Borimer transports everyone and their equipment to the top of the hole.

You find yourselves in a large underground tunnel.  The tunnel itself is round, as if a lava tube or similar cave, but the floor is also smooth, making it an easy walk.  The rounded ceiling is about 15 feet high, making this a rather spacious tunnel.  Similar glowing pink and purple crystals along the walls create a dim glowing light.

The tunnel goes to your left or your right.

Directly in front of the hole, you see the remains of the rock, which had crumbled and mostly fallen into the hole.  Next to it is what appears to be some sort of lever.  A net extends from a pulley above, along with a ten foot long metal pole that is wedged into what remains of the boulder.  Apparently, the boulder was used to stop up the hole by whatever inhabits these caves.  (The idea is that the rock would be rolled into a net and hoisted so that the hole could be accessed, and then lowered back down.  The net and pulley system are very large and heavy pieces of equipment, but clearly something very strong still had to use them to make them work with such a large boulder.)

Leaning against the wall to one side of the boulder, you see the corpse of what appears to be a human.  He wears a sword at his side, and his head is bowed, one arm across his shirt and jacket.  You see no outward signs of any wounds in the dim light, and the body appears to have been there for only a few days, at most.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:40, Mon 29 July 2013.

Borimer glances down both tunnels one at a time while others with a keener eye for details can check the corpse.

Leo, takes his time examining the body, looking for the tale tell signs of his expiring. First he takes his dagger and places the blade under the victems nose. Just to check and see if there is still any breath coming out. He would hate to have a corpse surprise him while he was looking it over. Once that is complete and he is sure the victem is truely deceased he begins the slow job of trying to determine how he might have died or been killed.

Kahan puts his armor back on as quickly as possible, glad that Borimer had faster reflexes than he. After putting everything back on, the priest assists Leo in looking over the corpse.

With little to do, Tahldar keeps watch with Borimer.  He does however have a thought, "Are any of us decent trackers?  Might be a good idea if we can tell if one of these two tunnel entrances sees more foot traffic than the other."

OOC:  I could cast detect magic on any items the man might have, but I figure to hold off a bit in case we come across any other stuff so I can do it all in one shot.  In any event I will likely cast by the end of the day at the latest.

At the top of the hole, Shae changes shape back into her half-elf form.

"As a mountain druid, I have some skill in tracking in the outdoors and mountains.  Perhaps I can help here as well."

Shae begins looking around for signs of movement and life, scouting a short distance down each side of the tunnel to look for any minute details, icluding any potential hidden doors, moveable rocks, or the like.

"Well my eyes have nothing special to brag about, but I have very tarined ears. Maybe I could try my luck at trying to listen incoming or outgoing movement" says Didit while focussing on the entrance.

You begin searching about.

There are tracks in the dirt, both from what appear to be human and much larger sized boots.  The giant sized ones go in both directions.  The humanoid sized ones appear to be coming from your right, stopping here, and then continuing to your left.  You even see the remains of where it looks like they set up camp and a small fire, which they then buried in the dirt before leaving.  The time of the camp appears to coincide with the timing of the death of the body nearby.

The sounds are really hard to detect.  There is a lot of air movement through the caves that creates eerie wailing, whistling, and blowing sounds.  But there is nothing beyond that which would give a clue as to life.

Inspecting the body, you see that he carries no weapons or valuables.  He wears a warm ermine jacket, a vest, and coarse dungarees.  His boots have been stripped off.  You find no sign of what caused his death, but there is pooling of blood in the tips of his fingers and toes, and swelling around his lips and throat.  You suspect he might have been poisoned somehow.  His face certainly appears to have frozen in a mask of pain.

Inside his vest pocket, you find a folded parchment and a charcoal writing instrument.

Leo smells the man's breath to see if there is any trace scent of what he had consumed in an effort to determine what posion might have been used. Then pulls the parchment out of the man's pocket and opens it to see if there is anything written on it.

"I am well versed in many languages if you find the parchment unintelligible." Tahldar says as Leogold examines the dead man's note.

OOC:  If Leogold is unable to read the note I'll take a crack at it.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:47, Fri 02 Aug 2013.

Malissin nods and gestuers at the paper.

"I've always had a knack for figuring things out as well. Back in my village we lived near some ancient ruins. I don't know the whole history but my father said they dated back thousands of years. Used to be some great trading hub for some great ancient empire. Anyway, adventurers would come through when I was younger to raid the tomes of ancient past and would pull out the most fantastic things, mostly scrolls somehow preserved through the times.

Turns out it wasn't a trading hub but more like a library. Not much value in terms of gold or gems but this ancient empire had found a way to seal scrolls against time itself. Sheets from languages that were long since dead pulled out fresh as if it was penned yesterday.

