[When you put back to back dice rolls, it misinterprets that as you trying to screw with the dice. No worries.]
You go up the stairway, and the corridor eventually curves sharply to the right. Just as the corridor straightens out, there is an intersection with an open corridor that leads to the left. Ten feet ahead, on the corridor you are on currently, there is a closed door on the left, and approximately 15 ft beyond that, there is an open corridor to the right. Coming from somewhere ahead, you hear animal sounds of some sort, although you are unable to identify them at this distance.
Ishtar tries the keys on the ring for the locked door and tries to sneakily open it and look inside. Linette, seeing him start to do this sets Finnan against the wall and reaches out to touch his calf and casts guidance then backs off to watch over Finnan. Stealth to open the door? 14 plus guidance 2
Sully stacks up against the wall like a swat team ready to blast something
Ok will resume traveling Ishtar, sully, Linette and Finnan just exploring every corridor as they come up. So first well go towards the open corridor thats 15ft past the door
As you approach the open corridor to the right, you notice that the corridor along which you have been walking seems to dead-end 10 ft past the intersection. The animal sounds seem to be coming down this open corridor to the right that you have decided to explore. The sounds seem canine in nature, sort of, but not exactly.
The hallway narrows. Linnette is unable to support Finnan through the narrow gap, but Finnan, being a halfling, fits through it easily on his own, albiet slowly. The rest of you are able to squeeze through, just barely, if you chose. Do you proceed?
The narrow passage leads to a roughly circular room about 30 ft in diameter. There are stacks of cages, full of wolves and hyenas. They go crazy with growling, barking and yipping, and some fling themselves at the bars of the cages as if trying to attack.
And a creature you have never seen before. It appears to be a male humanoid of some sort, but he's only about 3 ft tall. It's sort of like a halfling, but also sort of like an elf. (it's a forest gnome, but Sully has never seen a gnome, nor has he ever heard of such creatures) Upon seeing you, the short man clambers to the back of his cage, with a wild expression on his face.
Is there another exit to this room? Does the short guy look feral or just scared? Are there locks on the cages? Do the animals seems to be strong enough to break out?
Insight check by Sully to assess the short guy's emotional state. Nature check by whoever Sully is allowing past him to see into the room in order to assess the strength of the animals.
There is a lock on the short guy's cage. There are only latches on the animals' cages--no locks.
No other exits to this room--one way in, same way out.
Whether the short man is wild/crazy/feral or just the ordinary kind of scared that anyone would be in his situation--you are unable to discern. He is definitely scared though. That much is obvious. The animals look like ordinary animals. Surely, if they were capable of getting out, they would have done so by now.
But, just as that thought goes through your head, you hear the short man begin jabbering. He is speaking what seems to be a language, but you can't understand it, nor do you recognize the language as anything you have heard before. You look over, and he is pointing at the lock on his cage.
[I'm going to move things along at this point, and just narrate a bit]
None of the party has any implements they can use to try to jimmy the lock on the cage, so brute force seems to be their only option. Among them, they are able to take turns banging on the lock with the tools they acquired, and they eventually break the lock, but they make a loud ruckus in the process. The loud banging sounds trigger the wolves and hyenas to bark and yip even more aggressively if that were possible. But, seemingly, no one takes notice as the party's efforts go uninterrupted.
The party pantomimes to the strange, little man that he should be quiet, but the man furrows his eyes, and makes hand gestures toward the hammer and the lock. Then, he jumps out of the cage, and rushes toward the animal cages. He makes barks and yips of his own, and then turns to gesture toward the tunnel you through which you entered. As you look where the little man is gesturing, you see a small dead deer that was not there when you entered. The little man then speaks to you in a language you can't understand, and motions in for you all to stand aside and clear a path. The little man then frees all the animals, who rush to pounce on the deer, but it disappears, and another one appears further down the tunnel. The little man makes more animal sounds, and over the course of a minute, he coaxes the animals out of the tunnel, and into the main corridor. You all follow at a bit of a distance--just enough to keep the strange little man in sight.
