Bugs listens to Aros and again has to stop himself from shaking his head. She seemed to be ignoring the questions. If the Misters were of dubious character than what they said about the stalkers was hardly proof of their innocence. But now was not the time for bickering. They had other concerns and it was far more important that they all be on good terms. Their rather youthful lives would likely depend on it.
That was when he saw the balloon. Before he could comment on it Resmae starting shouting about it. Finding it seemed like a good plan so he did his best to mark the location where he last saw it. If there were any landmarks in this swamp he wanted to note them. It's location relative to the causeway might also be useful. Once it dropped out of sight he moved on.
"The balloon is as good a starting point as any. But before we move I want to take a good look around." He moved to the edge of the causeway and looked down intently. Was there anything moving down there? Could he hear anything besides bugs and frogs? He looked around the causeway itself. Was it just a long bridge? Did it have anything that looked like a way down? Maybe a way over the edge? He tried to get a look at the supports - either under them or forward or behind on the path. Did they show any signs of being climbable - stairs or ladders? He didn't relish an 80' jump.
You move to the edge of the causeway and peer over. You don't see anything moving except the fog cover about 80' below. You hear all sorts of sounds coming from beneath the fog. Wildlife moving about. Calling out for mates, and the occasional cry of a creature before becoming another creatures lunch (or breakfast, maybe dinner, it is unclear what time of day it is).
Your investigation of the pillars reveals deeply cut hand holds carved into them and leading down to the base of the bridge. While an exposed line, climbing down it looks to be doable.
Stalker, checking out the construction, opines, "Let's move as close to that balloon as we can on this bridge and then climb down. Less slogging through swamp, the better."
Resmae watches as the others start looking over the edge trying to find a way down, she hops off of Sammy and tries to do the same thing, but can't really look over the edge. (I'm assuming she's too short to see over the railing?) As Stalker mentions finding a way closer to the balloon, "Are there multiple ways down? I agree, the fog is going to swallow us and not be fun, but staying up here is definitely not an option on finding spiders! Actually, I don't see that many creatures at all would be up here, well, unless they thought we all looked like food. Then that's a possibility." She starts looking up in the sky to make sure that nothing is circling. The feeling she had after going through the portal as given her a feeling of dread that has been so long it feels foreign to her.
ooc - while many playing this game are experienced, some aren't. Usually when moving out, a party puts armoured/ac-ed and hp-ed types in the front and back, mages and the like who might have less hp/ac in the middle where they can cast spells uninterrupted or react more effectively to a potential threat. Obviously there may be other factors that may affect an effective 'marching order' - ability to track, to find traps, etc.
Stalker says, "I don't mind leading. Can someone cover our backs? Speak up as to if you'd like to be front, middle or back and let's head towards that balloon!"
Resmae, there is no railing and you can easily peer over the edge.
Stalker, you can’t see the ballon. Only Balliol and Resmea spotted it on it’s way down. They have a vague idea where it descended under the fog. About a mile from the base of the bridge.
Aros and Balliol have found the carved foot/hand holds that descend to the fog cloud below. Looks like an easy climb once you deal with the exposure as you climb over the lip.
Sammy can’t climb.
The map is on the campaign page, please read the note beneath it.
"Hey Stalker. Hey! Stalker! Is that really your name? Stalker? Or is that a prank y'all are pulling on us? Nevermind... Stalker!! I know who can COVER your back!"
With a grin, Aros motions to a whimpering Sammy the puppy. Then she pulls her rope from her pack and her cloak from her back and begins tying it in complex knots.
"Resmae, don't ask how I know how to do this, you're not old enough. Then again, neither am I!"
She keeps at it until it resembles a baby bjorn. She looks at her handiwork and says "I wonder if this could carry approximately 90 pounds of weight?"
Stalker heads off along which ever way the bridge goes towards the balloon, as discussed. If none follow him he does not care. This mission and this situation is not a joke to the dour dwarf.
"You can be as flippant as you like," he mutters as he starts off, "but this does not seem like a place for knitting to me."
Aros bursts out laughing. She says "I bet that you can call me sir line would have sounded a lot better if it weren't coming out of the mouth of a ten year old!"But by the time she says it, he's already gone down the ladder. Sheruns up to the lip of the bridge and looks out over Stalker as he climbs.
"Hey! Sir Stalker!"she calls out, "You ever BEEN in Fairyland before?"
Aros, All the drizzle and rain makes the somewhat mossy and glowing stone quite slippery. As she runs to the edge of the lip of the causeway to bork her new friend, Aros slips...
Please roll a Dex saving throw. 13 or higher to save.
