Rixton doesn't recall everything he has read about wild magic, but he knows that in places where the Weave has been damaged or distorted in some way spells can behave erratically. Some can inadvertently target their caster, or have far greater power than intended, or far less power than intended, or have wholly unexpected results, including no results whatsoever.
Scrutinizing the pillar of water, Rixton surmises that its vertical flow begins magically in the bottom of the gulch but encounters a some sort of dead magic zone where it abruptly stops and splashes outwardly. Oddly, not all the water droplets fall back to earth; some appear to float away, almost as if they are bubbles.
Rawley goes slowly over the walls of this thing with his eyes, looking for either tunnels or climbable spots. Maybe even a sewage system. He also keeps in mind the movements of the sun - it would be best to approach in darkness, but the next best thing is to approach when the sun shines straight into the watchful eyes.
He asks quietly, "Do we know of these people or actually even the yikaria have any rituals that happen at certain times of the day? We would want to time our approach to coincide with that."
Mola looks around the ruins of the tower for any markings, openings, items, anything. Investigation: 8 (plus 2guidance)
Is any of the water close enough to be affected by shape water? Mola will see if his spell works if so. Assuming it's far away, he'll try to see if there's any water in the soil around the tower ruins, to see if his investigation for clues etc can be helped by moving water around within the soil.
"We know really very little about the yikaria. Do you see anything in the walls of the cavern worth investigating?"
Crazy idea -- would Mola be able to speak with animals to a raven, convince it to take him for a ride sweeping around the inner and outer perimeter of the triangular rock, and shift to an insect of some kind, and then hop on? I imagine it would not work (the raven would eat Mola, it would forget the instructions, etc) but just throwing it out there.
He doesn't finish his thought aloud but turns his attention to the tower before them. "Let's examine this while we are here. I suspect we are heading into the basin before this is all through."
The upper levels of the tower are now non-existent; the stones that formed that portion of the structure are broken, resting upon the ground, and now buried beneath a blanket of sinewy roots and thorny vines. With a bit of work, the party cuts through some of the branches and vines that cover the keep's entrance and explores what remains of the ground floor of the ancient place, which consists of an antechamber, an enormous kitchen, an equally enormous banquet room, and several storage rooms. Spider webs, rodent droppings, dust, and stone debris are the only things of note in any of the rooms. A spiral staircase in the anteroom, seemingly in tact, leads to a lower level.
Mola looks around the ruins of the tower for any markings, openings, items, anything. Investigation: 8 (plus 2guidance)
Nothing out of the ordinary presents itself, other than what is described above.
Is any of the water close enough to be affected by shape water? Mola will see if his spell works if so. Assuming it's far away, he'll try to see if there's any water in the soil around the tower ruins, to see if his investigation for clues etc can be helped by moving water around within the soil.
The pillar of water is out of Mola's reach; it's approximately eighty feet away.
Crazy idea -- would Mola be able to speak with animals to a raven, convince it to take him for a ride sweeping around the inner and outer perimeter of the triangular rock, and shift to an insect of some kind, and then hop on? I imagine it would not work (the raven would eat Mola, it would forget the instructions, etc) but just throwing it out there.
Mola's got the sense to be a bit wary of tales of magic going awry, and holds off on giving it a try. If the spell's still going, he'll ask any rodent or insect creatures he sees near the staircase what they've seen come in and out of there, and anything interesting inside.
What does Mola hear at the top of the spiral staircase?
Perception: 14 plus guidance 2
He's also looking around for any signs or messages in druidic, given the treants helped seal this place.
"Dendros, what will you do?"Mola says to the treant, looking at the small passageway into the ground. "And if you have any stories of what's underground here you'd like to share, now would be the time!"
Rixtonputs his hood up and draws both his shortsword and his handaxe and begins to carefully descend the staircase, confident, perhaps overly so, that he can safely scout ahead.
The raven makes a few more cawing noises and returns to soaring over the canyon. Inside the ruins, Mola finds no signs of the Druidic language, but he does have a very brief chat with a mouse. Skittish and jittery, the rodent repeats a few phrases before scurrying away. "No food. Much darkness. Shadows. No mouse-killers. No light. No food. Shadows."
Dendros explains that he knows very little of the passages beneath Hellgate Keep. "Tales of tanarukk and dead creatures who yet live. But I do not know for certain, Mola."
