"Well," Salem stretches a bit, "Which way shall we go?" She looks at the rest of the group.

"If I had to guess," Sanjay says, "I'm thinking this route," and he points to the western route on the left, "might swing back up towards the way we came. My gut says that we need to head in that direction," he points to the northeast path. 

Senine takes another pull before putting her flask away, trudging to see the passage in question, realizing that he was correct. "Guess so." She mutters, heading back toward the Northeast passage, stopping to look over the group. "Everybody doing alright? Faineant, how you holdin' up in this dark?"

"This is...not ideal," Faineant says, self-deprecatingly. "But so far I'm fine. Thank you." She rearranges her scarf. "Should we not investigate the area we are in currently, though, before we leave?"

((If someone is going to investigate the camping area/bed rolls let me know, otherwise we can move on to another room.))

Salem pauses and looks around the area before deciding to move on.

Investigation: 14 

Salem, heeding Faineant's words, decides to carefully look around the camping site.  Going through each bedroll and keeping her distance from the pit trap, she comes across one bedroll with an unopened bottle of Bald Dwarf Whisky.  ((You can figure out amongst yourselves what you want to do with it.))

With nothing further to search, and your obvious path ahead of you, you begin walking down the NE passage. Water dripping down from stalactites in the ceiling fills a dark pool that completely covers the floor of this cavern.  As you draw near, a loud ribbit rings out, and in the middle of this pool you can see the eyes and top of the head of an apparent old giant toad.  He stares at you, now fully aware of your presence, as if not sure whether to attack or not.

Senine, not terribly keen on any more waterborne incidents, slams her morningstar against her shield, giving out a wordless bellow in the hopes that it would drive the monster off.

(Intimidation: 7 )

The giant, old, ice-frog ribbits again, louder this time, turning its eyes to Senine.

Sanjay would like to use Druidcraft to create the sound of rushing water (as if it is heading towards the frog) and back it up with as heavy of a breeze as the spell allows (which isn't much of one...lol). The intent is to try and scare the frog further away from us.

The frog blinks a lot and turns his body sideways, obviously uncomfortable with the gust of wind coming towards him.  He keeps his eyes on you all however, and sinks a little lower in the water so only his eyes are visible.

Thistle tries to speak reassuringly to the frog, noticing its unease. "It's ok, froggy. We don't want to hurt you. We just want to get by," she croons in a gentle voice.

Animal Handling: 4

((I'm not sure if animal handling or persuasion would be best, but seeing as I have -1 persuasion, I'd like to try animal handling. Or maybe I can 'assist' someone who has better charisma with animals to try and give an advantage?))

((Animal Handling is perfect, actually, but you did roll a bit low.))  The old ice frog turns to Thistle with a spark of curiosity in it's eye, hopping a space closer.

Salem looks at the toad, trying to calm it as well, "Don't worry, we're not here to harm you, we'd just like to get by.." 

Animal Handling: 11 

((I was going to have Sanjay try and help Salem, but a 19 is a pretty solid roll...lol))

Quote from CelticSurfer >>

((I was going to have Sanjay try and help Salem, but a 19 is a pretty solid roll...lol))

 ((Indeed.  You have a very high mod for it, but this works!))

The old ice frog now turns to Salem and, what can only be described as "joyfully", paddles itself in your direction.  Though you're all fairly wary you remain calm as it approaches and climbs just enough to the shore line of the pond in front of you, then turns its body sideways and waits expectantly.

"Does it want us to climb onto it?" Sanjay asks. 

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that." Senine mutters, still tense as she waits to see what happens.

Sanjay wants to just jump on. He loves animals and definitely feels a kindred spirit with them, but since he wasn't the one that made this specific connection with this specific frog, he's going to wait for Salem and let her make the first move so that he doesn't risk scaring the frog away.

Salem smiles and slowly reaches out towards the giant toad, climbing on carefully. "Nice froggie.."