Road to Phandalin

Post 3434 includes a map. The water channel won’t offer much cover, but if you climb out and approach along the walls of the cavern, you can get within 20 ft or so.

(OOC: I am not sure what the plan is here, but we are all hemming and hawing, because no one wants to be first to jump up and go after the bugbear. Dain will not, as he did that once. Plus he has little to no magic left, not even gaining back any spells during the latest short rest, as he already did that on an earlier one. Right now he is down to cantrips and crossbow bolts. Neither of which are much good in melee, so he is staying back to do ranged fighting. I am not sure why the decision was made to not take a long rest before, but that is behind us, and I am not sure how we move forward here. Someone is going to have to bite the bullet and make a move. I have explained why that will not be Dain.)

Don’t woory, i will stir it up in a bit, just wanted to give you a chance to do something else first before i take over the innitiativ.

Otrov

seeing Nobody creep you on one side, she scarambles back down the forge and tries to keep parallel with him but a few paces back on the opposite side. Still trying to be sneaky. 
stealth 15

(For the record, not hemming and hawing. Details on distance was a little on the scarce side despite having previously mentioned doing 'X' and 'Y', so had to have it clarified. As for why no long rest, it's mainly been because Nobody's been pressing the issue of the whole missing brother and time being potentially of the essence in saving him. OOC, we could've of course hoped the DM wouldn't kill him off screen while we're dicking around, but IC had no reason to believe the stakes weren't yet still high.)

Nobody gets as close as was feasible while having a good angle for a shot. Once he had at least that much, but realizing getting in melee wouldn't be possible, he bit back a sigh, leveled his crossbow for the bugbear, and silently prayed for his shot to be true, and the bugbear to be enough of a fool as engage enraged rather than retreat. 'Doubtful' The tiefling thought grimly before pulling the trigger...

Action: Shoot w/ Somebody at Bugbear w/ Flail.
To Hit: 18 For: 8 non-magical piercing damage.

Margret tries to move stealthily 9 towards the corner of the wall two squares north then two squares to the screens left  climbing the short hop  to the wall just north of her hearing the crossbow twang she lets loose her own arrow Attack: 15 Damage: 5 then steps back behind cover

INITIATIVE 11

Nobody, your bolt hits the Bugbear as he pokes his head out of his hiding place and he howls in pain. Margaret your arrow only hits the rock, as the bugbear pulls back behind the rock. But before you can do anything else, a black screen covers the whole tunnel. A voice booms through the cavern. The voice speaks in Elvish, but after a moment it repeats what seams to be the same message in common:

“I am Nezznar the Black Spider, Acolyte of Talos. Why do you disturb us? Do you love to curt death?”

Nobody's answer at least is not an immediate one, as the tiefling had to divide attention to notify Karasym to start advancing from 100ft to 50ft closer to him. And then after another thought, he sends the familiar off to keep a direct eye line on the previously barricaded door to the west. The moment it sees the door so much as crack open, it was to let Nobody know before hiding itself up near the ceiling stalactites. 

He then falls back, climbing out of the north portion of the channel, before casting another 15ft down the now darkness enshrouded passage. This one being sinister voices of what he expected of the Flaming Skeleton that convey the following in goblin:

"Eheheh! Liar, that one. What acolyte of Talos uses darkness of all things! Eheheh... I burn soon, I think. Burn out whole tunnel. Burn you all out."

Then after the message completes, assuming there's no surprises, he casts the spell again another 10ft further down, keeping the other one from repeating.

"Betray the Spider, if you wish to live. Or be burned as well, if you do not. Tick tock tick! Tick Tock Tick. Burn all soon..."

(Don't know if you'd need some type of charisma check, but if so: 16.)

(The goal being to either trick any bugbear lingering in hearing range of the spell into preserving their own skin, in the hopes it knows how dangerous and deadly the Flaming Skull was)

A look of fear comes over her for a second then she shakes her head at Nobody's ruse she sends a message hoping the Spider is s person of reason 

"I no more wish to court death than you! Your people, your redbrands and Bugbears attacked us tried to bully us and enslave us! What would it take to stop this? As you probably guessed we're good at what we do. We could share in this mine help each other clear it out to be safer for all of us." 

