[Game Thread] Act 1: Investigating the Mystery of the Afflicted

[Lord Loco]

Kolik did not grace the elf with much attention. As a proper servant, he stayed behind Eric and kept quiet. He didn't care for elves any more than he cared for dwarfs. Come to think of it, he didn't care much for any species, even goblins. Although, humans could be quite nice when they were roasted.

The other reason he largely ignored the newcomer was to avoid attention on himself. Kolik had a complicated relationship with attention. He craved it, but at the same time feared and avoided it. He wanted fame and recognition, but also anonimity. It wasn't easy, being goblin.

[Magnai]

Neira looks at the air elemental and isn't sure what to do. She decides to ignore and ask about it at a later time. She's looking at the sun and she's happy that it's only been about an hour or two since they left, giving them 3-4 more hours of sunlight. If they can manage to find the cave in short time, they might be able to make it through.

She is happy to see the newcomers but they have yet to prove their intentions. She's anxious to see what they do in battle, but nothing's going to come of sitting around. They have to find battle to test that part of their inner motivation.

Neira walks towards the cliff face more and waves. It is very nice to meet you. We're sorta on a time crunch to get done before darkfall. You don't really want to be out after darkfall unless you want some really strange things to occur.

Kindli shrugs and pipes up. Eventually we'll go out into the night but we want to know more of what we're dealing with before we risk that. It's quite the expensive bargain.

OOC I'm pretty sure that's a post from all of you except saratek, who often has trouble with the site. Please continue RP (You're doing great) and make whichever check you feel appropriate to find the dwarven face. Kindli has no experience with where these dwarves live. Devin might, if he chooses to reveal it.

[FamMedKing]

While the others introduce themselves, Belnan sneaks around behind the elf, then scoots closer...and sniffs deeply at the elf. Nope, definitely not undead. Well, if you're coming along, then let's get a move on. Sheesh! Got a regular army now! Could've used you all back in the pass when we were assaulted by about 30 undead and a really large, ugly orc!

 

Spot:

Dice Roll:

1d20+4

(1)+4

Total = 5

Listen:

Dice Roll:

1d20+3

(12)+3

Total = 15

[Ericg1s]

"That was quite a mess, wasn't it?"

[EndersShadow]

"Well then, shall we go?" he says, sweeping his hand out forward and stepping to the side, nearly smacking Belnan in the face.

[Yves]

"Let's!" Feldts runs off with her hands out pretending she's a bird, flying amidst the forest. She comes back around, zooming in and out of the rest of the party and back around the other side. She eventually tires and slows to a walking pace while enjoying being in the midst of the nature that she loves.

 

Dice Spot:

1d20-4

(8)-4

Total = 4

Dice Listen:

1d20-4

(17)-4

Total = 13

Dice Search:

1d20+4

(3)+4

Total = 7

Dice Survival:

1d20+2

(19)+2

Total = 21

[EndersShadow]

"Your understanding of Auran is impressive, do you speak the languages of the other elementals?" he says, smiling at the child as they walk, "I would very much like to learn them myself."

[Magnai]

Neira leads you to the rock face and you walk south down the face for a while and come upon multiple openings that you don't think are actually the dwarves place. Either Devin or Kindli or another one of your number have some feeling against it.

Eventually, you decide that south was probably not a good decision and walk back up north. Eventually you make it to the spot that you recognise that you started from and you walk a little and Kindli cries out, It has to be this one. You see that rock up there? She points up quite high to a small rock in the face of the arch that is the entrance of the cave. That's a stylistic ancient x. It's got to be an x-marks the spot for where we're supposed to be going. Kindli is quite excited that you've finally found the entrance that you want to go down after about an hour of looking, leaving you 2-3 hours to get back.

If you turn back now, you'll get back by dark with no fail. If you spend any appreciable amount of time in the cave, you're going to need to find a place to sleep that's out of the way.

You all walk into the mouth of the cave and see that this passageway ends quite quickly. To your right, you see darkness and to your left you see equally nondescript darkness. You'll need to choose which way to go to find the dwarves. If you look at Kindli, she lifts her hands up and shrugs. She whispers, just in case, Nope. No more signs.

 

You can see farther than the others but only see that the left path curves deeper into the cave. The right path seems to turn into a larger room after about the same distance.

It seems like this cave was made assuming that you can see in either low light or dark. That's a good sign, considering dwarven strengths but not considering the mixed races that are present in this party.

OOC The reason for the pseudo-getting lost was the lack of active efforts to look demonstrated by the lack of rolling. The ones who rolled made it so it took an hour as compared to 3.   If anyone had rolled a spot higher than 20, you would have found it in 2 seconds. If Feldt had RP'd her survival differently, then I was contemplating that it would be good enough. I took it as that she was distracted by the new elemental. For purposes of navigation, North is deeper into the cave. West is left and East is right. It's now been almost 3 days since we've heard from saratek. I've seen him post in other games but I sense that he's reasonably busy around now. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

[FamMedKing]

Peering into the cave, Belnan can see a little ways back, but nothing of interest catches his attention. After you, my dwarfish friends! He bows and sweeps one arm toward the entrance. I think your kin would take more kindly to seeing you than if one of us were to suddenly appear from around the corner.

