Fargrim grumbles at the goblins' trickery and tests the ropes strength and the knot. Satisfied that it can hold his weight, he motions to his companions to hold for a moment and then slides down the rope. When he arrives at the hole, Fargrim peers into it, trying to figure out whether he's capable of fitting his stocky dwarven body into it, and seeing how far it appears to go.

Looking up the tunnel you can see both goblin footprints and some that appear to be human child footprints. The size of the tunnel is perfect for small creatures to walk through but if over 3 feet tall you would be hunched or even have to crawl to traverse. It disappears until the darkness as far as you can see.

Fargrim yells up at his companions, "It looks like they took this tunnel! Let's follow them and see where it leads!"

After everyone climbs down the rope, Fargrim takes a moment, appearing thoughtful before saying a quick dwarven prayer, gesturing towards the railing above. A flame-like radiance shines down as if from heaven, centering directly on the knot of the rope. As it falls, hewn and burnt from the sacred flame he collects it and throws it in his bag nonchalantly. Looking around at the strange looks from his comrades, he explains, "What? I never got my rope back from the guards."

Crouching down and holding his shield in front of him, Fargrim enters the hole, following it to wherever it leads. 

(It was fine, there is about 40' of rope but for the record. Everyone but Fargrim would have to crawl.)

"Eh.. That's a little cramped for us normal-sized folk, little guy. There's no telling what we would run into. I'm not too keen on crawling into a mysterious tunnel after tiny murdering psychopathic goblins." Alan said once he had inspected the tunnel.

Fargrim looks around at the boxes surrounding them on all sides. Looks up to where there used to be a rope leading to the scaffolding. Looks back down into the hole.

"I tend to forget you tall ones are so scared of the the dark. I'll scout ahead, see what lies in the tunnel. I'll be back in a minute... If you would rather move these boxes and leave that way, be my guest. We should probably warn the guards that the goblins have left before they break down the door."

Confident he can handle one on one any goblins he encounters in the cramped tunnel, Fargrim forges ahead, leaving his human companions behind. Using his stonesense, he keeps a close eye out for any traps or the possibility of a cave-in.

Passive Perception: 13

As Fargrim moves forward he can feel the tunnel with his ingrained dwarven abilities heading north towards the mountains. After a couple hundred yards you can tell from the moving air that it most likely rises at least a mile outside the city in the direction of the goblin camp in the mountains. 

After going aways and realizing that the tunnel was headed to the goblin encampment in the mountains, Fargrim turned back and reunited with his companions. 

"It looks like this tunnel is how they managed to get into the city. It seems to go all the way North to their mountain encampment... I'd be more than happy to take the tunnel there,  but for you soft-skins sake, we can make our way overland."

With that, Fargrim assists his compatriots in moving the boxes out of the way to clear a path for them to the exit, and leads the way through the side door and around to where the guards are banging on the front door. Along the way, he pulls out his new rope and whistles as he gets it wrapped in a nice tight bundle on the side of his bag. 

"Ain't no way I'm takin' that tunnel for miles. Makin' me claustrophobic just thinkin' about it. We need to make sure this passage won't give the goblins an easy escape from their camp, though."

Fargrim halts mid-step, still winding up his new rope. "Thats a good point. What did you have in mind?" He settles down, thinking of the resources available to him, and coming up with nothing....

...until...

"What if we stacked boxes up on this side? Any ones we scared off in this direction would be trapped, and we could rout them here on our way back.

"Yes good idea. We should tell the guards about the tunnel too. Maybe they can do the grunt work of collapsing or blocking it while we head to the mountains to rescue those children."

Taman heads to open the main door for the guards.

(Sorry for the big gaps in messages, been pretty ill this past week, so catching up on all the PbP stuff)

"Seems like a plan." Arynn nods. "The sooner we rescue these kids, the better." He looks to the group. "Guess we'll have to try and follow this tunnel." He looks to Fangrim. "I know we're not the right stature to follow through, but if you'd rather that this route, I'll go with you. I'd advise against splitting our group, but if it means we can potentially catch them in a pincer or maybe locate the children before anything goes awry, then a stiff back the following day isn't too bad a thing."

"Good man!" Fargrim laughs heartily, patting Arynn just a little to hard on the shoulder. "I'm glad to hear at leaat one of you isn't afraid of a little tunnel. Still, we can probably make faster time overland without you tall and squishy ones needing to crawl the whole way. Still, the bards right. Let's get these guards to do the grunt work watching this hole while we go overland to drive them through it."

Fargrim's brow furrows in thought for a moment. "We should ask them to guard the tunnel, not collapse it, though. Between the undead and the orcs, a trip through this tunnel would probably be safer to the children than a trip overland. I could lead them back this way and handle any goblins that get caught between us and and the guards."

"Lets get going then! No time to waste! You should fight by my side in the next battle, Arynn. I like your mettle!" Fargrim pats Arynn even harder this time, and starts heading towards the front door to unblock it for the guards. Finishing up the last of the loops on his new rope, he hangs it on his backpack, and doffs his shield for the coming journey. 

(wouldn't be that much slower, I'd be crawling at 20' base speed as opposed to the dwarf's 25' walking speed.)

(True, but splitting the party would be the larger issue for the main event. Might be good to have another hand on deck escorting the kids back, though.)

(Yeah, I guess Arynn will take rear guard if we use the tunnels to take the children back)

After unblocking the door the guards come in looking for the goblins, weapons drawn, ready for combat. After a moment they notice you don't seem to be fighting and they stop and the leader looks at the group of you and asks. "Where are they, did you kill them all?"

"Seems they've escaped through this tunnel." Arynn will explain to them, leading them to the aforementioned location."We're planning to take chase overland to get those children back. We could really do with someone here to make sure they don't manage to escape back down this path, or if they do they'll get flushed out into a stalwart guard squad who can take the credit for catching the dastardly goblin forces, and the bodies to prove it."

The captain nods in understanding to what you are saying then straightens, "I will have to report this to the council and we will do what they decide. But for now we will keep it under careful guard and make sure nothing comes out. I think they will want the portions of it that run under the city to be blocked up so that no invading forces could use it in the future however."

"That makes sense, Captain. We will leave the defense of the town in your capable hands. We are going into the hills to hunt the bastards down and rescue the children that they took."

"Shall we get moving, gentlemen? If we go quickly we might find the goblin camp not long after they return to it."