Road to Phandalin

After trying his luck and almost thensome, Nobody has Karasym retreat back to the entrance cavern. Only then did he stop worging, but had to rub at his eyes after for a little bit. "The Northwestern tunnel leads down into a veritble maze of others. Most don't seem to lead to anywhere except dead ends or double back on themselves. It could be there's a route through that mess, but we're probably better off taking the eastern one." He stumbles through the recap.

When he sees the others preparing to descend, Nobody resolved himself to be second to last and would cover the others from above with a crossbow. Karasym lingers on his shoulder at first. But after some silent conversation, the flying snake finds some where to roost in the main cavern and to act as both sentry and some line of communication.

She stops in her tracks and thinks for a second

"You do such marvelous sculptures Nobody. I guess we can help bury him."

she proceeds to help

Nobody lofts a brow. "What? I'm not sure how those two coincide with each other, as what I did was a bit of liberal reshaping of compacted earth. Actual stone is a bit out of my wheelhouse, and every second we waste now is another one Gundren's... Gundren's brother may suffer." He reminds. "Best we don't deviate from the plan further. If after all is done Gundren wishes a less traditional dwarven burial than by stone, then fine. But, not right now."

She hands Gundren the rock she picked up 

"Fine down the rope and to the right, right?"

She moves to the rope and begins climbing down

Are you going northwest or east? Who goes first?

I thenk we are going East from the sounds of it.

Dain would go down the rope first. He would send Sabastian down the Eastern passage to scout ahead of them.

Stealth for Sabastian: 5

Perception: 7

(East was indeed the idea.)

48 Sebastian carefully sneaks down the tunnel, after 10 ft it opens up into a cavern. Many tunnels intersect at this natural, thirty-foot-high cavern. The walls are carved with simple reliefs showing dwarf and gnome miners hard at work. Below them, nearly two dozen skeletons in rusted scraps of armor are scattered across the cavern floor. Some are dwarf skeletons, while others are orc remains. Half a dozen large brass lanterns stand in niches or on ledges around the cavern, but none are lit. Suddenly Sebastian hears something flutter under the ceiling. There is something hiding in the darkness, a whole swarm of somethings. 

"Best be watchful..." Dain cautions the others as he hears the warning from Sabastian.  he has the familiar fly back to him, not wishing to risk it against whatever is up in that chamber.  "Something is up near the ceiling ahead, a lot of somethings." he cautions the others.

There are around 10 Stirges in that cave.

(So is Kai with us still doing her flame or do I need light? Any sounds in this area?"

Kai is with Zurzg and Gundren near the entrance that you used to come in. You and Otrov would need lights, but for now Sebastian is scouting ahead.

"So, are choices are between a maze or monster swarm." Nobody half-mutters to himself while rubbing his chin and looking downward in a thoughtful posture. He then looks up and over to the others, giving them a once over. "Not exactly the most stealthy of parties even ignoring the whole light situation. B-but, I think perhaps incapacitate most of them if I can sneak far enough into the next area glimpse the ceiling. That should at least make cleaning up the rest easier... In theory." He said, stuttering a bit now and then, but appearing too caught up planning to be overwhelmed.

"A thought, at least. I could also make an illusion of a person... sort of. W-which maybe they'll take the bait and swarm it. It'd only buy us a second or two though, but at least they'd be closer to the ground for those that need them to be. Wh-what do you all think?"

Otrov's forehead crinkles in thought.  "That might work, Sir Nobody.  You're smart.  Maybe we want to lure them towards us to bottleneck them here?  Can't you send one of your pets on a chase and then dismiss them?  I think I've seen you do that before.  Is there an exit out of that chamber?  If we hightail it out the other door we might make it...Then again, if they are living here in the dark we might assume they can see, hear, or smell us also."  Otrov, not being able to see, is unsure how to proceed.  And magic is foreign to her so she has no spells to help. She strokes The Prick to help calm her nerves.  "What about the lamps?  Maybe we could light them - maybe they're sensitive to light, being down here in the dark?"

"Why not make a sound with your spell?"

she says Quietly 

"I don't know much about Stirges but I've been in my familiars senses  when he was a bat. Illusions don't matter much around him. The gnome who tried to teach me hire magic said that a cantrip like that can produce sound at a range also"

She thinks

"I could put my light spell over the sound"

Nobody winces initally at Otrov's words, and even looked a bit uncomfortable with the following suggestions to soon follow it. "More likely it is they'll attracted than sensitive to it, depending on their diet." He replied to Otrov before looking to take in Margrets' words. "I'm.. well, Dain here I suppose can dispute this as well of course, as he seems to have more experience with these creatures. But, its not necessarily true that they have what your and my familar has, and that being echolocation and various other receptors."

"Receptors that a visual illusion won't cover, naturally. But not all who live or can thrive in the dark have such things going for them, swarm or not. Case in point being myself and goblins." He explained quietly. "S-so, as far as sound goes, I would rather have the greater jump on them and not alert anything else lurking in any caverns or tunnels behind their room. As too much noise may carry.. assuming there are any." At that point, he looks to Dain for confirmation, if albeit without any expectation of much being known there, considering the immediate threat.

Coming from your side, there is a tunnel going N before entering the cavern with the stirges. From the cavern itself there are tunnels leading N, E, S and W.

Map:

"Best to just blast em and be done with it." Dain says with a shake of his head.  "Who knows when we might need to come back through there, and how injured we might be at that time."  he squares his shoulders as he glances to the group.  "These things aren't that hard to swat, so let's just get it over with."

Otrov grins at Dain's statements.  "Yeah!  D-d-d-d-DAY-N!  I agree.  Let's blast these overgrown mozzies!  Was anything found in the northern tunnels, by the way?" Otrov asks.  She begins to count her bolts and wonder how she'll be able to kill these things in the darkness.  Pinprick (rapier) or The Prick? she thinks to herself...

Nobody flinches a bit, as was the man's tendacy at Dain's statements, but soon nodded in agreement. "If'n that is to be the case, allow me then to make the opening, uhm, arrangement." He said as he pulled out metal rod that acted as his focus. Even given the go ahead at that point he creeps his way forward and at least into the entryway tunnel. Just far enough that he can reasonably aim high enough and release the spell spell, catching many and hopefully making them fall to their subsequent demise if high enough.

Stealth: 18.
(if needed)