Chilling Adventures in the North

Arogna looks up ahead but sees little more than the fresh snow on the mountain for now. With nothing more to do here, you press on up the mountain. This far up, the mountain is narrower, and it takes less time to circle around the mountain as you climb it. Eventually as you climb you see the mouth to a cave up ahead. As you draw closer, the cave gives you all an ominous feeling and not just for the fact that mouth of the cave is shaped like a skull.

However, you soon find that entering the cave will not be easy. Between you and the cave the mountain has crumbled away leaving a twenty foot gap. Hanging above the gap is a scraggly tree, from which dangles a length of rope from a grappling hook. A sign that someone has managed to cross the gap to enter the cave.

Arogna frowns like a small range of foothills, and folds her arms. "That ain't gonna hold me, at any rate. I'm callin' this the front door, right here."

She scuffs a line in the snow in front of her with a booted foot. Then she unfolds her arms, cups her hands to her mouth, and yells towards the cave entrance as loudly as she can. "Package delivery for a Mister Cimber! Come out an' get it!" Adding in a mutter, "You sod."

Thinking he weighs less than Arogna, Shad will investigate the tree and the hook. He will try and guess whether or not it would hold his weight. Is there a way they could use the tree and their ropes to cross the gap? He'll ask for help from the party to investigate this way (though this roll doesn't include advantage): Investigation: 3

He will tug on the rope, examine the knot that holds it to the hook, look at the roots of the tree, for example.

As Shad checks to see if he can reach the rope and Arogna shouts at the cave entrance, Qinfaren looks down the chasm and across to the other side. Then he looks to where the tree is anchored.

(OOC - is there still a cliff face on one side where the tree is? Wondering if there's somewhere that could be climbed across, or if it's a chasm extending the width of the mountain? Though then not sure where the tree is coming from.)

"Before anyone jumps, climbs, or leaps for the rope, let me help your chances of success by calling on the world around us to help guide your actions," Qinfaren says.

(OOC - let Qinfaren use the Guidance cantrip on you before you do anything)

(OOC: Shad will not be able to reach the rope that is hanging above the gap. The tree's roots are grown into the mountain side but it is steep and there would be no easy way of climbing across.)

There is no reply to Arogna from within the cave.

Shad looks at the rope dangling from the hook above the gap. It looks pretty sturdy and is probably how Artus Cimber got across the gap and into the cave. He also sees that tree is rather strong looking and should be able to support his weight.

"He ain't home, or he's sleepin', or dead," Arogna scowls. "An' I shouted loud enough to wake the dead like." She thinks about that for a moment, recollects Artus Cimber's career choice, and lets out an orcish curse. "Maybe that weren't a real good idea."

She looks at the tree, torn between her desire to earn payment for the delivery (and to have climbed up the mountain for a good reason), and her reluctance to use the rope-swing.

"Quinfaren, do you still have the pole I bought in Luskan before we departed? It's 10 feet long, maybe we could reach the rope with that." Asks Muharg while trying to assess how far from their current position is the rope.

"Whatever the case, once we figure out how to reach the rope and get across the chasm, let me go first, once on the other side I'll reach out and try to detect any undead presence in the vicinity."

Shad looks down into the gap. Can he tell how deep the drop is? "Even if we come up with a good idea for getting over it, let's tie ropes around ourselves."

He will also consider the tree. Can he climb the tree out to where the rope is attached to it and bring it back from there to their side of the gap?

(OOC: I’m picturing the tree rooted on the opposite side of the gap. Am I correct?)

Qinfaren reaches for the pole strapped to his back.

"This one?" Qinfaren asks Muharg. "Sometimes I forget it's even there."

He looks at the end of it and then at the rope. 

"If we could fashion some sort of hook on the end maybe we could pull the rope closer."

He looks over the edge again down into the ravine and then back to the rope.

"If not, I could just jump and try and grab the rope and swing across," then he pauses before continuing. "Hopefully the tree branch would hold my weight."