[saratek187]

Erik had stayed quiet, leading his horse and unknowingly Kolik as well. The goblin seemed to have an aura of secrecy and nervousness about him. Deciding that it was probably just the way others could look upon a goblin, appearing more in line with a monster from a campfire story than a person, he let it go. The archer wasn’t going to let on that he would stand in before any to protect the goblin or any of the others for that matter.

Moving along with the mass group was easy for him. He had been a soldier for so many years that the idea of leading was a foreign concept to him. His was a warrior for sure, but an actual leader in charge of making important decisions and being the supreme answer on anything was a bit out of his expertise. There was a major difference between leading a small squad to set up an ambush and leading a group of adventures thrown an unknown territory. Keeping his eyes and ears open, it didn’t matter what he saw as he wasn’t in charge.

Arriving at the cave, he secured the reins to the horse and pulled out his torch. The others may be able to see in the pitch dark cavern, but he surely couldn’t without it. Bringing up the rear, he was glad to let the others pick the path towards the dwarves.

 

Dice Spot:

1d20+5

(3)+5

Total = 8

Dice Listen:

1d20

18

[Lord Loco]

Kolik considered volunteering his services in scouting out the cave a little ways ahead, but it was one thing to be suited for the task, quite another to dive headlong into a dwarf hole with any help too far behind to grant any useful help in time. He stayed silent. He also readied his bow. If any dwarf was forthcoming, he felt it was an even chance, given that he now also traveled with a dwarf, that he would need it.

The little goblin felt emboldened by the feel of the bow shaft in his hand and the arrow pinned by his forefinger. With suddenly soundless steps, he advanced forward to outpace Eric and reach the front of the party. His eyes began a well-rehearsed ritual of scanning the floor, walls, and particularly the roof ahead of them. Dwarfs were buggers for making things fall on your head.

 

Link
Spot: 26
Listen: 21
Search for traps: 19
Move Silently: 39

[Magnai]

Kindli acknowledges Belnan's comment and makes sure to be more noticable than the rest of them, but also to be cautious about what they are going to do.

She sees Kolik step forward and is impressed by his ability to stay silent and sense the ways of the cave. She wonders why the dwarves have such a strong aversion to goblin kind when they are similar in their skills. Maybe it's because they actually compete for the same resources and the dwarves are greedy. The goblins seem to simple compared to dwarven culture. Either way, she tries to focus on the issue at hand.

Kolik succeeds in sensing a lot about this cave. He smells something acquatic from down the left passageway. It seems like that passageway is going to be closer to nature and may have active life over there. The passageway to the right seems to be better travelled, although the tracks have been covered. Kolik can guess that the dwarven stronghold is probably towards the right, but there's a possibility that there's some other reason why more traffic has been going in that direction.

 

Kolik doesn't sense traps but he knows that dwarves are particularly deft at fashioning traps into the stone.

[Lord Loco]

Kolik turned his head this way and that, sniffing the air, staring into shadows and looking for anything out of place. He pointed left.

"I think there is water that way, it smells wet," he said, whispering. Strangely, when he whispered, his voice lost its normal gravelly hoarseness and sounded more like a human child's voice whispering. Sniffing again he added thoughtfully: "But not mouldy, I think."

He pointed right. "More people have gone here, I think if there are dwarfs, they're that way."

[FamMedKing]

Seems an easy choice to me, it's getting a bit late at night for a swim, let's head toward the dwarves! And without waiting for a reply, he nudges Kindli toward the right passage and follows her in.

[Magnai]

The party walks towards the right but may keep the left passageway in mind. They quickly find that they are in an extremely expansive cavern that is much larger than 300ft across and 300ft wide. The cavern is actually quite square and has relatively sharp corners. They can see three passageways leaving the cavern other than the one that they just came from.

Strangely, they can see as far as they want because the walls of the cavern are glinting and glowing slightly, providing low, but passable light for everyone.

There is one passageway to the east, continuing down the path that they were already walking. That way you wouldn't need to cross the cavern and could stay hidden more.

There's also another caddy corner to where you are. It's the same size and shape as where you came from but it's on the northeast corner of the cavern.

Lastly, there's another passageway that is directly north of where you are, in the northwest corner of the cavern. It looks exactly like the other two passageways. In fact, it looks like all of them are fashioned to look identical. You may step forward and inspect the passageway you just came from and see that it looks identical to the rest of them.

You sense that although they look quite natural, they are fashioned to look this way. It's not something that would really confuse someone who is used to being in caves but anyone who is not used to underground navigation could be caught entirely off gaurd.

OOC As Devin and FMK know, I like to give you a maze-like-challenge inside the caves so that you can determine your own fate and make your own choices instead of me leading you along the way. As you might have guessed based on what was learned about the left passage, I've got a plan for what will happen based on where you go. I've been missing Yves and EndersShadow recently... SoX Current FoW Map Excel