"Your desire to explore a cave is not the same as choosing between innocent lives and some other horrendous choice. I have already said your slaying of any of those bats in self defense was acceptable under the circumstances. I feel sadness for you if your desire for power and knowledge will trample the innocent along the way. Feel free to explore, I will not stop you, nor will I join you. It does not serve our current mission. You do not need this torch to see, go your own way then. You say it is harder to put into practice but I do so now. Nothing in there that we know of is worth the innocent lives within. Qidira has collected what she wanted without disturbing the bats further. Now the greater good is finding Hulil and solving the mystery of the sickness."
“Enough!” Brandon speaks to everyone in a sharp, commanding tone, probably a little more strident than he intended “It does us no good to argue amongst ourselves. There are dangers ahead and we should remain focused on the task at hand. There will be time later to debate the greater good, although in my experience such a thing rarely exists. My guess is that Old Croaker remains deeper in the caves and we should do our best to avoid it if possible.”
Brandon moves to the south, approximately 10 feet in front of Ressys, staying toward the eastern wall away from the pool, and alert to any dangers around him. He urges the party to continue on.
Before Qidira could answer his question Brandon asked for his help in retrieving the plank. Kotar acted fast and was surprised with how easy it was to remove the improvised bridge. He doubted that it would stop any bandit. It would, however, slow anyone trying to enter the cave. It’s good enough, he decided starting to work in retrieving the rope and hook.
First the group started considering their options. Durnham pointed how the knife was proved safe by the circumstances, Qidira offered the weapon to the Warlock that gladly accepted. At the gnome’s request the dwarf recovered the daggers she had threw in one of the guarding amphibians and the goliath smiled to himself. Magic hand thing. A moment of distraction in which the rope slipped through his hands, fortunately not in the water.
Resigned, he started to wind the rope again while a discussion erupted between druid and wizard about bats, nature and the greater good. Qidira then answered his question and Brandon tried to stop the discussion.
“It’s alright, Qidira. Just be careful.” He said finally putting the rope in the backpack and the coins in his pocket. “I think we should lower our voices and avoid any water, considering that the last one had guards. We could hug the wall and go the opposite of that pool.”
And hopefully there wouldn’t be an enemy waiting for them. At least not one aware of their presence. With this hope he moved by Ressys, blade unsheathed. So it begins.
With Qidira out ahead scouting Ressys nods his head at Brandon. "Very well, I follow behind you." He waits for Brandon and Kotar to move past him and then he follows keeping in mind it the torch that allows himself, as well as Kotar and Brandon, to see. He does his best to hold it aloft and casts it about to get as best a look at everything that is ahead.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Durnham walks away from the group and looks into the bat cave as he waits for them to be ready to move.
He understood the Firbolg’s desire to let nature alone but how could he just assume there was nothing in this cave? He didn’t know. He just made assumptions based upon nothing. Knowledge and progress demanded questioning the world. You can’t learn anything new by making assumptions and refusing to investigate the unknown.
Anger rolls through him. Everyone was always trying to limit and hide knowledge. They always wanted to keep him ignorant. He hated it!
Some day he would be able to learn about everything. Nothing would be beyond his ability to explore and understand and nobody would be able to stop him.
17 Perception check for anything he can see into the cave.
As the group moves on he rejoins them in a sullen mood.
Qidira returns to the group. "Further down it appears that two large Stalagmites merge with the ceiling above forming pillars in the cave. There is a pool in a South East corner of the Cavern that only goes about 15-20ft back to the cave wall. A large wooden bucket with a lid sits at the edge of the pool. I can see an exit to the east at the far end of the Cavern." (Ressys' torch light seems to end just past where Qidira is on the map, ending at the far side of the first 'pillar' and cutting across straight to the east wall from what I can see on my map)
When Qidira returns to the group, she sees that Durnham has hung behind to investigate and watches distractedly until he returns. Grief, the unknown and a strong desire for knowledge warring within him it seems. She worries that he puts himself in danger and returns her focus to the others once she has view of him again. (If he stays out of her sight more than a few moments, she will comment to the others. Otherwise - )
Seeing him within sight again, she looks again to the group. "This is a large cavern. I think perhaps we should stay close together to avoid the earlier situation caused by the first pool. I will continue to scout but are we headed to the pool in the South West Corner or the passageway to the East? And does anyone have healing?" (Qidira is 4/8 hp)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Ressys listens as Qidira gives a report. "Let us check out the pool. We do not know what the bandits are doing down here. Let us see if there are clues there." As Qidira finishes her report she asks about healing. "Eh, what? I am sorry, I did not realize you were wounded. Here let me help." Bending down on one knee the firbolg places a hand on the injury that Qidira points out and casts Cure wounds for 6 hp.
