Shipwrecked in Saltmarsh

Molo

perception 8 

stealth 16 

Molo is quiet as a ghost as he takes in the cavernous environment below. The stone walls are wet and slimy - the slanting floors may be slippery. A musty smell fills the air, as does the booming sound of the ocean in the distant. No living thing stirs. Just as he is about to step forward, he spots a thin tripwire crossing the passage. To pass this, one of you may try to disarm it (a successful DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools) or each of you may try to carefully step over it or crawl under it (DC 10 Acrobatics check for each person attempting to cross.)

Kelnan continues to chant - a few minutes remain before the magic behind his ritual kicks in.

Molo is up front. Dain somewhat behind, still halfway down the longer stone stairwell. Fiana is behind Dain on the stairs. Kelnan is sitting on the last bunk, near the bodies of the two henchmen and the ashen remains of their tall, green-eyed leader. Katernin stands in the secret door, watching both ends of the party.

Katernin seems to be waiting for Kelnan's ritual to finish, not wanting to leaving anyone behind.

     Fianna, as well, is kind of in a waiting mode, being like a link between those already exploring and those doing the ritual.  Fianna is trying to stay in a spot where she can keep each side in sight... or at least earshot.

The ritual is complete. The first thing Kelnan notices is a magical aura around both the purse and the stone he took off the remains of the skeletal talking corpse. There is nothing else to detect in the bunk room.

Getting off the bunk and joining the others in the stone stairway, Kelnan notices that the pipe Dain found is similarly magical. 

Moving closer to the front of the pack and the bottom of the first set of stone stairs, Kelnan finds nothing else disturbing the Weave, although the thick natural cavern walls block much of his arcane sight.

Molo points out the trip wire to the others and passes over it.

acrobatics 8 

Acrobatics when Fianna gets to trip wire:  6

((Really? 50/50 on ability to step over a wire???  lol...))

The wire is high enough to make it awkward to step over, yet low enough to make it difficult to crawl underneath. Molo hops over with koboldish grace, but Fianna manages to graze it with edge of one boot as she steps over.

A crossbow, fixed, rigged, and hidden at the edge of the darkened chamber to your right, fires a bolt:
Heavy Crossbow attack: 10. Piercing damage: 9

 The bolt is turned by Fianna's arcane armor and cracks into the stone wall behind.

The trap sprung, the tripwire is no longer functional. You may pass freely.

     "Yoikes!" Fianna exclaims, ducking so quickly she almost tosses herself down the steps. "Can't you disarm these things instead of just warning us?  I'm a bit of a klutz..."  Momentary anger vented, Fianna sighs and continues down the steps  

     "Good job finding the trap," she adds, a bit more quietly. "I was just shocked..."

“Well why don’t you disarm it? I don’t know anything more than you about those things.” Molo shrugs before returning to a overly dramatic stealthy posture

     “Do we swipe left or to the right?” Fianna asks, looking to spot Molo so she can follow...

Katernin follows everyone, laugh a little at the tripwire fiasco but otherwise still looking sad, "Perhaps next time when people find traps, they mention it to others so they can disarm it?" she suggests

Kelnan catches up and rolls his eyes at the bickering party. 

"Such impatience. Let's examine this room to the right before we move on. Dain, a very interesting pipe you've got. I'm not much of a smoker, but I'm interested in what it might do. Beyond burn tobacco, anyway."

Molo heads to his left (right on the map).

Dain stops and listens for a moment.   "I knows this place.  This is where they kept me when I was their captive.   I thinks the sea be that way," he says as he indicates the south western passage.   "Somewhere around here must be where they been stashing me gear.   It weren't down there towards the sea, so I'd prefer it if we checked out yonder direction," he finishes, pointing south east.

Before heading on  Dain will hand the pipe to Kelnan.  "Be me guest, wizard.  If ye can tells us what it does, so much the better.   I'm laying no claim to it, other than just picking it up.  If it has some power that others can use better then me then I'll happily hand it over.  But I am partial to a good smoke, so if it is just an enchanted pipe, then I'd like to keep it with everyone's approval."

     “To be fair, he did point out the tripwire.  I just clumsily disarmed it by triggering it...”

This place is indeed familiar to Dain - at least the smells, the sounds, and the look of the place. But he hasn't seen these exact corridors before. And it's difficult to tell where the booming sound of the ocean is coming from - it echoes and reverberates through the walls - but you guess the sound is strongest from the east, down the lit corridor.

The party begins to carefully move east, down the slippery, slimy passage. Dain advances into the intersection of two corridors, followed by Molo and Fianna; Kelnan and Katernin bring up the rear. To the south is a large darkened cavern; ahead, to the east, the steeply descending continues past a small empty grotto; another torch lights the way forward.

That's when the arrows fly; just a moment too late, Dain spots a flurry of movement from a hidden attacker in the darkness to the south.

Long bow attack #1 (vs. Dain): 21.  Piercing damage: 7.
Long bow attack #2 (vs. Dain): 7.  Piercing damage: 3.

"Hey!" shouts the bow-wielding goon; "they're here!"

Initiative: 
Fianna: 9
Katernin:  8
Kelnan: 16
Molo: 4
Dain: 16
Goon: 5

The goon, hugging the wall, has partial cover behind a slight bulge in the natural stone.  The corridors are effectively single file here in regard to combat.

Dain takes an arrow in the ribs. (He's not looking so good; did he ever get any healing after the skeletons?)
Dain may act first.

Dain staggers from the impact of the goon's silent arrow. You can see his attacker in the shadows, about twenty feet away, gaunt and heavily scarred, clad in leather and partially shielded by the natural stone wall, preparing another round of missiles.

Dain may act first.