You all then see the man reach up to one of the wolves, lick its face, and make odd wolf-like sounds and behaviors. The wolf, along with the other animals, scamper away, and run right into and through, what appeared to be a dead-end corridor. At that point, you are able to see that what once appeared to be a stone wall, is merely an illusion.
The strange little man turns to you all, touches his brow with two of his fingers, and runs after the animals. The only word you could make out that he said was "Alvyn." From context, it appears that he was telling you his name as a way of saying, "goodbye."
The rest of you follow, and find yourselves in an unfamiliar forest.
Congratulations! You escaped your prison. You all level up. You level up Sully. I will handle the others.
Sully has a chance to speak first, as the others in the party seem too flabbergasted and weary to articulate their thoughts at the moment.
Ishtar spends about 30 minutes hiking around, looking for a vantage point from which he can see the surrounding area, but he doesn't find one. He looks at the base of a few trees, and examines the leaves of the trees, and pokes at some scat on the ground. Nature Check: 16
About 45 minutes later, Ishtar comes back to the group and says, "I cannot find any distinctive terrain that would narrow it down any further, but based upon the plants that grow here and the animal droppings I have found, I think we are far from my home, and if my guess is right, far from any of yours, too. These trees do not grow on my side of the mountains, and the animal droppings I found were unlike any I have seen before."
Sully ask Ishtar if he can find a cave or a good spot to rest and bed down for tonight. “We’re all pretty beat and my old bones need some time to recover, especially if we’re gonna be hiking home.”
does the place we emerged from look like it’s connected to buildings or anything? Like does it look like the person who organized our kidnapping is still there or would ever be returning? I’m trying to decided if we should play more offensive to try and storm in and take care of this guy so no more people get kidnapped but I’m having trouble picturing the surrounding area.
Either way we need an inconspicuous place to sleep tonight
Now that you are outside, it is pretty clear that you were being held in a cave system that had been cleared out and had some stone working done on the inside. From the outside, though, the entrance plainly was a camouflaged cave mouth in the forest. As for whether the Big Bad is still there or will be returning, it's pretty clear from the circumstances of your departure that it is very unlikely that there was anyone still there. You were pretty loud. You feel safe in assuming that once you killed the ogre, and freed the other prisoners, the cave was empty after that. But, you have no way of knowing whether anyone will be returning. You did encounter a locked door that you couldn't get into. I suppose that could be some sort of indication that someone planned to return, maybe. Also, someone went to a lot of trouble to build that hideout. It would be a bit odd to abandon it completely without a good reason. But, other than that, I don't think you have any information upon which to make a prediction about how soon anyone will return, if ever.
I think I have answered your question about the surrounding area you are in currently. But, if I haven't, feel free to ask me some follow up questions.
Ishtar makes a survival check to find someplace good to camp: 14
I forgot to add in, Ishtar's Natural Explorer feature. That's a 21. Ishtar leads you about 3/4 mile away, on the back side of a hill (it shields you from the prevailing winds), to a small, concealed meadow. He finds a nearby stream where you can get water, and he assembles a raised shelter, using the forest materials and the implements you took from the torture chamber. Pretty soon after that, with assistance from the rest of the group, he has found food, hollowed out some containers, and made a fire to cook the food and boil some water for drinking.
He then begins to try to make himself a bow, and some arrows, using the materials he can forage. Survival Check: 6
He is able to make a decent bow, but he isn't able to make any arrows that will fly straight and do any damage. He makes a few sharpened sticks that he feels like can be used as a decent spear, in the event of an animal incursion during the night.
[When you put back to back dice rolls, it misinterprets that as you trying to screw with the dice. No worries.]
You go up the stairway, and the corridor eventually curves sharply to the right. Just as the corridor straightens out, there is an intersection with an open corridor that leads to the left. Ten feet ahead, on the corridor you are on currently, there is a closed door on the left, and approximately 15 ft beyond that, there is an open corridor to the right. Coming from somewhere ahead, you hear animal sounds of some sort, although you are unable to identify them at this distance.