As he gets back up, satisfied with his work and seeing her injury fully healed he sighs. "That is the last of that. I would need another night to restore the energies needed to do that again. So lets try and be safe as I cannot heal any more wounds."
“But we do know what they are doing here.” Kotar said soon after Ressys fell silent. “Tulgi told to us in her cabin, remember? They were sent here by the Uttolots to keep an eye for treasures coming from Eiselcross.”
Maybe the druid wanted to know more about how the bandits seemly trained the frogs in the cave to do their biding. Something oddly similar to Durnham’s curiosity that but moments earlier the firbolg so adamantly opposed.
“If our last encounter tells us something is that the only clue we may find in any water here is a couple of guard frogs and if I recall right you don’t want to bother or kill any creature if necessary.” The goliath considered mentioning what Ressys had said about not doing something that wouldn’t serve their current mission, but at the end thought better not. “Besides, as you just said, it’s better if we try to be as safe as we can. We should take the passageway East and try finding Hulil as fast as we can.”
Assuming she was in the cave. Kotar doubted the sick criminal would be with the others in Palblank, but maybe Tulgi was not the only one to have accommodations outside the hideout. A thought better left unsaid, he decided looking and each and every one of his companions. When his eyes met Durnham the fighter could not help but to ask if the water had some effect over the wizard. Didn’t seem like it had, fortunately.
"Eh? I meant where are they hiding the items." he ponders for a moment, his ears fliting up and down. "I suppose if traversing the bat cave is needed to find the items so be it. I will follow your lead, let us go east then."
The gnome looks to Ressys, grateful for the healing, "That's much better, thank you. Those bolts are nasty things." Glancing at his ears as he bends down to help. "I like your ears, they move about with your feelings. It'd be fun if mine did that, but alas they are large cumbersome things."
Qidira follows the conversation between the others then inquires of Kotar. "Perhaps you meant the one south of us ahead heading east? Its out of view for some of the others at the moment but at the far end of this cavern. The cave with the bats is very slick, it didn't look easily traveled. It seems likely that if there are any more frogs here, they would be in that pond and we haven't seen the frog called Old Croaker. I'm curious about that bucket? Could it be to contain food or to lower something somehow? Happy to scout either."
Brandon nods at Qidira and Kotar “Yes, let’s check out the passage to the east, across from the second pool, and try to find Hulil and whatever bandits remain here. It would be best to try to speak with them if they don’t attack at first sight like the others. The bucket is curious, but we can explore that and the and pool later if there is time.”
Qidira agrees and moves to the east wall of the cavern to start scouting ahead again watching for any disagreement from the others before continuing.
After a few moments she will continue if noone objects and move down to the entrance where the cavern opens to the east and see what she can see that way.
(I'm posting quickly so if anyone objects she will wait)
Durnham hangs at the back of the group waiting for everyone to proceed. He pulls out the hooded lantern he took from Urgon’s cabin and lights it as the torch was ruined when he fell into the water. Both the light and the warmth from the flame are welcome as he continues to drip dry.
Qidira moves to the east side of the cave and leads the party around to the exit. A short tunnel leads to a roughly round room about 30ft in diameter. Ten empty bedrolls are arranged in a circle around a cold fire pit at the center of this cavern. Chicken bones, empty wine and spirits bottles, and other food waste litters the floor.
