"Seems like they have that under control." Brin says with a frown. "Wish we could help out, but we don't want to get arrested because we went against your lord's orders!" He calls out, truly wishing he could go and give the soldier's a hand. With a sigh he strides to the doors and opens them. "Let's get inside while those things are out here, and nothing else seems to be on the other side of this thing." He swings the door open enough to look inside, making sure there truly are no threats directly on the other side of it.

Getting the last large rock out of the way, you move the cross-beam and open the doors. There are multiple bulette-shaped dents on the other side of the door.

A wave of decay stench air pours out from the opening, but after a moment that is diluted by the outside air. There were other creatures that were pounding on the doors, but they either killed each other or were squished by the bulettes.

There is a fresh passage that was dug by the bulettes to that tree in the orchard. The other passage (leading deeper underground) is rocky, dry, and barren. It feels ancient.
It is also pitch black, so anyone without Darkvision will want lighting. The above-ground sunlight doesn't penetrate very far. (Not magical, but the light is not reflecting underground very far.)

The passage is 20' wide and 15' high. It goes 30', then splits into two passages.
Left will eventually lead to cavern 1A (filled with plant and animal life), while to the right is the path to cavern 1B (barren and windy).
(You have the map from post 4890 to keep from being lost.)

At the split are the pieces of a barricade, which were scattered when the warriors and workers fled. With a minute's work, you can put it together enough to block whichever passage you decide not to take. (It won't stop a determined attacker, but it might discourage them. And anything trying to go past it would leave evidence of pushing apart the barricade.)

(OOC: yeah i do feel bad about not helping them out. I'm all for go down the holes the bulettes made. i want to keep the doors sealed so nothing gets out, and hopefully it could help the guards by drawing the monsters attention.)

(I don't think the bulettes tunnel is one of the options we want. It simply leads back to the noble's property, not to the complex underground. We need to decide which path we want to take, and which we want to block off, and the bulettes tunnel is neither of those. Going to need someone to look over the map and decide which would be best for us... I cannot do that as maps don't work with my screen reading software.)

(EmperorKamino: As you might guess, I was lining up a battle against the bulettes. But Brin came up with a valid, in-character reason to side-step the fight. I mentioned early in the campaign that I wanted to get better about adapting to player choices. This seemed like a time to change my plans. I threw in the "no deaths" commentary, so you wouldn't feel *too* bad about the decision Lord Finesilver made for his men.)

(OOC: After the guards beat the bulettes, they will watch over that passage until it can be filled in.
I was just explaining that the bulettes made this detour from the door, not from somewhere else entirely.

I haven't made a map, as it would be too complicated to make twisting paths without causing more confusion. So I tried to reduce it to two choices: 1A or 1B, and after that 2A or 2B. I made the caverns have different environments, to give the party some choice about what they will be facing.
Also, if the group wants to make any precautions or scout ahead, plans can be made ahead of time due to having information about the distance to these caverns.

There will be a map posted, but only of the cavern, after it is picked.)

(OOC: Thought there had been a map, as you posted this...
(You have the map from post 4890 to keep from being lost.)
Will move onward assuming we do not have one.)

Brin frowns and looks to the others. "I would rather go to the barren cavern than the one filled with plants and animals." He says. "Could be something dangerous there, but you can bet some of those plants and animals are dangerous." He shrugs. "Can be talked around, but we need to get moving, so what do you all think?"

The party arrives at 1B, as Brin suggested.
The cavern is unlighted, but your magic Light reflects off the walls enough for you to tell the size of the place. The cavern is roughly 80' by 40', with a maximum height of 30'.
(On the map image in this post, the letters go from "A" in the north to "H" in the south, and numbers go from "1" in the west to "16" in the east.)
The party is entering from D1-E1 on the west side.

There are seven other exits scattered around the outside edge of the cavern. There is also a (natural) irregular-shape column of rock in the middle of the cavern (10' x 15').

The floor resembles a red-brown desert landscape, but instead of sand, it is an ashen dust. Wind swirls randomly from the exits and through the cavern, raising up dust clouds. You were told that some of the fleeing workers came through here, but the blowing dust has removed all traces of their passage. You can still breath, but it does irritate the eyes and throat. The air is dry enough that you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time here without a full waterskin to drink from.

To the north of that column of rock (D9), 45' away from your position, is a single humanoid body sprawled face down on the ground. (This is outside the Light spell, but those with Darkvision noticed the shape, during the lulls in the dust storms.) Perhaps this is one of the dead that was left behind when the Finesilver workers fled to the surface.

"Which exit are we suppose to take?" Brin asks, glancing to whomever has the map. "I would prefer to head straight to it, and get out of that chamber there as fast as possible. I don't like the looks of it much..."

(It was buried in the text of post 4890, but the idea is to secure this cavern.
By blocking all of the exits you aren’t using, you are making a safer path for the Finesilver workers, and reducing the risk of something sneaking up behind you.

Roll rocks that are near the unused exits to block them off, retrace a circle of magical sand in the center of the cavern, then read from a scroll that the Sergeant gave you to re-activate the magic wards that were set up earlier. The wards were disrupted earlier when the panicked workers stepped on the sand circle.

You have to do that at some point.
If you want to push ahead, and secure this cavern on your way back, that is an option.)

"Crud, we are suppose to block those other tunnels first." Brin says as he recalls their instructions. He looks to the others. "Let's do one of the tunnels at a time, working together. Once all of the tunnels we don't need to use are blocked, then we can redraw the circle in the center. Sound good to everyone?"

(OOC: Who all is left here? I don't see many others posting...)

(Most likely my fault, since I've been slow to post in recent weeks. I'll give people a chance to notice that there was an update.

While we are waiting, have Brin roll a Survival check vs. DC 12.)

Brin's survival was a 5. He is not much of a survival-type of guy I guess... lol.

(Other than Brin/DragonDenn responding, it has been quiet.
I’d like to check how the rest of you are doing.

Please make a short note if you a busy at the moment, or that you are waiting for some particular piece of info that I should provide, or make a suggestion for what the party should do next.)

(OOC: it does seem like none of the other players have been posting, i wanted to see other peoples opinions before I made my next post.)

(ooc: hello everyone, I am so sorry for my long absence due to the work got me extremely hard. So many thing has happened in real life and I haven’t been online here for a long time as well. If you don’t mind, I shall make a next move after EmperorKarino. Once again, I apologize for my silence…)

(OOC: is the humanoid body moving or do we just see it laying there?)

Quote from EmperorKarino >>

(OOC: is the humanoid body moving or do we just see it laying there?)

(It is just lying face down on top of the dust and sand.

And have Trimyrai roll a Survival check.)

Survival Check: 8

(Can Reverie also check on the humanoid body if it is alive? Just in case, I shall make Reverie to use Divine Sense.)

Brin stands protectively near the others as they check out the body closer.