You all watch on as Stalker prepares to descend the pillar. As he does, Aros runs over in the heat of the bickering, loosing her footing on the wet stone and slipping on the lip of the causeway.
Stalker, you are the only one close enough to do anything.
Aros bursts out laughing. She says "I bet that you can call me sir line would have sounded a lot better if it weren't coming out of the mouth of a ten year old!"But by the time she says it, he's already gone down the ladder. Sheruns up to the lip of the bridge and looks out over Stalker as he climbs.
"Hey! Sir Stalker!"she calls out, "You ever BEEN in Fairyland before?"
Wildred couldn't help but chuckle at the jibe Aros made about coming out of the mouth of a ten year old..But as he did a horrible memory of uncontrollable laughter made him stop and he quickly put is hand over his mouth,plus he did respect the Dwarfe and his demeanour,he had known him a longtime by now and thought the Ranger had a good head on him when it came to dangerous situations and combat tactics.But the prospect of climbing down into the fog unnerved him....however for some strange reason his fear of heights was somewhat dampened by the fact the fog looked like a surface ground...but it only helped a little!
Putting on a brave face"Well il be behind halei then!"he would have to get used to the voice of his younger self soon.
[in slow motion] Aros, slips over Stalker’s head. Her feet shooting forward from underneath her as she tumbles backwards. Aros finds herself mid-air, upside down, looking down upon Stalker and Stalker looking back up at her. Both of their expressions are of gaping mouths with wide open eyes and. Aros spies the many feet of nothingness below. Stalker, holds firm his grip of the pillar with one hand and flails his other hand above trying to grab any part of Aros as she tumbles past and out over the abyss below. Amazingly three of his fingers tangle in her backpack as she plummets toward the fog far below.
Stalker manages to hold Aros’s backpack, his arm out stretched with Aros dangling feet down. Her backpack straps under her armpits being all that keep her from the unknown perils below.
The rest of our heroic adventurers, unable to assist, stand and watch, paralysed with a mixture of shock and amazement plastered across their faces. Watching in aw at Stalker barely catch Aros.
Aros slams against the side of the causeway as Stalker halts her trajectory. She hangs there for a moment, breathless, eyes wide. Then she shakes herself back to sense and grabs onto the handholds, shimmying herself back up to a forward position.
When she and Stalker have both managed to get themselves back up safely to the top of the causeway, Aros just lies there a moment, taking deep breaths that are more from the adrenaline than the exertion of the climb. Then she stands and looks out again over the edge.
Aros is a satyr. She has the hooves of a surefooted goat. Standing on a wet rock shouldn't be enough to make her slip. She stares icily into the middle distance and sighs. She knows which way the wind is blowing. Fairyland demands its say.
She turns to Stalker and says "Thank you."
She continues, saying "I have been told in... SEVERAL meetings with the misters that my communication style can skew a tad... confrontational. It is something I've been encouraged to work on. So... I am sorry, Stalker.
Let me try again to express my needs in a more constructive format.
WE need your help to get these spiders back to the carnival. YOU need our help to get through the fey and do whatever it is you’re all doing, I’m sorry I am still not clear on what exactly that is.
And we ALL need to get off this bridge thingy, including Sammy over there.
But Sammy doesn’t climb ladders, and due to the surprisingly rigid limitations of blink dog physiology, she can’t teleport far enough to reach the ground, so SOMEONE is going to have to carry her.
Resmae isn’t going anywhere without Sammy, and I’m not going anywhere without her, and as previously stated, y’all ain’t goin’ anywhere without us.
I ‘knit’ that harness so that one of us could carry Sammy down the ladder on their back. You are clearly the strongest member of this party, so would you… PLEASE… Be so kind… As to carry Sammy down the ladder so we can all get this bizarre chore over with and get on with our lives?
And in return I will make an effort to not make fun of you or your friends. Nor will I take it personally when your friends, right to my face, question the good intentions of the person who took me in, cared for me, and raised me like a daughter when I had absolutely no one else in the world. Deal?"
She turns her attention from Stalker, to everyone else. She tells everyone “And let that little event be an object lesson for the rest of you on the very immediate karmic retribution in Fairyland. So long as the only wrongs that need righting are petty social indiscretions, the place is a dang bastion of justice..."
As she says this last bit, she glares around at the landscape as if daring the fey itself to come at her a second time. Then she turns back to the group and says, “See? We’re ALREADY helping each other out and we haven’t even left the lobby.”
As Aros glares across the landscape, daring the fey. You all hear a large crack and the stones on which you stand shake, as one of the carved stones near the edge of the broken causeway, just yards away, cracks and plummets into the fog below. You hear it crash into trees and then water shortly after its entry through the fog.