Realizing his time with the party has come to an end, he says his farewell. "Children of flesh and blood and bone, I say goodbye to you. The tunnels and darkness beneath the ground is no place for Dendros. You are friends of the High Forest, and that is good. I shall remain among the trees nearby for a few days. If you have not returned, then I will move on. I can do as you wish with the horses and the mule. Many days have they walked with me. I believe they will not flee my presence. HA! That will be a thing to see, yes? A treant, a mule, and three horses! A bard will sing of such a thing someday."
The treant then emits a stream of laughter that rumbles the ground.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Assuming the rest of the party follows Rixtondown the stairwell...
The stairwell seems to have avoided the severe damage that nearly leveled the above-ground structures. The stones show a few cracks, but they seem quite secure under the weight of everyone's feet. After a descent of nearly twenty feet, the stairs open to one large room. All evidence indicates this was the cellar. Anything edible or drinkable has long since decayed or been devoured by scavengers, but the place is littered with broken shelving and barrels, empty crates, and shattered bottles. The only signs of life are tiny footprints and droppings, most likely from rats and mice.
Rixtonreturns to the surface as Dendros is saying is goodbyes and Rixtonbids him farewell too. "The bards will certainly sing of, my friend," Rixton says after he asks them to take care of the horses.
And then he gets back to business. "A cellar lays below but there are stairs that go even beyond. I will scout further."
Rixtondescends and then descends again into the depths of the ruins.
Another ten feet down the stairwell and Rixton comes to a small landing. Hanging by one rusty hinge is a small iron door--roughly four feet in height--that leads into a small, arched tunnel that runs east-west. The size, structure, and slope of the tunnel suggests it is a sewer. Its smooth floor has a slight downward grade as it heads east.
The stairwell continues downward from the landing...
Rixton continues his descent into the dark unknown. Estimating he is now sixty or seventy feet below the ruined keep, he comes to a hallway. Twenty feet in width, it ends in a pile of rubble to the east. To the west, however, it continues well beyond the range of his darkvision.
After searching the ground level with the others and satisfied there's nothing of value to be seen, Gwin finds a large piece of rubble and sits on it, legs crossed. Waiting for Rixton to reappear she prays for guidance and safety for the party while sharpening her crossbow bolts with the whetstone from her smith's tools.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
‘The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.’ - Buffy Summers
“Thank you very much for everything, Dendros. I hope we will see you in less than a few days. Tarnie likes any spare sugar beets or apples laying about.”
While Mola is waiting for Rixton to report back again, he will experiment with the odd stream of water and the wild magic. He begins dropping leaves and seed pods off the cliff and watches what happens, if they fall down or up, or anything else weird. He also really tries to figure out from where the four figures jumped from.
Soon he gets concerned about Rixton and begins to look down the staircase, hoping to see something in the darkness.
(if so then) Rawley stays vigilant, but also prepares his kit for underground travel. Torches, tinderbox, possibly some dry branches from nearby to tie into a bundle and bring with.. and deep breaths of the fresh air. He has stayed in tunnels before for days at the time, but definitely not his favorite terrain.
Rawley checks and rechecks his gear, preparing for whatever comes next, and within a few minutes he is satisfied with the small pile of dry branches he has collected. The gentle scraping sound of steel against stone fills the air at regular intervals as Gwin's continues to sharpen her bolts.
Mola conducts a simple experiment, hoping to see some evidence of wild magic. Everything he drops off the edge behaves as it should, falling and tumbling down the steep western side of the great canyon. Based on the location of the four bodies, Mola surmises they fell from the opposite side of the canyon. As he traces the line from the top of the opposing cliff to the floor of the canyon, Mola lets out a small gasp: one of the body's arms seem to be moving ever so slightly.
Meanwhile, several stories underground, Rixton stares down a long tunnel. He quiets his breathing, listening intently. Just as he prepares to continue his journey down the stairs, he hears footsteps. The sound is far away, somewhere down the hallway to the west, but the bare stone floors and walls easily carry the noise to Rixton's ears...
Rixtonsmirks and quietly climbs the stairs to the surface.
"We are not alone," he says dramatically as he appears. Then he notes what everyone is doing. "Don't trouble yourselves too much in my absence. Anyway, several levels down, someone is sneaking about. I did not go all the way to the bottom but I have the impression these ruins are somewhat deep, if not also expansive.
"I am of the opinion that this is our route, rather than scaling the cliff, though," he says, then gestures to the stairs. "Shall we?"
Mola studies the western side of the gulch, looking for the least treacherous route. He finds one that seems navigable, but it is by no means an easy path. He estimates at least thirty minutes will be needed to reach the bottom of the canyon.
Nothing else out of the ordinary is detectable. As Mola watches the moving body, he gets the impression that he is looking at someone who is gravely wounded and trying to crawl.