Anyway, the adventurers would often leave the papers they deemed without value behind and the children would sit around and make up stories about what they thought the scrolls said. It was a fun little game, especially when someone could translate it and we would compete to see who was the closest."

"That is interesting, but now is not the time to chat" says Didit while still remaining close to the bifurcations trying her best to scan the noises coming from the other areas, staying alert for any incoming creatures was a priority

Mal looks a little embarassed at the rebuke but gives a nod and fades back into the shadows again, ready for action.

OOC: Hiding in shadows.

12:48, Today: Malissin rolled 20 using 1d100. hide in shadows.

Leo hands over the parchment. "Have at it, I want to look at a few more things on the body right now."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:31, Tue 06 Aug 2013.

Mal takes a look but then shakes his head.

"Nope, nothing I'm familiar with. Sorry."

OOC: 10:01, Today: Malissin rolled 45 using 1d100. read languages.

OOC: I am still finishing up the writing on the parchment.  It has a bit of a puzzle in it, and I have to make some tweaks.  We also have three new players joining soon, and I will likely tie them to this corpse with some background info.

In scribbled handwriting, you see the notes of the person dead before you on the parchment.  They are, surprisingly, in the Common handwriting, which surprises you since you are on Allevia, a different planet.  But stranger things have happened to you recently.

The writing states:


left
straightleft(cavern)
left in cavern
left straight in cavern
right straight incline in cavern
straight
left
right incline at cavern
right at cavern
left diagonal decline at cavern
right at fork
right down slope at cavern
4 caverns


You are able to put together that the cavern you stand in goes roughly northeast to southwest.  The footprints of the dead man appear to have come from the southwest.  There are further prints heading northeast, as though his party continued without him.

The other thing you see is a strange indent in the dirt that wiggles like a snake trail and appears to follow them toward the northeast.  It then disappears at the wall as though it climbed the wall.

You do not hear any further sounds here.  EDIT: Other than the sounds previously mentioned.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:20, Wed 07 Aug 2013.

"If there be giants in both directions, then one's as good as another. I'm thinkin' we could just follow this poor sod's friends that way."

Borimer points to the tracks moving northeast.

"I agree, I see no need to cover ground they already have. But let's keep our eyes on the ground for whatever made that wiggle mark.  It looks suspicious to me."

Shae says, "What is our goal here?  If it is to escape the cave, we would follow the way they came and get back to the entrance, right?  If it is to go deeper, then we follow his companions.  I'll agree with you that his companions might have important information, so maybe that's the way to go."

Borimer keeps peering down both tunnels for signs of trouble.

"Hmm, good point. I'm always up for killin' some giants, but leavin' sounds good too. I'll go either way."

"I say follow them.  They speak common and may have useful information they could pass on to us.  We can always go back the other way if need be.  Especially now that we have the dead man's notes."

"But, should we take the risk? we just got here, we know nothing about this world, for alll we know they could be hostile. I mean how can we know they didn't do the deed themselves?"

"Then we shadow them till we know their intentions. Information right now is the most important resource we lack."

Mal nods at the latter suggestion.

"Why pick a fight that can only lead to tragedy, one way or another."

Sometimes Mal's pacifism could be truly annoying.

So I take it Malissin will scout out in the shadows to see what he can find while the party waits for him to report back?

"Mal, why don't you and Leo scout ahead a bit if you don't mind?"

"I would be happy to go with Malissin for a recon up ahead if you need my assistance. Is this ok with you Malissin?" Leo inquires.

"Don't forge o whistle if ou find an troubles"

OOC: They will be separated into a different group for purposes of scouting ahead.  For those remaining behind, feel free to post what your characters are doing.

Mal and Leo take off to the northeast to follow the tracks and slithering trail.  The rest of the party remains behind near the hole they climbed out of, the dead human body, and the strange rock and pulley system used to cover the hole.  You do notice now that the stench of the bodies rises from below, though it is not overpowering.

Mal and Leo are soon gone through the shadows beyond earshot.  This series of tunnels and caves is so massive, with walls easily rising 20 feet high, that you can only imagine how far they might extend.

Borimer keeps a wary eye on the tunnels left and right, ignoring the stench of old battle wafting from below.

I think we got stalled, so let's get things moving again.



As Mal and Leo are off scouting to the northeast, all of you are waiting when you hear something from the southwest like the crumbling or rolling of small rocks.  It comes from somewhere in the darkness down the huge tunnel, maybe 50 to a hundred feet away.  You can't see anything down there...yet.

Borimer unsheathes Chianta and moves forward to meet whatever lurks southwest of the group.