An exit to the north leads to a corridor, possibly back to the bat cave. Another exit in the north east leads to a wider corridor, and at the edge of your visible distance you see the edge of a pool of water.
As Durnham walks around the corner behind the group he sees the apparently deserted camp. He immediately gets his spell book out and begins performing the ritual to detect magic as he assumes the others will search through the bandit’s things.
The group decided for taking the way east and in few steps reached a new section of the cave. Under the new light of Durnham’s lantern, Kotar could see ten bedrolls in front of a cold firepit. Five went to the village, three we killed and one of them should be Hulil. That made nine bandits, meaning that no more than one criminal remained to the person they needed to meet. Those were good news, the best he, and any one of them, he believed, had since arriving in Paleblank.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t leave this for later?” He asked noticing the dwarf start acting just like in Tulgi’s house, when seeing if there was any magical energies around. “Well, we can discuss which way to go.” The fighter says Qidira, Ressys and Brandon, pointing to the two exits close to the camp. “Although I think that way leads back to the guano cave.”
It was, quite literally, a shot in the dark, but seemed likely enough. As likely as the chance of Hulil waiting for them at the end of the cave with traps laid and an accomplice ready for battle to the bitter end. Or they could be unaware of our fight, Kotar considered, trying to be optimistic. Whichever the case they would need to, at the very least, capture the woman. Elro was after her and soon enough she would put the entirety of the Uttolots after them. Maybe the best option was killing her. Just maybe.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
As Durnham begins his ritual, Brandon moves to investigate the empty camp, checking the bedrolls and equipment for any signs of the missing items or any other useful information. “Will you help me search while we wait?” he asks the others for help.
“Sure.” He answered sheathing the longssowrd and taking Durnham’s hooded lantern. “I’ll bring it back before we move ahead.”With light in hands he starts following Brandon, helping the warlock by shedding clarity in the directions he searched.“If not one of the remaining two bandits came attacking then it’s pretty safe to say that even if they take us an enemies they’ll lay in waiting. I was expecting traps, a position of advantage from each to start their assault, but now that you though about the pools… Do you think we’ll have to fight against more frogs?”
Two of the beasts had proven to be little threat, but what if there’s three or four of them? Not to mention that they didn’t have any idea about Hulil’s strength. The woman was sent to a hostile land with ten outlaws to command. She had to be a hard foe. At very least harder than the three they defeated at the entrance of the hideout. And that was far from the last problem. Even if they found the remaining criminals ignorant of enmity it wouldn’t take more than one of them walking to entrance for things to escalate. Not to mention that no matter what happens, if a single associate of the Uttolots leaves the place alive the heads of each and everyone of the party members would gain a price.
“Anyone found anything?”Kotar asked without even turning his head. He was focused his focus in supporting to the warlock’s search.
As Durnham completes the ritual he flourishes his hands in a complex gesture and says “Be Revealed!” his eyes begin to glow a soft white and he will walk around scanning the room, it’s contents, and the walls with his 30 ft of vision.
As he walks around detecting magical energies he will respond to Kotar, “We are looking for clues Kotar. Something left behind may give us a better idea of what to expect or what has happened in this cave. It takes a bit of time but we may find something that will help us. Investing a bit of time to gather information beforehand can save us time and maybe save lives later.”
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Seeing Kotar move off with Durnham's lantern he is prepared to stay with the dwarf until he suddenly remembers the dwarf could see in the dark just fine. Leaving Kotar and Brandon to search the camp Ressys steps into the entry to the first cave passage that runs back north. "I am nearly certain this first passage leads to where the bats were."
As he stands in the entry of this portion of the cave he holds the torch ahead of him and looks up the passage as far as he can. At the same time he calls out in the language of beasts making a number of clicking noises
Stay hidden unless people hide things in your cave then show self for moment
It seemed a simple enough idea, hopefully the bats would understand. Do not reveal yourselves unless people hide things in their cave.
He watches to see if he sees anything
CHA roll 14
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Ressys looks down at Durnham.