Bugs listens to Aros and again has to stop himself from shaking his head. She seemed to be ignoring the questions. If the Misters were of dubious character than what they said about the stalkers was hardly proof of their innocence. But now was not the time for bickering. They had other concerns and it was far more important that they all be on good terms. Their rather youthful lives would likely depend on it.
That was when he saw the balloon. Before he could comment on it Resmae starting shouting about it. Finding it seemed like a good plan so he did his best to mark the location where he last saw it. If there were any landmarks in this swamp he wanted to note them. It's location relative to the causeway might also be useful. Once it dropped out of sight he moved on.
"The balloon is as good a starting point as any. But before we move I want to take a good look around." He moved to the edge of the causeway and looked down intently. Was there anything moving down there? Could he hear anything besides bugs and frogs? He looked around the causeway itself. Was it just a long bridge? Did it have anything that looked like a way down? Maybe a way over the edge? He tried to get a look at the supports - either under them or forward or behind on the path. Did they show any signs of being climbable - stairs or ladders? He didn't relish an 80' jump.
Aros follows Balliol's lead and begins looking for a way down. A ladder or hidden staircase.
Investigation: 2
(lol)
Balliol and Aros,
You move to the edge of the causeway and peer over. You don't see anything moving except the fog cover about 80' below. You hear all sorts of sounds coming from beneath the fog. Wildlife moving about. Calling out for mates, and the occasional cry of a creature before becoming another creatures lunch (or breakfast, maybe dinner, it is unclear what time of day it is).
Your investigation of the pillars reveals deeply cut hand holds carved into them and leading down to the base of the bridge. While an exposed line, climbing down it looks to be doable.
Stalker, checking out the construction, opines, "Let's move as close to that balloon as we can on this bridge and then climb down. Less slogging through swamp, the better."
Resmae watches as the others start looking over the edge trying to find a way down, she hops off of Sammy and tries to do the same thing, but can't really look over the edge. (I'm assuming she's too short to see over the railing?) As Stalker mentions finding a way closer to the balloon, "Are there multiple ways down? I agree, the fog is going to swallow us and not be fun, but staying up here is definitely not an option on finding spiders! Actually, I don't see that many creatures at all would be up here, well, unless they thought we all looked like food. Then that's a possibility." She starts looking up in the sky to make sure that nothing is circling. The feeling she had after going through the portal as given her a feeling of dread that has been so long it feels foreign to her.
"Let's not look like easy food," agrees Stalker.
ooc - while many playing this game are experienced, some aren't. Usually when moving out, a party puts armoured/ac-ed and hp-ed types in the front and back, mages and the like who might have less hp/ac in the middle where they can cast spells uninterrupted or react more effectively to a potential threat. Obviously there may be other factors that may affect an effective 'marching order' - ability to track, to find traps, etc.
Stalker says, "I don't mind leading. Can someone cover our backs? Speak up as to if you'd like to be front, middle or back and let's head towards that balloon!"
ooc - where's this new map? link?
Resmae, there is no railing and you can easily peer over the edge.
Stalker, you can’t see the ballon. Only Balliol and Resmea spotted it on it’s way down. They have a vague idea where it descended under the fog. About a mile from the base of the bridge.
Aros and Balliol have found the carved foot/hand holds that descend to the fog cloud below. Looks like an easy climb once you deal with the exposure as you climb over the lip.
Sammy can’t climb.
The map is on the campaign page, please read the note beneath it.
"Hey Stalker. Hey! Stalker! Is that really your name? Stalker? Or is that a prank y'all are pulling on us? Nevermind... Stalker!! I know who can COVER your back!"
With a grin, Aros motions to a whimpering Sammy the puppy. Then she pulls her rope from her pack and her cloak from her back and begins tying it in complex knots.
"Resmae, don't ask how I know how to do this, you're not old enough. Then again, neither am I!"
She keeps at it until it resembles a baby bjorn. She looks at her handiwork and says "I wonder if this could carry approximately 90 pounds of weight?"
Sleight of hand: 18
"The name is Stalker. But YOU can call me sir."
Stalker heads off along which ever way the bridge goes towards the balloon, as discussed. If none follow him he does not care. This mission and this situation is not a joke to the dour dwarf.
"You can be as flippant as you like," he mutters as he starts off, "but this does not seem like a place for knitting to me."
Aros bursts out laughing. She says "I bet that you can call me sir line would have sounded a lot better if it weren't coming out of the mouth of a ten year old!" But by the time she says it, he's already gone down the ladder. She runs up to the lip of the bridge and looks out over Stalker as he climbs.
"Hey! Sir Stalker!" she calls out, "You ever BEEN in Fairyland before?"