Rixton doesn't recall everything he has read about wild magic, but he knows that in places where the Weave has been damaged or distorted in some way spells can behave erratically. Some can inadvertently target their caster, or have far greater power than intended, or far less power than intended, or have wholly unexpected results, including no results whatsoever.
Scrutinizing the pillar of water, Rixton surmises that its vertical flow begins magically in the bottom of the gulch but encounters a some sort of dead magic zone where it abruptly stops and splashes outwardly. Oddly, not all the water droplets fall back to earth; some appear to float away, almost as if they are bubbles.
Rawley goes slowly over the walls of this thing with his eyes, looking for either tunnels or climbable spots. Maybe even a sewage system. He also keeps in mind the movements of the sun - it would be best to approach in darkness, but the next best thing is to approach when the sun shines straight into the watchful eyes.
He asks quietly, "Do we know of these people or actually even the yikaria have any rituals that happen at certain times of the day? We would want to time our approach to coincide with that."
Mola looks around the ruins of the tower for any markings, openings, items, anything. Investigation: 8 (plus 2 guidance)
Is any of the water close enough to be affected by shape water? Mola will see if his spell works if so. Assuming it's far away, he'll try to see if there's any water in the soil around the tower ruins, to see if his investigation for clues etc can be helped by moving water around within the soil.
"We know really very little about the yikaria. Do you see anything in the walls of the cavern worth investigating?"
Crazy idea -- would Mola be able to speak with animals to a raven, convince it to take him for a ride sweeping around the inner and outer perimeter of the triangular rock, and shift to an insect of some kind, and then hop on? I imagine it would not work (the raven would eat Mola, it would forget the instructions, etc) but just throwing it out there.
The upper levels of the tower are now non-existent; the stones that formed that portion of the structure are broken, resting upon the ground, and now buried beneath a blanket of sinewy roots and thorny vines. With a bit of work, the party cuts through some of the branches and vines that cover the keep's entrance and explores what remains of the ground floor of the ancient place, which consists of an antechamber, an enormous kitchen, an equally enormous banquet room, and several storage rooms. Spider webs, rodent droppings, dust, and stone debris are the only things of note in any of the rooms. A spiral staircase in the anteroom, seemingly in tact, leads to a lower level.
Nothing out of the ordinary presents itself, other than what is described above.
The pillar of water is out of Mola's reach; it's approximately eighty feet away.
Interesting idea.
Animal Handling: 15
The raven appears to be amenable to the suggestion, but Mola can't help but wonder how the presence of wild magic might affect the airborne journey...
Mola's got the sense to be a bit wary of tales of magic going awry, and holds off on giving it a try. If the spell's still going, he'll ask any rodent or insect creatures he sees near the staircase what they've seen come in and out of there, and anything interesting inside.
What does Mola hear at the top of the spiral staircase?
Perception: 14 plus guidance 2
He's also looking around for any signs or messages in druidic, given the treants helped seal this place.
"Dendros, what will you do?" Mola says to the treant, looking at the small passageway into the ground. "And if you have any stories of what's underground here you'd like to share, now would be the time!"
Rixton puts his hood up and draws both his shortsword and his handaxe and begins to carefully descend the staircase, confident, perhaps overly so, that he can safely scout ahead.
Stealth: 24
The raven makes a few more cawing noises and returns to soaring over the canyon. Inside the ruins, Mola finds no signs of the Druidic language, but he does have a very brief chat with a mouse. Skittish and jittery, the rodent repeats a few phrases before scurrying away. "No food. Much darkness. Shadows. No mouse-killers. No light. No food. Shadows."
Dendros explains that he knows very little of the passages beneath Hellgate Keep. "Tales of tanarukk and dead creatures who yet live. But I do not know for certain, Mola."
Realizing his time with the party has come to an end, he says his farewell. "Children of flesh and blood and bone, I say goodbye to you. The tunnels and darkness beneath the ground is no place for Dendros. You are friends of the High Forest, and that is good. I shall remain among the trees nearby for a few days. If you have not returned, then I will move on. I can do as you wish with the horses and the mule. Many days have they walked with me. I believe they will not flee my presence. HA! That will be a thing to see, yes? A treant, a mule, and three horses! A bard will sing of such a thing someday."
The treant then emits a stream of laughter that rumbles the ground.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Assuming the rest of the party follows Rixton down the stairwell...