"Your desire to explore a cave is not the same as choosing between innocent lives and some other horrendous choice. I have already said your slaying of any of those bats in self defense was acceptable under the circumstances. I feel sadness for you if your desire for power and knowledge will trample the innocent along the way. Feel free to explore, I will not stop you, nor will I join you. It does not serve our current mission. You do not need this torch to see, go your own way then. You say it is harder to put into practice but I do so now. Nothing in there that we know of is worth the innocent lives within. Qidira has collected what she wanted without disturbing the bats further. Now the greater good is finding Hulil and solving the mystery of the sickness."
“Enough!” Brandon speaks to everyone in a sharp, commanding tone, probably a little more strident than he intended “It does us no good to argue amongst ourselves. There are dangers ahead and we should remain focused on the task at hand. There will be time later to debate the greater good, although in my experience such a thing rarely exists. My guess is that Old Croaker remains deeper in the caves and we should do our best to avoid it if possible.”
Brandon moves to the south, approximately 10 feet in front of Ressys, staying toward the eastern wall away from the pool, and alert to any dangers around him. He urges the party to continue on.
Before Qidira could answer his question Brandon asked for his help in retrieving the plank. Kotar acted fast and was surprised with how easy it was to remove the improvised bridge. He doubted that it would stop any bandit. It would, however, slow anyone trying to enter the cave. It’s good enough, he decided starting to work in retrieving the rope and hook.
First the group started considering their options. Durnham pointed how the knife was proved safe by the circumstances, Qidira offered the weapon to the Warlock that gladly accepted. At the gnome’s request the dwarf recovered the daggers she had threw in one of the guarding amphibians and the goliath smiled to himself. Magic hand thing. A moment of distraction in which the rope slipped through his hands, fortunately not in the water.
Resigned, he started to wind the rope again while a discussion erupted between druid and wizard about bats, nature and the greater good. Qidira then answered his question and Brandon tried to stop the discussion.
“It’s alright, Qidira. Just be careful.” He said finally putting the rope in the backpack and the coins in his pocket. “I think we should lower our voices and avoid any water, considering that the last one had guards. We could hug the wall and go the opposite of that pool.”
And hopefully there wouldn’t be an enemy waiting for them. At least not one aware of their presence. With this hope he moved by Ressys, blade unsheathed. So it begins.
With Qidira out ahead scouting Ressys nods his head at Brandon. "Very well, I follow behind you." He waits for Brandon and Kotar to move past him and then he follows keeping in mind it the torch that allows himself, as well as Kotar and Brandon, to see. He does his best to hold it aloft and casts it about to get as best a look at everything that is ahead.
Durnham walks away from the group and looks into the bat cave as he waits for them to be ready to move.
He understood the Firbolg’s desire to let nature alone but how could he just assume there was nothing in this cave? He didn’t know. He just made assumptions based upon nothing. Knowledge and progress demanded questioning the world. You can’t learn anything new by making assumptions and refusing to investigate the unknown.
Anger rolls through him. Everyone was always trying to limit and hide knowledge. They always wanted to keep him ignorant. He hated it!
Some day he would be able to learn about everything. Nothing would be beyond his ability to explore and understand and nobody would be able to stop him.
17 Perception check for anything he can see into the cave.
As the group moves on he rejoins them in a sullen mood.
Noob
Qidira returns to the group. "Further down it appears that two large Stalagmites merge with the ceiling above forming pillars in the cave. There is a pool in a South East corner of the Cavern that only goes about 15-20ft back to the cave wall. A large wooden bucket with a lid sits at the edge of the pool. I can see an exit to the east at the far end of the Cavern." (Ressys' torch light seems to end just past where Qidira is on the map, ending at the far side of the first 'pillar' and cutting across straight to the east wall from what I can see on my map)
When Qidira returns to the group, she sees that Durnham has hung behind to investigate and watches distractedly until he returns. Grief, the unknown and a strong desire for knowledge warring within him it seems. She worries that he puts himself in danger and returns her focus to the others once she has view of him again. (If he stays out of her sight more than a few moments, she will comment to the others. Otherwise - )
Seeing him within sight again, she looks again to the group. "This is a large cavern. I think perhaps we should stay close together to avoid the earlier situation caused by the first pool. I will continue to scout but are we headed to the pool in the South West Corner or the passageway to the East? And does anyone have healing?" (Qidira is 4/8 hp)
Ressys listens as Qidira gives a report. "Let us check out the pool. We do not know what the bandits are doing down here. Let us see if there are clues there." As Qidira finishes her report she asks about healing. "Eh, what? I am sorry, I did not realize you were wounded. Here let me help." Bending down on one knee the firbolg places a hand on the injury that Qidira points out and casts Cure wounds for 6 hp.
