of this room must have been a leader or more importaint than others based on the size of the room and single occupancy.
Dhrek Ghawn looks through the doorway so see if it looks ok. Noting nothing he steps inside. Go to Map 9. Directly to his left he notices an open "secret" door. The door is made of stone and is aproximately 3 ft thick. It pivots in the middle of a 7 ft wide opening and is 6 ft tall. This leaves aproximately 2 feet of clearence on either side of the wall to pass through. It sits about 1 foot of of the floor. It looks like this door opens to a passage beyond.
[/b] Many of the Ghawns have stayed behind in the room where they found the two dark mantles, Grandma Ghawn visibly shaken. They are beginning to understand why the orcs they found upon entering were in such a shell shocked state. Some of the braver, younger Ghawns proceed to examine the dungeon. Having shut the north eastern door, Jangis, Gromor, Fang, Tanlen, and Dhrek proceed south to the double doors. Like many of the doors in the dungeon, these double doors are wide open. Dhrek sees when approaching that a table, stool, and a bed, all intact, sit across from the door. A circle of 6 stools in the center of the room surrounds a pile of dirt on the floor. The room aprox 35' square does not seems to be empty of living creatures.[/b]
As Gromor approaches the door on the right, he sees that the hallway to the south opens wider with another open door at the end of the hallway. Looking north, through the door he came to close, Gromor notices a hallway that extends beyond his vision. On the east and west wall about 50' down are doors on the left and right of the hall way.
Dhreck, Gromor, Fang, Tanlen, and Jangis stand around examining the small skeleton. Jangis notices the tracks of several small feet all around the area. It is clear that the rat swarm was in this area. Dhreck and Tanlen see tiny little bite marks all over the bones and leather of the skeleton. Having seen plenty of orc skeletons this one is much smaller. Looking closely it is determined that this is a skeleton of a kobold picked clean. There is nothing of use on the skeleton.
Dhreck walks up and bravely hits the skeleton with his stick. I hits with a dry musical sound and scatters a few bones across the passageway. The Ghawns have all ready been through many encounters on this first day and their hitting of a skeleton in the hall is an indication of their nerves getting to them.
The skeleton is within easy reach of a detect magic spell. Other than the magic that permiates the whole dungeon, there is nothing coming from the skeleton.
Dhreck does not percieve any traps or anything else out of the ordinary, except for the skeleton in the middle of the hallway. His dark vision allow him to see a little farther and he can make out a passage on the other side of the door on the west side. The two doors appear to be open and the skeleton is on the flooor nearer to the north eastern door.
Tanlen, using his light spell to see, looks out the doorway into a corridor. He is able to see two doors in the north wall, one to his right and one to his left.
A lone skeleton lies in this 10 ft wide hallway near the door to his right. Bits of clothing and their armor still cling to its frame. The two doors are open, and give no clue as to what lays beyond.
Having talked about the darkmantles and seeing how long the darkness lasted, the Ghawn party determins it had a very similar effect as a 5th level darkness spell. Nothing more could be found out about the rats or the darkmantles.
Darkness finally lifts from the darkmantel room, , the Ghawn family stands nearby coming up with the next plan for exploring the dungeon. takes the time to search both of the rooms. Although he is looks closely, he finds nothing of interest in these rooms. In fact they are mostly bare. It is hard to say what their purpose was, if it even had one.
Fang's efforts destroy the rest of the rats. The rat threat is over, for now. The Ghawn family has entered into the massive dungeon. They have only traveled a little ways but have encountered several strange beasts and found evidence of troglodytes. With dangers around every corner, it is little wonder why the earlier orcs were in a beaten condition. The latest encounter with rats have left the party slighty ingured and Grandma shaken. It is the first time that the family has seen her freeze in a moment of combat. It is also curious that Zierka did not join the fray but stood by as she and the family was attacked.