The stairwell seems to have avoided the severe damage that nearly leveled the above-ground structures. The stones show a few cracks, but they seem quite secure under the weight of everyone's feet. After a descent of nearly twenty feet, the stairs open to one large room. All evidence indicates this was the cellar. Anything edible or drinkable has long since decayed or been devoured by scavengers, but the place is littered with broken shelving and barrels, empty crates, and shattered bottles. The only signs of life are tiny footprints and droppings, most likely from rats and mice.
The stairwell continues downward, however...
Rixton returns to the surface as Dendros is saying is goodbyes and Rixton bids him farewell too. "The bards will certainly sing of, my friend," Rixton says after he asks them to take care of the horses.
And then he gets back to business. "A cellar lays below but there are stairs that go even beyond. I will scout further."
Rixton descends and then descends again into the depths of the ruins.
Stealth: 20
Another ten feet down the stairwell and Rixton comes to a small landing. Hanging by one rusty hinge is a small iron door--roughly four feet in height--that leads into a small, arched tunnel that runs east-west. The size, structure, and slope of the tunnel suggests it is a sewer. Its smooth floor has a slight downward grade as it heads east.
The stairwell continues downward from the landing...
Rixton will follow the stairs, not wanting to come out into the open air of the valley to the east.
Rixton continues his descent into the dark unknown. Estimating he is now sixty or seventy feet below the ruined keep, he comes to a hallway. Twenty feet in width, it ends in a pile of rubble to the east. To the west, however, it continues well beyond the range of his darkvision.
And the stairwell continues its descent...
Rixton will stop here and listen at the westward tunnel, staying as quietly as he can, almost meditative in his method.
Perception: 25
If he detects nothing to the west, he will continue down. If does detect something, he will head back to the surface and inform the others.
After searching the ground level with the others and satisfied there's nothing of value to be seen, Gwin finds a large piece of rubble and sits on it, legs crossed. Waiting for Rixton to reappear she prays for guidance and safety for the party while sharpening her crossbow bolts with the whetstone from her smith's tools.
‘The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.’ - Buffy Summers
“Thank you very much for everything, Dendros. I hope we will see you in less than a few days. Tarnie likes any spare sugar beets or apples laying about.”
While Mola is waiting for Rixton to report back again, he will experiment with the odd stream of water and the wild magic. He begins dropping leaves and seed pods off the cliff and watches what happens, if they fall down or up, or anything else weird. He also really tries to figure out from where the four figures jumped from.
Soon he gets concerned about Rixton and begins to look down the staircase, hoping to see something in the darkness.
(wait, so Rixton alone is exploring right now?)
(if so then) Rawley stays vigilant, but also prepares his kit for underground travel. Torches, tinderbox, possibly some dry branches from nearby to tie into a bundle and bring with.. and deep breaths of the fresh air. He has stayed in tunnels before for days at the time, but definitely not his favorite terrain.
15, 22
Rawley checks and rechecks his gear, preparing for whatever comes next, and within a few minutes he is satisfied with the small pile of dry branches he has collected. The gentle scraping sound of steel against stone fills the air at regular intervals as Gwin's continues to sharpen her bolts.
Mola conducts a simple experiment, hoping to see some evidence of wild magic. Everything he drops off the edge behaves as it should, falling and tumbling down the steep western side of the great canyon. Based on the location of the four bodies, Mola surmises they fell from the opposite side of the canyon. As he traces the line from the top of the opposing cliff to the floor of the canyon, Mola lets out a small gasp: one of the body's arms seem to be moving ever so slightly.
Meanwhile, several stories underground, Rixton stares down a long tunnel. He quiets his breathing, listening intently. Just as he prepares to continue his journey down the stairs, he hears footsteps. The sound is far away, somewhere down the hallway to the west, but the bare stone floors and walls easily carry the noise to Rixton's ears...
Rixton smirks and quietly climbs the stairs to the surface.
"We are not alone," he says dramatically as he appears. Then he notes what everyone is doing. "Don't trouble yourselves too much in my absence. Anyway, several levels down, someone is sneaking about. I did not go all the way to the bottom but I have the impression these ruins are somewhat deep, if not also expansive.
"I am of the opinion that this is our route, rather than scaling the cliff, though," he says, then gestures to the stairs. "Shall we?"
Mola points at the moving arm. “That wasn’t happening before, was it?”
Is there any easy path down there? Mola looks around again for anything hinky happening, anyone else there previously unseen...
Perception: 26
Mola studies the western side of the gulch, looking for the least treacherous route. He finds one that seems navigable, but it is by no means an easy path. He estimates at least thirty minutes will be needed to reach the bottom of the canyon.
Nothing else out of the ordinary is detectable. As Mola watches the moving body, he gets the impression that he is looking at someone who is gravely wounded and trying to crawl.