As he gets back up, satisfied with his work and seeing her injury fully healed he sighs. "That is the last of that. I would need another night to restore the energies needed to do that again. So lets try and be safe as I cannot heal any more wounds."
“But we do know what they are doing here.” Kotar said soon after Ressys fell silent. “Tulgi told to us in her cabin, remember? They were sent here by the Uttolots to keep an eye for treasures coming from Eiselcross.”
Maybe the druid wanted to know more about how the bandits seemly trained the frogs in the cave to do their biding. Something oddly similar to Durnham’s curiosity that but moments earlier the firbolg so adamantly opposed.
“If our last encounter tells us something is that the only clue we may find in any water here is a couple of guard frogs and if I recall right you don’t want to bother or kill any creature if necessary.” The goliath considered mentioning what Ressys had said about not doing something that wouldn’t serve their current mission, but at the end thought better not. “Besides, as you just said, it’s better if we try to be as safe as we can. We should take the passageway East and try finding Hulil as fast as we can.”
Assuming she was in the cave. Kotar doubted the sick criminal would be with the others in Palblank, but maybe Tulgi was not the only one to have accommodations outside the hideout. A thought better left unsaid, he decided looking and each and every one of his companions. When his eyes met Durnham the fighter could not help but to ask if the water had some effect over the wizard. Didn’t seem like it had, fortunately.
"Eh? I meant where are they hiding the items." he ponders for a moment, his ears fliting up and down. "I suppose if traversing the bat cave is needed to find the items so be it. I will follow your lead, let us go east then."
The gnome looks to Ressys, grateful for the healing, "That's much better, thank you. Those bolts are nasty things." Glancing at his ears as he bends down to help. "I like your ears, they move about with your feelings. It'd be fun if mine did that, but alas they are large cumbersome things."
Qidira follows the conversation between the others then inquires of Kotar. "Perhaps you meant the one south of us ahead heading east? Its out of view for some of the others at the moment but at the far end of this cavern. The cave with the bats is very slick, it didn't look easily traveled. It seems likely that if there are any more frogs here, they would be in that pond and we haven't seen the frog called Old Croaker. I'm curious about that bucket? Could it be to contain food or to lower something somehow? Happy to scout either."
Brandon nods at Qidira and Kotar “Yes, let’s check out the passage to the east, across from the second pool, and try to find Hulil and whatever bandits remain here. It would be best to try to speak with them if they don’t attack at first sight like the others. The bucket is curious, but we can explore that and the and pool later if there is time.”
Qidira agrees and moves to the east wall of the cavern to start scouting ahead again watching for any disagreement from the others before continuing.
After a few moments she will continue if noone objects and move down to the entrance where the cavern opens to the east and see what she can see that way.
(I'm posting quickly so if anyone objects she will wait)
Durnham hangs at the back of the group waiting for everyone to proceed. He pulls out the hooded lantern he took from Urgon’s cabin and lights it as the torch was ruined when he fell into the water. Both the light and the warmth from the flame are welcome as he continues to drip dry.
Noob
Qidira moves to the east side of the cave and leads the party around to the exit. A short tunnel leads to a roughly round room about 30ft in diameter. Ten empty bedrolls are arranged in a circle around a cold fire pit at the center of this cavern. Chicken bones, empty wine and spirits bottles, and other food waste litters the floor.
An exit to the north leads to a corridor, possibly back to the bat cave. Another exit in the north east leads to a wider corridor, and at the edge of your visible distance you see the edge of a pool of water.
