The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Haguur sits motionless for a few moments, no trace of emotion on his face. Finally he stands and nods at Marrin.

"All of them," Haguur says. "Every one of them."

He turns his head towards the entrance to the hobgoblin chamber and nods.

"Every last one."

The other orcs take this as signal of Haguur's acceptance of the three of you and they return to eating and talking in orcish.

Haguur then steps closer to Marrin, Jan, and Avaria.

"Do you have a plan?"

Marrin confirms Haguur's statements with a solemn nod.

Marrin looks over to Jan and Ava before saying,

"We're putting one together and we're figuring out what we have and what we'll need to get. Going through the door to the arena isn't an option, too well guarded. We're working on an alternate way out first."

She looks to the tunnel that doesn't lead anywhere they are aware of,

"To that end, what is that way?"

She'll then continue,

"And once we get out we will need some way to inflict damage and get to the Hargroves. We're working on that too."

She is quiet a moment then asks,

"So what can you do and what do you know?"

Haguur looks at the tunnel leading to the east.

"Garbage. Graves. Haven't looked too closely. Someone said maybe dead dwarves," Haguur says. Then he nods at the pool of water. "I haven't been her long so still checking it out but there's an underwater tunnel entrance down there."

He looks back the way you came.

"The guards have weapons. They always have weapons. If we take them then we have weapons."

He stares at Marrin for several moments when she asks what he can do. Finally he just smiles, a thin icy smile.

"Given me a weapon and I can kill. I can kill and kill and kill."

"And there will be need for that. We are working on a way to get weapons not from the guards to kill the guards with."

She looks towards the east,

"Mind if we look?"

Then back to the pond,

"And there as well. We are checking the tunnel in our room as well as the goblin's."

Haguur nods at both requests from Marrin and then sits back down to finish eating with the other orcs.

"I'll be ready," Haguur says.

Jan:

Marrin nods in return,

"Let's go check that tunnel."

She says to Jan and Ava and, if they agree, will proceed to see what the trash and graves have to offer.

Once out of earshot of the orcs she will say to her companions,

"I hope very much that the dwarves here are not the ones that supposedly escaped. Also, that everyone seems to be aware of the tunnels in the ponds isn't stirring a great deal of confidence that they are a secret path out of here."

As they head down the tunnel, Avaria turns to Marrin, "Why not ambush the guards and get their weapons?  Sometimes the simplest way is the best way?  Or am I missing something?  Because you're right about the underwater tunnels, that doesn't seem very promising at the moment.  And I'm not holding my breath on what we might find down here.  But hey, never know!"

Not having a good feeling about this tunnel, she heads down first, wondering what they are going to find.

Perception  18

"We ambush the guards as they bring out the food, but they are smart enough to have those other doors we would need to get through."

Marrin squints into the darkness ahead as she continues,

"So we'd have weapons and have killed a handful of guards but we're still stuck here. They'll, in the best case, arm up and give us a chance to fight them. More likely they would let us starve to death. I would."

She takes a deep breath and tries to sound upbeat,

"So we need to find an alternate way out of here. Maybe a clue to that is down here, maybe not."

Marrin, Jan and Avaria continue on into eastern cavern.

This ceiling of this cavern is low, as low as 5 feet in some cases, and in many places narrowing into niches only a few feet across. There are no signs of anyone in here but instead you see what could be a a makeshift graveyard and refuse pile. At first glance there’s nothing useful amongst the detritus on the floor: scraps of cloth, tiny fragments of leather and wood. There are a few bones lying around but no sign of large leg or arm bones. Those have likely long been taken for use as clubs. Even anything that could make a primitive shiv has long ago been removed.

Most of the niches end after a few feet, damp walls and some sort of algae all that you find.

There are no overhead grates in this cavern so the corners are dark. But there's still enough daylight bouncing in from the orc cavern for Avaria to just make out that one of the niches at the far eastern wall is much deeper than the others. It's cramped, and would be a tight squeeze, and someone would have to go in to investigate further.

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Meanwhile back in the home cavern, Ethel continues to recover from the Great Chicken Massacre (Short Rest accomplished).

And Ula has managed to make the food and water somewhat more edible and has helped Xanthe tend to a few of the older prisoners. 

While they work, Xanthe speaks quietly with Ula. "I know your kind. You're going to try and escape. But you know we're on an island, don't you? Even if you get out of these caves, there's no way off. All that will happen is those left behind will be punished."

Jan tags along, feeling a bit extra weary and out of sorts.

Marrin leans forward to try and see into the niche.

"Would one of you two mind?"

She squints at Jan dragging along.

"Maybe not you? Get pecked by a chicken? What's up? Probably best not to show weakness around our new 'allies'"

Jan waves her off. "I'm fine. Probably just hu--hungry."

Avaria looks at Jan once Marrin points it out and can see what she is talking about.  Jan does not look like herself.

Insight  16

She then turns to the niche at the far Eastern wall, "Sure, I got this."  She gets on her hands and knees and starts down it.

As far as Avaria can tell, Jan is acting tough, not wanting to upset anyone.

(A Medicine Check, or some time with Ula or Xanthe would probably be needed to determine more about what's going on with Jan).

The niche is level with where you are now, so Avaria doesn't have to go down, just needs to crouch and wriggle a bit to get through. The rough rock scrapes at her a bit as she worms her way through, but the slimy algae, or maybe slime mold, and the damp surface lets her slip through with no real cuts or scrapes.

Once she emerges on the other side of the small bent tunnel, Avaria finds another irregular cavern, much like the one she just left. It's darker as the daylight from the orc cave can't reach into this one and there are again no light shafts from up above. Avaria's darkvision allows her to make out a black gray and black version of the space. This one doesn't appear to have any garbage piles nor any bones she can see. Like the previous cavern, it has several natural alcoves, niches and crevices along the walls.

@Ava

Avaria shouts back to the others, "It's another cavern, like the one you're currently in.  With more alcoves and niches.  I'm going to keep seeing what else I can find."

She looks into all these areas, trying to see if there is somewhere else they may lead.

Perception  5

Avaria at first is unsure where to begin. When she sweeps her gaze around the cavern all of the nooks, crannies, alcoves and niches blend together, creating a giant mass of visual noise. But she shakes her head and methodically starts inspecting the entire chamber.

Tucked into one corner, behind a small outcropping of rock, Avaria finds a small sack.

Not far away, along the eastern wall, she notices another niche that appears to extend into a tunnel, though this one is quite low to the ground and looks pretty tight.

Along the southern wall, behind another outcropping is a second tunnel, hidden behind rock.

(Avaria has found a sack, a tunnel to the east, and a tunnel to the south).

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(Sorry about the delay on this!)

Avaria opens the sack that she has found and checks the contents, then calls back to Marrin, "Hey!  Can you come join me?  It's another cavern like where you are, but there is more to discover and just in case I get stuck, it would be good to have you here!"

Marrin casts an eye over Jan but calls back,

"Sure, on my way in."

Then to Jan,

"You look better but I know you can also look like a toad. Give us a shout if you start feeling worse."

Marrin then wiggles her way into the room and squints around the dark.