The second rat swarm, barely holding together, manges to attack Grandma and Zierka one more time. The damage done to the rats obviously effecting the power of their attack.
Dhrek is moving toward Grandma and can see that she has done little to this point to protect herself. It is one of the few times that Grandma has frozen in combat.
Fang not only engages the rat swarm but runs at full speed and pounces on it. The rats, clearly badly damaged,are scattered barely holding on to a formation. Groltsch and Jangis talk a bit to each other and realize that while the rats seem to take full damage from blunt attacks, slashing and piercing attacks seem to have less effects. They also notice that the tactics and movement of this rat swarm seem much more orginized than that of the ordinary dungeon variety. Much like the darkmantel, these are probably fiendish rats.
Groltsch taking a step back swings through the swarm and feels his weapon hit a few somethings. Combined with Jangis' attack and Tanlen's little poke the rest rats in the first swarm are dead, dying or have scattered. Grandma's swarm has finally been engaged by Fang. The Eidolon rushed up to the swarm and began to attack it. Gromor, watching his creature stands by with his axe.
Rulgha's blade passes right through the swarm as if it were water. He felt little resistance against his axe. The hungry swarm proceeds to attack Groltsch and also manages to attack Jangis.
Jangis, feeling the attack, fights back dealing damage to the original swarm. Though his axe does not seem to be doing full damage, the swarm is visibly hurt. Meanwhile in the other room, Grandma is still under attack. While Gromor, Fang, Anna and Zierka are nearby, they have not yet joined the fray. Tanlen's song can still be heard in both rooms.
[ooc] Grandma and the swarm attacking her are actually in the room to the south, a considerable distance from where you are fighting your swarm. I will keep your rolls for the swarm in front of you, unless your intention was to disengage this one to go help Grandma. I am still awaiting Rulgha's attack.[ooc]
Monday morning recap. The Ghawn family has journeyed into the dungeon to find dangers at every turn. After defeating two fiendish darkmantles they find themselves embattled with two fiendish rat swarms. One from the north and yet another coming from the south. The northern swarm is fully engaged with Jangis, Groltsch, and Dhrek, the southern swarm has just attacked the elder Ghawn.
Groltsch's Bardiche seems to pass right through without hitting anything.Jangis axe seems to hit a few but his bite seems to have the greatest effect. Dhreck's acid dart hits one of them, the swarm moves slightly and then refills. Tanlen's singing keeps him from hearing another swarm entering into the southern darkened room. Grandma Ghawn, bringing up the rear is surprised to see them. Gromor, Anna, Fang, and Zierka are the closest Ghawns to Grandma, although Anna can still not see into the room due to the darkness spell lingering. The fiendish rat swarm do damage to Grandma Ghawn. Grandma gets an attack of opportunity.
The black Swarm moves in, Groltsch near the door is the first to encounter it. Seeing it move in he takes his bardiche and slashes through the mass. He hits something,blade meeting resitance, but the attack seems just to move a few of them aside. He is overtaken by the swarm. Groltsch takes damage and needs to roll a Fort save.
Dhrek informs the group of the tracks he has seen and Tanlen is able to alert the party of small scraping sounds as the first one enters the door from the north. A large swarm of rats can be seen, a writhing mass of tails and teeth, red eyes gleaming in hunger, an amorphous black blob seeming to change shape at will. The party, thanks to Tanlen, was somewhat alerted to the danger.
There were problems with the tread, i think they are all solved now.
The Ghawn family files into the new room.. Tanlen and Anna stumbling in the darkness, hanging on to the party, and trying to get their light spells working. It takes until the next room for the light spell to work. Dhrek notices in the previous room tracks of Orcs that the Darkmantles may have been hunting. There was also some evidence of torgoldyte tracks. Tanlen entering the new room can faintly hear something that sounds like hundreds of small rapid scrapes against the stone, but he is uncertain exactly where it is coming from.