As Durnham walks around the corner behind the group he sees the apparently deserted camp. He immediately gets his spell book out and begins performing the ritual to detect magic as he assumes the others will search through the bandit’s things.
”Let’s see if they left anything useful.”
Noob
The group decided for taking the way east and in few steps reached a new section of the cave. Under the new light of Durnham’s lantern, Kotar could see ten bedrolls in front of a cold firepit. Five went to the village, three we killed and one of them should be Hulil. That made nine bandits, meaning that no more than one criminal remained to the person they needed to meet. Those were good news, the best he, and any one of them, he believed, had since arriving in Paleblank.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t leave this for later?” He asked noticing the dwarf start acting just like in Tulgi’s house, when seeing if there was any magical energies around. “Well, we can discuss which way to go.” The fighter says Qidira, Ressys and Brandon, pointing to the two exits close to the camp. “Although I think that way leads back to the guano cave.”
It was, quite literally, a shot in the dark, but seemed likely enough. As likely as the chance of Hulil waiting for them at the end of the cave with traps laid and an accomplice ready for battle to the bitter end. Or they could be unaware of our fight, Kotar considered, trying to be optimistic. Whichever the case they would need to, at the very least, capture the woman. Elro was after her and soon enough she would put the entirety of the Uttolots after them. Maybe the best option was killing her. Just maybe.
As Durnham begins his ritual, Brandon moves to investigate the empty camp, checking the bedrolls and equipment for any signs of the missing items or any other useful information. “Will you help me search while we wait?” he asks the others for help.
Investigation 20 (advantage assuming someone helps search)
“I think we should check the passage to the northeast next, although I am wary of any more pools of water. Maybe there is another way around."
“Sure.” He answered sheathing the longssowrd and taking Durnham’s hooded lantern. “I’ll bring it back before we move ahead.” With light in hands he starts following Brandon, helping the warlock by shedding clarity in the directions he searched. “If not one of the remaining two bandits came attacking then it’s pretty safe to say that even if they take us an enemies they’ll lay in waiting. I was expecting traps, a position of advantage from each to start their assault, but now that you though about the pools… Do you think we’ll have to fight against more frogs?”
Two of the beasts had proven to be little threat, but what if there’s three or four of them? Not to mention that they didn’t have any idea about Hulil’s strength. The woman was sent to a hostile land with ten outlaws to command. She had to be a hard foe. At very least harder than the three they defeated at the entrance of the hideout. And that was far from the last problem. Even if they found the remaining criminals ignorant of enmity it wouldn’t take more than one of them walking to entrance for things to escalate. Not to mention that no matter what happens, if a single associate of the Uttolots leaves the place alive the heads of each and everyone of the party members would gain a price.
“Anyone found anything?” Kotar asked without even turning his head. He was focused his focus in supporting to the warlock’s search.
As Durnham completes the ritual he flourishes his hands in a complex gesture and says “Be Revealed!” his eyes begin to glow a soft white and he will walk around scanning the room, it’s contents, and the walls with his 30 ft of vision.
As he walks around detecting magical energies he will respond to Kotar, “We are looking for clues Kotar. Something left behind may give us a better idea of what to expect or what has happened in this cave. It takes a bit of time but we may find something that will help us. Investing a bit of time to gather information beforehand can save us time and maybe save lives later.”
Noob
Seeing Kotar move off with Durnham's lantern he is prepared to stay with the dwarf until he suddenly remembers the dwarf could see in the dark just fine. Leaving Kotar and Brandon to search the camp Ressys steps into the entry to the first cave passage that runs back north. "I am nearly certain this first passage leads to where the bats were."
As he stands in the entry of this portion of the cave he holds the torch ahead of him and looks up the passage as far as he can. At the same time he calls out in the language of beasts making a number of clicking noises
Stay hidden unless people hide things in your cave then show self for moment
It seemed a simple enough idea, hopefully the bats would understand. Do not reveal yourselves unless people hide things in their cave.
He watches to see if he sees anything
CHA roll 14