"Hetta, can you walk or shall I carry you? Hugh can carry the Lady's weapons perhaps."
She looks at Greylan again adding sweetly,
"Although of course I'll wait for you to finish packing in case you need some help too."
"Hetta, can you walk or shall I carry you? Hugh can carry the Lady's weapons perhaps."
"Thank you, Kallista, but I don't think I breathed in as much as True did. I'll be ok to get out of this place."
"Ah, well I was just hoping to make some quick sketches of this Lurking Strangler. You know. For research. I might be able to work it into my thesis. I'll meet you above, in just a few minutes."
Greylan begins rummaging through his pack.
Hetta leads Hugh to the cylinder, ready to ascend.
Concerned at the way the party is splitting, she gathers True's weapons and offers a helping hand to Hetta.
"Greylan, once these two are out of here and somewhere safe, I'm coming back. I'm very, very strong. If I have to, I'll carry you out. You don't have to be conscious for me to do that. You may not sleep, but you can still concuss. Mikel - the same applies to you."
"What the- I didn't bloody say anything!?" the rogue protests, "Grey, fascinating as this is, I think our Lady of Truth, Justice and the Cormyran way is dead set on getting out of here."
"Fine fine fine. Let's get out of this hole, then." Greylan leaves the chamber in a huff, slamming his hand down on the button to summon the lift. He'll head straight to the entrance of the Cairn and wait, tapping his toes, for the others to catch up.
Obviously to the altercation, True is intent on slowly getting out. Her muscles tremble and she keeps going forwards by force of will.
"Grey-" she starts to speak as he overhauls her then stops when he runs on.
"Lady, I know this may sound selfish, but would you consider resting at the old miner's cottage Greylan talked about when I was wounded? It's closer than Daggerford."
Kallista refrains from voicing the end of her thought and I don't want to go back there just yet. We've only just started.
"Yeah, we're going to look like a bunch of no-hopers if we go back to Daggerford. Nice one with the hut idea, that girl."
True nods her assent briefly then starts out into the wilds with the others.
"Hut, yes"
Beads of sweat appear across her forehead and drip down into her plaits and onto her chin but the warrior priest continues, trying to keep up with everyone else.
You travel, slowly and carefully, to the miner's office and home without incident. The modest dwelling squats upon the crown of a small hill. While the rough stone walls of the first floor look mostly intact, the second floor has completely collapsed. A half height wall rings the house, but it too is in a state of severe disrepair. Rubble and dense weeds choke the yard.
Behind the building, a stone well rises up out of the weeds. Although the bucket is gone, the water is clean, if a bit brackish. In the back, the remains of a wooden outhouse lie in an unrecognizable heap.
Inside the building small mounds of debris litter the floor. Loose stones, dead weeds, and grime cover virtually every surface. Paintings must have once adorned the place as indicated by the particular stain patterns marring the walls. The only light comes from thin shafts sneaking in from outside illuminating clouds of dust dancing through the stale air.
"Mm-hm, a home away from home."
"Well, at least no monsters . . ." Hetta offers feebly. She takes Hugh around the property to see if he reacts to any strange smells.
"Dust, dust, dust. Do you hold any hidden secrets, for poor old Greylan?"
Greylan closes his eyes for a minute, allowing them to shift; when he opens them again, they glow subtly, and he begins to scan the entire property for any traces of magic.
"We're staying until Hetta and the Lady feel ready to go back, so we'll have to eat. I've only got chocolate and some real emergency rations. Mikel, Greylan, how do you feel about hunting for supper with me?"
"Absolutely! Chat is grinding her teeth together at the thought of something to eat. I'm pretty hungry myself. Maybe she can help us find some tasty hidden gems."
Greylan lowers Chit-Chat to the ground, and sets to work on foraging some supplies for the group.
Survival check to scavenge for food (1d20-1=14)
Driven by hunger pangs, Kallista displays unusual skill in hunting for food.
True slowly takes off her armour and moves upstairs to a bedroom to rest for a while.
Eventually the smell of cooking drags her downstairs. There True sets about helping a little. "Thank you for providing, whoever hunted for this."
"I'd like to make myself a holy gauntlet for this place while we stay, if no one minds? Just a shrine. It will give me something to do while I recover."
"Will anyone be offended if I work on a new dance? I can't get those lights in the cairn out of my head."
Taking silence for assent, Kallista puts on her finger symbols and goes outside the hut working out her new choreography. To the accompaniment of the faint clang, she devises a sequence of movements that seem to satisfy her. If her companions were looking closely, they might notice that those moves are almost a form of shorthand for their adventures so far. She mutters quietly under her breath.
"In, listen, fear, wolf, fight, move, wonder, lights, turn, beetle stomp, fear, healing, turn, down, beetle stomp, swim, fear, ghoul, up, turn, down, sleep, eyeballs ..."
Finally she goes and hunts for Greylan. "Can I ask a favour?" she asks, blushing slightly. "Would you make some lights for me to dance to? I can't get the feel for it without them. You don't have to." she adds quickly.
Greylan finds nothing exciting or magical, it's a broken down old building that could make a home if someone put the time into getting it fixed.
Food is found, it's far from exciting, it consists of some meat and some rather nice berries for dessert, courtesy of Chit-Chat. There's enough to go around however and you're soon all quite full and happy in your safe shack away from the screaming terror and fun that is the cairn.