Go to Map 6 Dhrek peers into the next room. With his dark vision he discerns that the room is empty. It looks almost the same as the current room in size and shape. There is an open door on the oppisite wall that could be the only exit.
Anna attempts to cast light on her cestus but the dark lingers in the room keeping her light spell from working.
Anna attempts to cast light on her cestus but the dark lingers in the room keeping her light spell from working.
Groltsch waits for the right moment and, like his brother Jangis, does not hit lightly. The darkmantle splits in two. Darkness remains hanging in the room. A sound of weapon hitting flesh, and the wet thud of the creatures flesh hitting the gorund is the only evidence that Tanlen has of his attacker's demise.
The rest of the Ghawns make it into the room. There is an open door to the north and the rest of this room appears to be bare.
Monday morning recap. Ghawn family has started exploring the vast dungeon complex. They have met their first real foe, a pair or fiendish darkmantles. The first one attacked and damaged Jangis right before he ripped it apart with his bite. The second cast a darkness spell putting the room in darkness. Tanlen, not having dark vision is blinded and barely missed by the darkmantel's attack. Tanlen remains singing against the wall. The darkmantle retreated back to the ceiling of the room. The rest of the Ghawn family starts to enter the room. Dhrek shot his sling at it and just missed. Anna entered the room and was also immediately put into darkness her magical light extinguished. Dhrek just missed the darkmantle hanging on the ceiling. It is startled with the stone hitting nearby and flys down trying to hit Tanlen again.
** spoiler omitted ** Groltsch Ghawn: The length of your weapon combined with your arm could reach the Darkmantel in the corner, however at this distance you would not do much but poke at it.
TANLEN SAID Tanlen feeling the darkmantle touching him, tries to hit it. The darkness prevented him from actually hitting it. He contiues to sing his song to his brethern hoping it will help them defeat this creature. The Ghawns slowly file into the room. The darkmantle hangs to the fifteen foot ceiling trying to hide itself in the corner.
Tanlen feeling the darkmantle touching him, tries to hit it. The darkness prevented him from actually hitting it. He contiues to sing his song to his brethern hoping it will help them defeat this creature.
Jangis was sure he had had worse tasting meals, but could not remember exactly where. With one vicious bite, he was able to split the darkmantle in twain. It falls limply to the floor. Tanlen had just backed up and started singing when he felt a darkmantle fall upon him. He noticed a bit of a "fiendish" quality about these creatures.
It missed and headed back toward the ceiling. Close enough for Tanlen and or Jangis to take one swipe at it.
Grandma, just outside of the door saw the darkmantle fall from its hiding place right above the door she was entering. The rest of the Ghawn family, are making their way into the room pass Grandma and Tanlen, trying to see what is going on and how they may help. An open door on the other side of the room appears to be the only way out.
Monday morning recap. The Ghawn has begun exploring the mysterious dungeon. After defeating a krenshar, the family entered a room containing one dead orc with strange attack markings on him. With no more inforamtion revealed by the dead orc, Jangis, Tanlen enter the open door to the north with Grandma close behind. Just a few steps into the room and Jangis is attacked by what Dhrek idntifies as a darkmantle. Jangis has a one of these creatures on his head and it is trying to grapple its arms around him. The Ghawn family worried about Jangis is about to enter the room.
Dhrek, looking through Grandma and Tanlen is able to see this squid-like dark-skinned creature and recognizes it as a darkmantle, a subterranian predator that attacks by dropping onto its prey. Though small creatures, darkmantles are strong for their size, and make natural grapplers due to their tentacles and cloak-like skin. Typically attacking by dropping from above, creating a slam attack and then will attempt to grapple and constrict using their tentacles; a darkmantle that misses will usually fly back up to the roof and try again. They can also cause darkness once per day. Darkmantles can easily see in the dark due to their bat like sonar. Dhrek is too far away for his quarterstaff to even hit his intended target. But fearing for his relatives life, he pokes is stick at it. |