Again the same voice answers in an echo of diverent languages: "None of the foes you defeated matter, they were pawns, mercenary who failed in the task they were granted. You already killed the guardian of this forge, so why should i let you life? To share this mine and its location with you?" 

Dain hunkers down in the canal, having no targets to shoot at. He has Sabastian keeping an eye out and will ready an action to pop up and shoot at any target that comes available, that Sabastian will tell him about.

Otrov

Otrov pauses in the darkness and then she moves backwards, feeling down the wall until she’s out of the darkness. She’ll search/get up on the forge / scamper back up again. Stealth - 13

Assuming she’s out of the darkness, she will just keep an eye out for anything visible, especially the other entrances and the ceiling. Perception - 15

She sends a message to Nobody 

"I'm trying to reason with this Spyder, it doesn't seem to be working. I'm thinking we need to retreat if its not too late. Any Ideas? I can't see in this darkness. I wonder why he keeps repeating different languages? A spell?"

Map: I didn’t update your positions yet, just wanted to visualise how much you can see at the moment. The tunnel/channel leading north is completly covered by a black dome, no light is penetrating it and Dains and Nobodys darkvision doesn’t work either.

With every second that ticked by, the more affirmed of one particularly conclusion Nobody came to be of. So when Margaret sent her message, the tiefling hadn't even looked back to her. He responded via message while putting away the crossbow and drawing forth the rapier the following:

"It does not matter. Whether it is trick to keep you guessing or another layer to this one delaying tactics, there was never going to be any reasoning with this one. They made it clear the lengths they were willing to go long ago. The most we can do is not give them more to use against us. Retreat will only lead to an ambush later, or a more solidifed oposition set before us to wear us down further... You and others can retreating if you wish, but I am done playing this one's games."

At that, Nobody creeped forward ready to brave the darkness to face whatever foe lied within or beyond it. Either way he was mentally prepared for the dangers, and trusted that at the very least any bugbear servants lying in wait would be just as blind as he in it. Whether the same went for the Spyder... he didn't let his thoughts linger on the concern for overlylong. One thing at a time.

(To DM: Let me know if the same stealth check would carry me forward, or if a new one would be needed/matter. Yanda should also be within 50ft of Nobody, following behind him.)

Thinking how moronic the moves the Tiethling was doing, she hoped Otrov knew better than to say anything The spell  she thought was a minor illusion something the gnome tried to teach her to produce objects or sounds used to frighten and get them to run and perhaps locate them! But she needed to see! She fishes a piton out of her pack and lights it with her spell then moves ten feet towards the east wall hoping to get out of the spell effect. She steps back in the spell if any foes are near and takes advantage of it.

Storm, could you clarify, are you stepping into the darkness?

Heading back towards the channel we came from but staying near the wall in the corner but if the darkness spell hasn't reached me where I was at I'll stay there using the darkness spell as cover by stepping into it if possible

Map:

DragonDenn: Dain is hiding roughly in the center of the cavern. He is in the waterchannel (5ft deep) hiding behind the waterwheel. The bellows, where Sebastian and Otrov hide is to your left and the furnace is SW of you. The dome of darkness is about 35 ft NNW of you blocking the exit to the north. Nobody is 25 ft north of you behind a corner of the cave wall and Margaret is 15 ft NW of you. Possible exits are east (the empty water channel 30ft away); an unexplored tunnel SE 30ft away; the tunnel where you held up the zombies is 40 ft SSE of you and the locked door and a second tunnel going to the banquet chamber is 50ft west of you behind the bellows.  

Round 1:

The Black dome starts to move south and comes to a halt just next to Nobody (who is still outside the dome)

(i assume Margaret has her glowing piton tucked in her belt at the moment. )