Ishtar tries the keys on the ring for the locked door and tries to sneakily open it and look inside. Linette, seeing him start to do this sets Finnan against the wall and reaches out to touch his calf and casts guidance then backs off to watch over Finnan. Stealth to open the door? 14 plus guidance 2
Sully stacks up against the wall like a swat team ready to blast something
None of Ishtar's keys fit the lock on this door.
Ok will resume traveling Ishtar, sully, Linette and Finnan just exploring every corridor as they come up. So first well go towards the open corridor thats 15ft past the door
As you approach the open corridor to the right, you notice that the corridor along which you have been walking seems to dead-end 10 ft past the intersection. The animal sounds seem to be coming down this open corridor to the right that you have decided to explore. The sounds seem canine in nature, sort of, but not exactly.
The hallway narrows. Linnette is unable to support Finnan through the narrow gap, but Finnan, being a halfling, fits through it easily on his own, albiet slowly. The rest of you are able to squeeze through, just barely, if you chose. Do you proceed?
Sully continues on, putting Linette and Finnan behind him. Telling everyone to be quiet as the dog sounds get louder
The narrow passage leads to a roughly circular room about 30 ft in diameter. There are stacks of cages, full of wolves and hyenas. They go crazy with growling, barking and yipping, and some fling themselves at the bars of the cages as if trying to attack.
And a creature you have never seen before. It appears to be a male humanoid of some sort, but he's only about 3 ft tall. It's sort of like a halfling, but also sort of like an elf. (it's a forest gnome, but Sully has never seen a gnome, nor has he ever heard of such creatures) Upon seeing you, the short man clambers to the back of his cage, with a wild expression on his face.
What do you do?
Is there another exit to this room? Does the short guy look feral or just scared? Are there locks on the cages? Do the animals seems to be strong enough to break out?
Insight check by Sully to assess the short guy's emotional state. Nature check by whoever Sully is allowing past him to see into the room in order to assess the strength of the animals.
There is a lock on the short guy's cage. There are only latches on the animals' cages--no locks.
No other exits to this room--one way in, same way out.
Insight 9
Ishtar’s Nature 4
Linnette would approach the little guy in the cage and try to calm him, “Dear one are you ok? Are you hurt? We are leaving would you like to join us?”
Sully will keep a careful watch on the gnome to be ready to blast him if necessary
Whether the short man is wild/crazy/feral or just the ordinary kind of scared that anyone would be in his situation--you are unable to discern. He is definitely scared though. That much is obvious. The animals look like ordinary animals. Surely, if they were capable of getting out, they would have done so by now.
But, just as that thought goes through your head, you hear the short man begin jabbering. He is speaking what seems to be a language, but you can't understand it, nor do you recognize the language as anything you have heard before. You look over, and he is pointing at the lock on his cage.
The party agrees to try and bust the little guy out and take him with us telling him to be quiet
[I'm going to move things along at this point, and just narrate a bit]
None of the party has any implements they can use to try to jimmy the lock on the cage, so brute force seems to be their only option. Among them, they are able to take turns banging on the lock with the tools they acquired, and they eventually break the lock, but they make a loud ruckus in the process. The loud banging sounds trigger the wolves and hyenas to bark and yip even more aggressively if that were possible. But, seemingly, no one takes notice as the party's efforts go uninterrupted.
The party pantomimes to the strange, little man that he should be quiet, but the man furrows his eyes, and makes hand gestures toward the hammer and the lock. Then, he jumps out of the cage, and rushes toward the animal cages. He makes barks and yips of his own, and then turns to gesture toward the tunnel you through which you entered. As you look where the little man is gesturing, you see a small dead deer that was not there when you entered. The little man then speaks to you in a language you can't understand, and motions in for you all to stand aside and clear a path. The little man then frees all the animals, who rush to pounce on the deer, but it disappears, and another one appears further down the tunnel. The little man makes more animal sounds, and over the course of a minute, he coaxes the animals out of the tunnel, and into the main corridor. You all follow at a bit of a distance--just enough to keep the strange little man in sight.
