HERE THERE BE GIANTS

Part One: The Caverns


Stepping through the portal from Tienna to Allevia, you once again enter the enormous underground cavern where you briefly met the drow with his ominous words.  It is hard to believe that was only about 20 minutes ago.

But the cavern is very different this time around.  There is no gaping hole in the ceiling showing you the sky above.  There is no torrent of explosions as the world is being destroyed or view of Tienna as a far away moon.

No, this time the cavern is completely enclosed.  You stumble in, gather your bearings and let your eyes adjust, and the portal closes behind you.

As before, high walls surround you on all sides with no apprent exit.  The walls are lined with long and wide pink and purple crystals, some as large as a tree.  They are almost like angled mirrors surrounding you but part of the rock walls.  They emit a very low glow that gives a trace of light, enough to see but not much more.  The cave itself is immense, more than two hundred feet in diameter with walls that go up at least 50 to a hundred feet on all sides.  They curve in a dome like pattern of a ceiling.

There are two other very different aspects of the cave this time around.

First, in the center of the cave is a mass of skeletons and decaying flesh.  The smell is horrid, but the cavern is large enough that is not overly consuming. Above them in the ceiling about 100 feet above you is a hole about two meters wide.  It creates an upward tunnel that ascends to darkness.  If you had to guess, you would say these bodies fell through the hole to land in the pile.

Second, in the far corner of the room, you hear trickling water.  There is a puddle of fresh water, surrounded by mud.  It is far enough away not to be contaminated by the bodies.

You realize that since nothing appears to have disturbed the pile of bodies, this might be a safe place to rest and gather your strength while you make plans.

OOC: The new campaign in Allevia is a sort of exploration campaign.  You are on a new world that you know little about except through legend.  There will be some campaign "goals" provided along the way, but this is like a fresh start.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:04, Tue 16 July 2013.

Leo, staggers over to the wall closest to him and slides down to sit with an audible sigh. "I think we might have a chance to recover here for a little while. At least if we are careful enough to scout around first." Casually he looks over the state of the dead bodies while resting his burnt body against the comforting cold of the rock wall. "Could someone perhaps scout around a bit? I don't know why, but this feels like a hole prisoners are dropped into to feed some beast as punishment."

Shae nods in agreement.  "Looks suspicious to me too, but if they're decayed, then maybe the beast hasn't been around in quite some time.  Shae goes to the water to inspect and test it, taking a sip.  As a druid she feels she can best tell if it can be used or not.  She will also push her hands through the mud to see if there is any sinkhole or anything else that might give an exit besides going up the hole 100 feet above, and she will look for the source of water to see if there is some way out through there.

"Don't worry I have good ears, I could hear any menace coming our way with enough time to do something about it. After all it helped me a lot to survive." Shapfren sits on a spot and unfolds her spellbook "It is sad, knowing that everybody I've ever known and loved is gone. I wish things could have been different."

Borimer lashes the shield to his handless forearm before taking a longer look at the beautiful cavern.



Borimer nods and forces his burned and battered frame to remain standing as he prepares to scout about the cavern. But first he smiles at Kahan.

"Happen to have any healing benedictions left my friend? For luck..."

"Are you sure you want to go there alone? you haven't even had time to get used to the loss of your hand"

Borimer grins at his new companion.

"Nope, but we need to know what's in here sharing our new home...even if it's a temporary one I suppose."

Shae begins exploring the watery area.  The water's source is just from small pores in the side of the cave.

The water itself tastes like sparkling, carbonated water.  The water does not seem to have any effect itself, but the mud on Shae's hands begins to have a curative effect.  The longer she leaves her hands in there, the more it heals.  (Hit points fully restored.)

"In that case I'm going with you, I'm not the epitome of health, but at least I will be of help if soemthing bad happens"

Tahldar looks round him in wonder.  "It may be there is a tribe of people here that put their dead here." he says as he looks over the bodies.  Seeing that Shae is healed by the odd mud, Tahldar decides to have a mud bath, though he will be careful not to get his pristine elven clothes dirty.

"Would one of you like to accompany me while I cast detect magic on the dead?" he says to no one in particular.

OOC:  I will heal in the mud and once everyone else is healed (and as long as at least one other person joins me) I will cast detect magic on the bodies.  Area of effect is 10' x 60' and will last for 14 minutes.  If I have time after scanning the bodies, I will get as much of the rest of the chamber as possible.  This will be my 4th 1st level spell for the day.

Heath, Is my shield still running?  It was cast at the beginning of the last battle and was good for 35 minutes...
This message was last edited by the player at 01:37, Wed 17 July 2013.

DM said SHAE, not SHAPFREN ... so you know

"I'll go with you when we're healed up and in fightin' form again."

Borimer will watch for trouble while the other's heal before taking his own mud bath.

Kahan will let the others heal before healing himself in the mud, mace drawn just in case the dead decide to stop being dead.

The party all cures in the mud.  It is not instantaneous and the process for everyone to be healed takes about 30 minutes.  Tahldar's shield dissipates, but he has no need for it.

OOC: I believe detect magic is considered a level 0 spell under the house rules, so it wouldn't count against you.  Also, the entire group is fairly exhausted by now and might do with some rest soon (i.e., regaining spells).

Examining the bodies and casting detect magic reveals a couple of things:  first, that the bodies are not all humanoid.  About a third are humanoid, but most are animal remains of cattle and other creatures that have been decomposing.  Even those that are humanoid have been stripped of anything valuable -- some have tattered clothes while others have nothing.  And second, that the bottom of the pile of bodies have nothing but old skeletons, and it appears that they are less and less decomposed as you go up the pile (which is itself about 10 feet high).  The bodies on top have been decomposing for probably a month or so.  The total body count is hard to tell because the bones at the bottom are all crushed and intermingled and pressed into the dirt, but it is likely in the hundreds.  There is no magic aura from any of the bodies.

Borimer stretches and breathes as the strange mud tends to his wounds. Afterwards he turns to Shapfren while adjusting his armor one last time.

"You ready to look over the rest of the cavern? Maybe we can rest here for a while longer after we're done, everyone catch their breath and prepare for getting out of these caves."

"Let's go, but just for a customary search, we all need to rest"

Although everyone is healed to their maximum hit points by the sparkling mud, Borimer's hand does not regrow.

A quick search around the cavern shows nothing new -- no secret doors or passages, no other oddities, no other egress than the vertical tunnel 100 feet above you.

The walls are solid stone, and slightly slippery and wet.  Because they curve around in a dome and are smooth and wet, they would be hard to climb for even the best rogue.  The pinkish, purplish crystals do not respond to touch or interaction but simply glow slightly and solidly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Wed 17 July 2013.

When Borimer returns to camp he drops his large shield and rubs the arm where his clenched fist used to be, gingery rubbing the now-healed stump.

"Looks like no way out but up."

He lashes the shield back on and readies himself to take first watch when the others rest.

Tahldar looks up and shrugs.  "How about I cast a Fly spell on you Borimer.  Then you carry each of us up one at a time?  Though I would like to rest first.  This place seems safe enough, though I don't like the idea of sleeping so near a huge mount of dead things.  But if we fly up and rest up above, the gods knows what might be up there.  It could be even worse."

OOC:  Once we've rested I will cast Fly on Borimer if he agrees.  He could then ferry us up one at a time.

"That sounds like a plan, but I concurr on resting first. It is evident all of these bodies are of prisoners or slaves thrown into this hole to die of starvation, so I would like to be rested before trying to take up a potential group of guards or whatever they might be"

"Agreed, the sooner we can get up, the sooner we get out...to wherever we are."