"My dear Kallista, I would love to create some lights for you. I have the perfect spell in mind. However, it will have to wait for tomorrow. I'll need to meditate to re-acquaint myself with it's magic.
Don't worry, I suspect we will be here for a few days. Ondabarl should be the one who's worrying."
Hetta unloads her camp gear from Hugh's saddlebags and beds down early, soon after eating. "Let me know if there's anything I can help with," she offers, yawning.
The group settles in and time passes uneventfully. The only happening of any true note is on the dawn of the second day. Upon waking up Greylan finds a crumpled note in his hand.
A little notice next time would be nice, the other apprentices are fretting about your whereabouts.
Enjoy your adventure. I look forward to hearing of your discoveries
D.
Hetta wakes up feeling much better, but is in no hurry to move on until after True recovers.
True sets herself the task of tidying up the outside area. She looks for a suitable spot to bless and start the process of making a shrine. The clearance work and holy mission helps her concentrate on getting better and not getting bored.
As the days pass, she gets stronger and the shrine of small stones begins to take shape. The shape of a gauntlet inside a shield.
As True gets stronger, Kallista works on perfecting her dance routine.
"I have such a bad memory. If I don't put things into a dance, they just vanish and I don't want to forget any of first adventure." is her explanation for her nearly constant gyrations.
Hetta attempts to use her knowledge of the natural world and living things to speed True's recovery, but her lack of training reveals itself.
Greylan has spent his days filling the house with magic. First, he used his Mending spell to the full limit of it's capability, setting right most of the broken fixtures in the little house. Window panes, broken floorboards, and creaky doors all put themselves back together with the help of Greylan's magical TLC.
He also spends a great deal of time with Kallista, casting Dancing Lights and mapping out dance choreography. Greylan has a real flair for the visual aspects, and they make a good team. Perhaps, with a little more work, it would make a good show to put on in Daggerford.
Beyond that, he spends a little time scribing scrolls; having a better sense of what is waiting for him in the Cairn, he wants to be as prepared as he can.
Greylan is ready to head back into the Cairn whenever the others are.
Eventually True is ready to return to the cairn. Five days have elapsed before she feels herself again.
On the sixth morning she gathers her gear and dons the armour again. Ready to do battle for Torm.
By the time you're all ready to leave the house is in a much better state and is looking a lot more like it could be a base of operations for your future adventuring in the area. The upper floor would need some professional craftspeople but everything else is pretty managable yourselves.
As the sun rises on the sixth day you're all ready to leave and head back to the cairn. Upon arriving you find everything exactly as you left it last.
Mikel spent much of the time puffing out his cheeks and being bored. In between those moments he practised swordplay and made fun of the others (except Hetta, she's ok by him).
Mikel spent much of the time puffing out his cheeks and being bored. In between those moments he practised swordplay and made fun of the others (except Hetta, she's ok by him).
Kallista flexes her highly toned muscles and prepares to turn the sarcophagus again.
The lanterns: Red You found on a Seeker's corpse. Turning to face this one does nothing.
Orange: Seemi gly does nothing, the arrow was pointed to this lantern when you first entered.
Yellow: A metal cylinder raises from the ground of this one. The small chamber within takes you down to the place you encountered the eye-thing in.
Green: Once had a lift but it broke when you turned the arrow to face it. Now contains the 'beetle hole'
Blue: Had the corpse with the broken bones and has the strange passageway up at the top that you've yet to try to climb up to.
Indigo: You found this lantern in the backpack in the wolves' den. When the arrow points to this one a cylinder lifts from the ground. The floor of this lift was littered with crushed bones that you dragged out of it,
Violet: Seemingly does nothing.
"I want to know what the eyeballs were guarding. It's as good a place as any to start."
Kallista heads back down towards the elevator.
"Mikel, can you work out some way of stopping that gas?"
she asks belatedly cautious and remembering why they had to leave their explorations.
"He should have the resources to at least dispel the gas. With as much hot air as he releases out of his mouth, he should be able to disperse any cloud in no time!"
Greylan also heads down the chamber.
True stays close to Kallista.
No traps go off. Mikel can easily point out to you all that the gas trap would need a manual reset, you'd need to put the heavy block back in place and then topple it again before the gas would spill from the statues again.
Hetta and Hugh bring up the rear once more.
Kallista arrives back at the statue the lurking strangler was using for camoflague and looks hopelessly at it.
looking at the statues (1d20=7, 1d20 1=4) (those would be spot and search checks)
"Well, I've got no ideas - anyone else?"
"Beats me! I'll send Chat to scout ahead; she'll let us know if there's more creepy eyeball things."
Greylan lowers his familiar to the ground and instructs her to scout ahead, reporting what she sees when she returns.
"No, I tried to work it out before," answers the priestess.
The little rat scampers off down the corridor sniffing at the air as she goes. The strange wind in the corridor whispers around you, seemingly from nowhere as you wait, the stone statues holding out their hands.
Greylan:
"Sh|t! SH|T! Chit Chat!"
Greylan goes running down the corridor after his little friend.
"Lanta!", he cries, conjuring a crackling ball of electricity in his hands.
Hetta and Hugh chase after the wizard. "Greylan, wait!"
Greylan hurls the electricity at the far end of the mold, far away from his familiar. With his empty hands, he runs to her and scoops her up, getting away from the mold quickly.