"Nobody oughta jump off of a cliff to deliver a parcel," Arogna frowns. "That ain't what we're paid for, Qinfaren. Don't go riskin' your life for this. Mister Cimber can raise the dead, so maybe he don't mind this bein' the way to his front door, as it don't matter to him. D'you want me to try yellin' again? 'Cause I will."

Qinfaren, smiles at Arogna.

"Maybe it will be fun to try?" Qinfaren says to Arogna.

He sits down with his pack and starts going through everything in it but doesn't find anything suitable to act as a hook to attach to the end of the pole. He opens his mess kit, but the utensils are smooth, polished wood.

He then looks around the trail they're on, looking for any crooked branches they could tie to the end.

"Any one have anything we could use as a hook?" Qinfaren asks the group. "I once met a druid who carried a sickle. He was really big into cutting plants. Never understood that. It's much easier to just ask their permission. But having that sickle now would be handy."

“I do not have a sickle,” Shad says. ”I do have a crossbow.” He releases the tension on the crossbow so that the bowstring runs roughly parallel to the curve of the bow itself. “Maybe we could tie this to the end of the 10 foot staff. If the body of the crossbow and the staff are parallel, it should form a kind of ‘T.’ Maybe we can hook the rope with the ‘T.’”

"I don't have a hook or anything of the like. Qinfaren are you able to change into a bird or something then get across? We could then tie another rope to ourselves and have you pull us across while we hold on to the other rope" Bjorn suggest as he surveys the scene.

"I gotta warhammer, but your bow'd work better, Shad, I reckon," Arogna says. "Lemme try an' rouse him again while you all figure it."

Arogna steps to the edge of the gap and yells again towards the cave.

"AR-TUS-CIM-BER! DE-LIV-RY'S-HERE!"

She wonders if he was not actually expecting it.

(Okay, three is growing out of the side of the mountain. However, you will not able to use that mountainside to climb over the gap. The tree extends over the gap with a rope and a grappling hook is attached to the tree. The gap does slope back up to you so you could climb back up, but you can't climb to the cave.)

Once more there is no response from Arogna's shouting.

Qinfaren looks back up at the sky.

"Some day I think I'll be able to master turning into a bird," Qinfaren says. "But not yet."

He then looks over at the cliff and mountainside.

"I could turn back into a spider again and climb over, but I'm not sure having a rope stretched across would help us a lot," he says as he looks from the hanging rope back to Shad's crossbow. "That might be the best idea yet."

He works quickly to tie the crossbow to the end of the pole, such that it forms the hook Shad mentioned. And then he works at trying to catch hold of the rope with the 'hook'.

As he gets it ready, he focuses for a moment, then says "Ductu" and a surge of energy comes up through the ground and into his body.

Casts: Guidance 

(Survival - if needed for rope tying - 14  ; Athletics to handle the pole and hook the rope (might not be the right skill so please let me know if you want something different - 10  )

Uses Guidance on the rope tying to add 4  to the result for a total of 10

Qinfaren uses the makeshift hook to bring the rope closer to your side of the gap. Now with the rope in hand, one of you can now try to make the jump to the other side of the gap.

(Strength (Athletics) or  Dexterity (Acrobatics) check)

Qinfaren holds up the end of the rope that is attached to the tree. He hands the pole to Shad so he can untie his crossbow.

"If I go last, I can focus on letting the energy all around us give each of you a boost before you make the swing across," Qinfaren says. "A little like a tailwind when you're rowing across a lake."

(OOC - if the others are up for using the rope swing, Qinfaren can cast Guidance on each before they go across - it's a cantrip so it's always available - unless someone else has something better to boost the odds - we could just say he casts it each time rather than need an actual post since it's each character who rolls the extra die not Qinfaren)

"D'you want me to go first, an' take the parcel?" Arogna suggests. "If I can find him right away, we don't gotta all go over."