You all then see the man reach up to one of the wolves, lick its face, and make odd wolf-like sounds and behaviors. The wolf, along with the other animals, scamper away, and run right into and through, what appeared to be a dead-end corridor. At that point, you are able to see that what once appeared to be a stone wall, is merely an illusion.
The strange little man turns to you all, touches his brow with two of his fingers, and runs after the animals. The only word you could make out that he said was "Alvyn." From context, it appears that he was telling you his name as a way of saying, "goodbye."
The rest of you follow, and find yourselves in an unfamiliar forest.
Congratulations! You escaped your prison. You all level up. You level up Sully. I will handle the others.
Sully has a chance to speak first, as the others in the party seem too flabbergasted and weary to articulate their thoughts at the moment.
Sully says “ So, do you recognize where we are? Maybe theres a town nearby to get this little guy some help”
No one knows where they are, but Ishtar says that he might be able to figure out how to get back to civilization if he can scout around a bit.
Can you give me a survival check for Ishtar? Or, if I get back home before you do, I can do it.
Ishtar's Survival Check: 7
Ishtar spends about 30 minutes hiking around, looking for a vantage point from which he can see the surrounding area, but he doesn't find one. He looks at the base of a few trees, and examines the leaves of the trees, and pokes at some scat on the ground. Nature Check: 16
About 45 minutes later, Ishtar comes back to the group and says, "I cannot find any distinctive terrain that would narrow it down any further, but based upon the plants that grow here and the animal droppings I have found, I think we are far from my home, and if my guess is right, far from any of yours, too. These trees do not grow on my side of the mountains, and the animal droppings I found were unlike any I have seen before."
For reference, here's the map you drew of this continent, with Sully's hometown, Eltar marked on it.
Sully ask Ishtar if he can find a cave or a good spot to rest and bed down for tonight. “We’re all pretty beat and my old bones need some time to recover, especially if we’re gonna be hiking home.”
does the place we emerged from look like it’s connected to buildings or anything? Like does it look like the person who organized our kidnapping is still there or would ever be returning? I’m trying to decided if we should play more offensive to try and storm in and take care of this guy so no more people get kidnapped but I’m having trouble picturing the surrounding area.
Either way we need an inconspicuous place to sleep tonight
I’m really impressed with my own map!
Now that you are outside, it is pretty clear that you were being held in a cave system that had been cleared out and had some stone working done on the inside. From the outside, though, the entrance plainly was a camouflaged cave mouth in the forest. As for whether the Big Bad is still there or will be returning, it's pretty clear from the circumstances of your departure that it is very unlikely that there was anyone still there. You were pretty loud. You feel safe in assuming that once you killed the ogre, and freed the other prisoners, the cave was empty after that. But, you have no way of knowing whether anyone will be returning. You did encounter a locked door that you couldn't get into. I suppose that could be some sort of indication that someone planned to return, maybe. Also, someone went to a lot of trouble to build that hideout. It would be a bit odd to abandon it completely without a good reason. But, other than that, I don't think you have any information upon which to make a prediction about how soon anyone will return, if ever.
I think I have answered your question about the surrounding area you are in currently. But, if I haven't, feel free to ask me some follow up questions.
Ishtar makes a survival check to find someplace good to camp: 14
I forgot to add in, Ishtar's Natural Explorer feature. That's a 21. Ishtar leads you about 3/4 mile away, on the back side of a hill (it shields you from the prevailing winds), to a small, concealed meadow. He finds a nearby stream where you can get water, and he assembles a raised shelter, using the forest materials and the implements you took from the torture chamber. Pretty soon after that, with assistance from the rest of the group, he has found food, hollowed out some containers, and made a fire to cook the food and boil some water for drinking.
He then begins to try to make himself a bow, and some arrows, using the materials he can forage. Survival Check: 6
He is able to make a decent bow, but he isn't able to make any arrows that will fly straight and do any damage. He makes a few sharpened sticks that he feels like can be used as a decent spear, in the event of an animal incursion during the night.