Aros,
All the drizzle and rain makes the somewhat mossy and glowing stone quite slippery. As she runs to the edge of the lip of the causeway to bork her new friend, Aros slips...
Please roll a Dex saving throw. 13 or higher to save.
(Oh baby! Drama!!)
Dex save: 18
You all watch on as Stalker prepares to descend the pillar. As he does, Aros runs over in the heat of the bickering, loosing her footing on the wet stone and slipping on the lip of the causeway.
Stalker, you are the only one close enough to do anything.
Stalker does everything he possibly can to save Aros. (That's what party members do.)
No
Wildred couldn't help but chuckle at the jibe Aros made about coming out of the mouth of a ten year old..But as he did a horrible memory of uncontrollable laughter made him stop and he quickly put is hand over his mouth,plus he did respect the Dwarfe and his demeanour,he had known him a longtime by now and thought the Ranger had a good head on him when it came to dangerous situations and combat tactics.But the prospect of climbing down into the fog unnerved him....however for some strange reason his fear of heights was somewhat dampened by the fact the fog looked like a surface ground...but it only helped a little!
Putting on a brave face"Well il be behind halei then!"he would have to get used to the voice of his younger self soon.
Wilfred...we're trying to save her!
She may die!
[in slow motion] Aros, slips over Stalker’s head. Her feet shooting forward from underneath her as she tumbles backwards. Aros finds herself mid-air, upside down, looking down upon Stalker and Stalker looking back up at her. Both of their expressions are of gaping mouths with wide open eyes and. Aros spies the many feet of nothingness below. Stalker, holds firm his grip of the pillar with one hand and flails his other hand above trying to grab any part of Aros as she tumbles past and out over the abyss below. Amazingly three of his fingers tangle in her backpack as she plummets toward the fog far below.
Stalker manages to hold Aros’s backpack, his arm out stretched with Aros dangling feet down. Her backpack straps under her armpits being all that keep her from the unknown perils below.
The rest of our heroic adventurers, unable to assist, stand and watch, paralysed with a mixture of shock and amazement plastered across their faces. Watching in aw at Stalker barely catch Aros.
Aros slams against the side of the causeway as Stalker halts her trajectory. She hangs there for a moment, breathless, eyes wide. Then she shakes herself back to sense and grabs onto the handholds, shimmying herself back up to a forward position.
When she and Stalker have both managed to get themselves back up safely to the top of the causeway, Aros just lies there a moment, taking deep breaths that are more from the adrenaline than the exertion of the climb. Then she stands and looks out again over the edge.
Aros is a satyr. She has the hooves of a surefooted goat. Standing on a wet rock shouldn't be enough to make her slip. She stares icily into the middle distance and sighs. She knows which way the wind is blowing. Fairyland demands its say.
She turns to Stalker and says "Thank you."
She continues, saying "I have been told in... SEVERAL meetings with the misters that my communication style can skew a tad... confrontational. It is something I've been encouraged to work on. So... I am sorry, Stalker.
Let me try again to express my needs in a more constructive format.
WE need your help to get these spiders back to the carnival. YOU need our help to get through the fey and do whatever it is you’re all doing, I’m sorry I am still not clear on what exactly that is.
And we ALL need to get off this bridge thingy, including Sammy over there.
But Sammy doesn’t climb ladders, and due to the surprisingly rigid limitations of blink dog physiology, she can’t teleport far enough to reach the ground, so SOMEONE is going to have to carry her.
Resmae isn’t going anywhere without Sammy, and I’m not going anywhere without her, and as previously stated, y’all ain’t goin’ anywhere without us.
I ‘knit’ that harness so that one of us could carry Sammy down the ladder on their back. You are clearly the strongest member of this party, so would you… PLEASE… Be so kind… As to carry Sammy down the ladder so we can all get this bizarre chore over with and get on with our lives?
And in return I will make an effort to not make fun of you or your friends. Nor will I take it personally when your friends, right to my face, question the good intentions of the person who took me in, cared for me, and raised me like a daughter when I had absolutely no one else in the world. Deal?"
She turns her attention from Stalker, to everyone else. She tells everyone “And let that little event be an object lesson for the rest of you on the very immediate karmic retribution in Fairyland. So long as the only wrongs that need righting are petty social indiscretions, the place is a dang bastion of justice..."
As she says this last bit, she glares around at the landscape as if daring the fey itself to come at her a second time. Then she turns back to the group and says, “See? We’re ALREADY helping each other out and we haven’t even left the lobby.”
As Aros glares across the landscape, daring the fey. You all hear a large crack and the stones on which you stand shake, as one of the carved stones near the edge of the broken causeway, just yards away, cracks and plummets into the fog below. You hear it crash into trees and then water shortly after its entry through the fog.