The Long Road - Game Thread

Walking through the tunnels, Quillary will be towards the front with Jorin, shield in one hand, cudgel in her belt. She runs her hand along the wall at intervals, but other than that, she's not doing anything special, relying on her Passive Perception (17) to notice things.

As the group approaches the cavern entrance, she will slow and stop, looking back at the others. Then she will proceed as quietly as she can, looking for trouble. She will move all the way up to the entrance, but not into the cave.

Stealth: 11
Perception: 12

edit: oof.

Jorin notices Hildigrim's lagging as he had noticed his unease in the earlier days.  "Stay near me, brave Hildigrim, your eyes will help me see what mine cannot in this dark place."

"We should move quickly, but quietly.  I do not like being underground, only the eight know what lives down here."

In terms of marching order, I would suggest whoever has the best perception up front followed by Jorin, with Drusk taking up the flank.

The cavern is (roughly) 20' wide by 40' long. Mossy paths run between patches of stout trillimac and a forest of towering zurkhwood whose caps scrape the 40-foot-high ceiling. You don't notice any creatures, other than the normal tiny cave insects you'd expect.

(OOC: Drusk has cast a Light cantrip, and Jorin has his moon-blade, but I'm assuming that the group hides the light sources when approaching new caverns or something suspicious... There may be more inside the cavern ahead, but you can't tell from the outside. For instance, if there are other passages exiting this cavern, your viewing angle is limited.)

(OOC2: There are a lot of D&D fungi in this Undermountain level. You can try a Nature check to see if your character happens to know any distinctive properties. Remind me if your character has a history that you think would adjust the roll. For instance, if one of these mushrooms is particularly edible or poisonous, I'd add Pascal's proficiency to use his cooking knowledge.

You get for free what you can see:
A trillimac is a mushroom that grows to a height of 4 to 5 feet and has a broad, gray-green cap with a light gray stalk.
A zurkhwood is a mushroom that can grow up to 40 feet high, with a fibrous woody stalk.) 

I'm going to argue that Quillary knows more than a normal character about mushrooms. Being a Spores Druid and having an obsession with decay and rebirth. Her normal Nature check is +3. Tell me what to do?

(Roll a normal Nature check, for these unusual mushrooms. I'll make any adjustments for being a spore Druid.)

Quillary sniffs the earthy smelling air from the cavern. Nature: 9

Quillary remembers that zurkhwood produces large, grain-like spores which are edible. She doesn't remember anything more than that about the two types of mushroom... but if either were dangerous, she would have remembered that. (You could discover more if you examined them up close, but that requires entering the cavern.)

Jorin would like to concentrate real hard on listening for any movement in the cave.  Perception: 13

Jorin doesn't hear any movement.

"What I can see are safe," Quillary says quietly to Jorin. She hefts her shield (AC 19!) and moves cautiously into the cavern. She is taking the Dodge Action, and Moving half speed.

• Almost immediately to your left is a passage east. There is a 20' wide stone pillar that blocks your sight, and narrows the passage to 5' wide on either side of the pillar.
• After 20' to the south-southwest, there is a passage on your right (heading west-northwest). It also has a 20' wide stone pillar blocking the way, although the paths around it are 10' wide.
• Another 10' south of that is another passage to the west. It is 5' wide.
• At the end of the cavern is a 5' wide passage south.

Throughout the cavern are small clearings where the fungi have been torn out of the mossy ground.

The trillimac mushrooms have a tough surface, almost like leather. The towering zurkhwoods have the hardness of trees.

“Marcher said there were different groups vying for control, which makes me see choke points and killing grounds rather than narrow passages and clearings,” Quillary says if/when the others gather. “But there’s no way out but through, as they say. Which way?”

Drusk: "He also said there were around 20 levels in the dungeon, so some of that fighting may somewhere else.

"And if you are worried about creatures prowling around, should we find out what made these mini-clearings in this cavern?"

Hildigrim gives Jorin a pat on the hip at his invitation. The halfling is tired to voicing his certainty that they are being watched. It just doesn't make sense. His eyes widen. Maybe they're being watched by magical means, and that's why he doesn't ever catch anyone spying. This worries him all the more.

When the others begin discussing which way to go, he offers, "I could send Volo to scout ahead in each direction. If there is danger, we may be able to avoid it."

"That's a very good idea," Quillary says to Hildigrim. She reaches into her hat and pulls out a struggling and frightened rat, then sets it on the ground. "Go little one," she says, "Gods speed you." She gives it a little shove further into the cavern.

These stone pillars, are they a natural part of the cave system or are they seperate, like they were moved here to make the choke points?

Hildigrim sits down on the ground criss-cross applesauce and closes his eyes. Volo takes off, and Hildigrim enters the owl's head to direct him 100 feet down the nearest tunnel that the rat didn't go down. (He's assuming the rat is scouting its own tunnel for Quillary.) Volo is flying stealthily.

Owl perception (advantage on sight and 120 dark vision): 9

Stealth: 15

Volo flies to the east, which is the nearest passage. (I was going to check which caverns had creatures that might try to eat the owl, but that Stealth roll makes that moot. It will take a little time for Volo to scout, so I am delaying that info for now.)

Jorin would guess that both pillars were naturally made. Although, the one to the west looks like it fell / got knocked over at some time, and was propped back up.

Quillary: As you put the rat down, your passive Perception notices impressions in the dirt/bat guano covering the floor, kind of like further back when the party could see their own tracks. (If you want to investigate the ground to look a pattern, that requires a Survival check (with advantage) to do tracking.)

Drusk looks at Quillary with admiration. "I didn't know your hat can create scouts, like Hildigrim and his familiar. Can you see through the eyes of that rat, too?"

Jorin turns to Quillary and says, "The amount of creatures you can pull from your body is quite amazing."

"Oh, no, this is a natural rat, not any sort of magical assistant," Quillary says. The rat is a totally normal rat from her Hat of Vermin, and probably seriously freaked out. I doubt it will do anything useful at all, except maybe get killed by something that might have attacked us?

"But this is interesting..." she crouches down, the rat forgotten, and looks closely at the ground, then along the floor. Survival: 24