The Phandalin Chronicles

Krom takes out from his backpack a torch, he lits it and proceeds to burn the rest of the webs. After the webs are destroyed, the dwarf will retrieve his hand axe and Firebeard's Fist and hands it back to Kazri.

"THAT certainly went better than expected." Rhogar admits. "Not to downplay our previous accomplishments of course. Though if either the Banshee or her ghouls hadn't noticed us yet, we can expect this fight to have done the job well enough." He looks around a moment just to line up Ghorar's earlier memory with the present, and then points over to the freshly burning webs thanks to Krom. "Hmm... Be that as it may, we should be thorough in the cleansing of each level." He states and would look to the door in the northeast after some head cranning on his part.

The Bronze takes point if noone else does so, holding the ivory staff in readiness to properly bean any surprises that come about in the approach alone.

Kazri receives weapon back. "Thank you Master Krom. I would not want to leave it behind." She notices Rhogar looking at the northeastern door. "I shall be right behind you Mr. Nimbatuul."

"Tell you what Rhogar, I'll check the door and then open it for you and you can lead the way inside."

Chill moves to the door and listens carefully and checks for traps and to see if the door is locked.

Chill carefully listens at the door and hears nothing.  The door is found to be unlocked and without traps.

Opening the door for Rhogar you find the next room to have been trashed.

There are wrecked cots, chairs, tables, and other furnishings. A blackened fireplace is set into the east wall, its chimney rising 20 feet to the outside. 

Nothing of value is found within and is the same size as the room you first entered when you climbed down the chimney.

The only difference is this room is trashed and a door sits in the south wall.

Presumably Chill also checks this door and when all is clear opens it. 

This door leads to a smaller area that looks like it was a hallway and the south end has collapsed.

A rubble-strewn tunnel about 2 feet wide and 5 feet tall curves out of sight downward.  A stale stench, slightly worse than the other rooms is in the tunnel.

Rekuberk collects his javelins and then follows the rest of the group into the next room, setting them back as readjusts his grip on his Greatsword. "Be ready for anything. I would not want to go forward unprepared."

Krom follows the group in the next room. As the group finds the collapsed hallway the dwarf says "Before entering that small and smelly tunnel, I think that it may be better to explore the lower rooms, we may find another way up and finish to explore this floor. The room with the spiders have two staircases that should lead to the main floor."

As he waits for a reply from the rest of the party, Krom will point his holy symbol towards the hallway preparing to channel Moradin's clensing power.

Chill peers down into the tunnel.

"I'll scout it out.  Not sure I like leaving an unexplored hole behind us as we go other places.  I'll be right back."

Chill moves slowly and carefully down into the tunnel, his steps not making a sound.  His dark fur and clothing blending into the darkness.

Stealth 24 

"Of THAT we of our like mind." Is all Rhogar manages to get out, prior to the living shadow that was Chill slipping away. During the interm, the Bronze busied himself with checking out the nearby fireplace to see if its top two had been blocked off in some way.

Chill melts into the darkness and follows the twisting tunnel as it slopes down.  It goes about 60 feet and then opens into a long hallway that runs north and south.  To the north a door is on the west side of the end of the hallway.  To the south it opens into what looks like will be a larger room.

Meanwhile Rhogar check out the fireplace and sees that it is much like the one they descended and if they could, they could climb up and out of this chimney.

"Perhaps we should take the stairs to go down and make sure Chill is safe." Says Kazri.

Chip would remain relatively quiet... not playing anything for fear of attacting more creatures. His dancing lights would slowly circle the group that did not go off scouting ahead.

Chill looks up and down the hallway and sees no creatures.  He ponders for a moment if he should scout further but decides he's been gone long enough.  The others would be worried.  He then heads back up the tunnel and reports what he has found.

Rekuberk keeps in step with the rest of the party, his weapons still at the ready.

Kazri hears what seems to be Chill coming up the tunnel, and turns back to wait for the Tabaxi.

Rhogar is still busy working out how better to clamor up the chimney if push came to shove when the Tabaxi returns with news. Which given the surprised look on his face, was a lot sooner than expected, but he soon brushed it off. "Good to know. I wasn't entirely convinced it led as far down as the others did, but... yes. Anyhow! The stairs then. I'll send Ghorar down the tunnel to continue scouting the general area, seeing as some here don't trust other's skills." He said, eyeing Krom and Kazri in particular, and then cracking a wiry grin.

After which he sighs and makes a sweeping gesture in offer of someone to lead the way down the immediate stairs. In the meantime, Ghorar grudgingly uncurls herself from about the Bronze's neck, and a few short flaps of her wings, she is off down the tunnel the tabaxi took. Likely before any of the party reached the same level, she is in the hall looking around curiously for a few moments. Then it is quietly off to the section southward(on the map) for her to begin her investigations.

Ghorar Stealth: 9.
Plus Guidance: 4.

Krom seems to not notice Rhogar's comment.

The dwarf waits a few seconds to see if someone prefers to take the lead and then, weapon at ready, starts walking down the stairs.

Kazri brings her shield to her front and starts to go down the stairs.

The group heads down the stairs and enters a room that looks like the first that Ghorar scouted out.

This area contains seven ballistas pointed at arrow slits, a winch that raises and lowers the portcullis, and a stone staircase that you just came down. Each ballista is equipped with five bolts.  The only door in the room leads to the hallway that Chill found earlier.  You follow the hallway down and catch up to Ghorar.

You find that a ceiling collapse has left this hall in ruins. The eastern half of the hall is strewn with debris and is difficult to walk on. The stench of death hangs heavy here, becoming stronger as you move to the east side of the room.

A set of double doors are to the west and a single door to the south.  In the rubble on the east side of the room is a couple of tunnels.  The northern one is scouted by Ghorar and is found to end a short way in.  The southern one has a stronger smell of death and concern and fear is felt by the party by Ghorar as he shares his feelings with the party.

"Where should we go next Master Krom?" Asks Kazri.