Kahan grabs his mace and moves to Borimer's flank, slightly behind him in the beginnings of a V formation. If anyone else moved up, he would instruct them to move to the fighter's other flank with motions.

Allowing his more experienced companions to investigate the disturbance, Tahldar remains put and does his best to see what the source of the noise is.

OOC:  I have 60' infravision if that helps.

Didit unsheats her own sword and awaits patiently to see what can she do to fight if necessary. She follows Kahan and borimer in the formation, trusting in their experiencce.

When it moves, it appears to be nothing more than a blurring of the dark walls or the cave shifting.  It then begins moving closer to you, obviously sensing your heat or smell or something.  As it gets closer, you see what it is, and where your mistake was.

Whatever made the giant snake-like trail in the dirt had not been going the way that Leo and Mal went.  It had apparently been going the other way (unless there are more than one).  And now it has doubled back at the smell of new prey.

It is gigantic but barely visible.  With a chameleon effect, it seems to blend into the shadows and wall of the giant tunnel enough to make it nearly invisible until it is close enough to strike.

And now it is close enough.

ROUND 0

It opens its wings, which destroys the chameleon effect.  It is long like a snake with tan and black markings, but it is huge in size, approximately 30 feet long.  It has a scaly, snake like body and fangs like a viper.  It has no legs, but has talon-like claws at the end of its wings.  And those wings are not bird-like wings; they are bat wings.  It is cold-blooded and nearly invisible to infravision as well as normal sight when it is camouflaged and in the dark caves.

But there is something else.  Inside its wings are parasitic creatures attached to the side of the creature.  The opening of the wings disturbs these parasites, and they release from the giant snake-like body.  You see in a moment what these parasites are as they screech in high pitches and fly directly toward you:  vampire bats.  There are at least six of these bats in addition to the approaching giant creature, which is now about 30 feet away and rearing up to strike like a rattlesnake or other snake when it is getting ready to gulp down a rat.


Visperillion
(Original creature)
HP: ?
AC: ?
Special Attacks: swallow whole, ?
Special Defenses: chameleon camouflage, ?

Parasitic Vampire Bats (6)
(Original)
HP: ?
AC: ?
Special Attacks: disease, ?
Special Defenses: ?

This message was last edited by the GM at 16:04, Fri 23 Aug 2013.

Kahan pulls out his Rod of Absorption and begins casting.

Alarmed at the creatures coming near them, Tahldar steps backwards and casts a defensive spell.

OOC:  I will cast shield and step away from creatures as far as I can while still being able to cast.

Cursing her ill timed choice of defaulting to a weapon Didit decides to go ahead anyway, she moves ahead and tries to strike at the monster or at least act as a distraction long enough for her companions to attack it better.

18:29, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 7 using 1d20. Attack  (THAC0 17).

"What the hell-?"

Borimer closes the distance and makes two quick slashes at the strange wyrm's belly.

Shae had been quiet and contemplative while the other friends went out scouting.  Now she comes to full attention, trying to cast a spell on the flying bats.

she attempts charm animal

ROUND 1

Tahldar, Kahan and Shae begin casting.

The vampire bats fly erratically around you.

Borimer and Shapfren move forward to attack.

Borimer hits the thing twice.  (31 dmg.)

Shapfren misses.

Kahan finishes his spell, and several images of himself appear around him.

Shae finishes casting, and one of the vampire bats stops and lands for a moment in bewilderment.  Then it flies up and lands on her shoulder like a parrot.  (Charm successful: It will aid Shae next round.)

Tahldar finishes casting as he moves to the back of the group.  (Shield cast.)

The five remaining bat creatures fly at you.  One of them strikes a replica of Kahan.  The replica image disappears.  Another attacks Shapfren and misses.  Another attacks Borimer and misses.  One of them latches onto the back of Shapfren's neck and wraps its wings around Shapfren like a hug.  (3 hp dmg.)  Another manages to attach to Borimer's thigh.  (4 hp dmg.)

The giant winged snake creature also lashes out with two talons and its open maw.  Borimer is hit by a clawed wing as the talons scrape across his arm and shoulder, and he sees the mouth coming down at him.  It is so large it could swallow him whole, but he rolls to the side (with the bat still attached like a parasite to his leg) and avoids the open maw.  (7 hp dmg from claw attack.) The other claw strikes out at Shapfren but misses.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:45, Tue 27 Aug 2013.

"Disgusting creatures!" Tahldar says as he prepares to cast.

OOC:  Cast magic missile.  Two bolts on the bat attached to Shapfren and two on the one attached to Borimer.

Shae sends the bat to attack the other bat creatures and then runs after the giant snake to stab it with her spear.

Shapfren goes on to attack once more, ignoring the pain caused by the byte, hoping to hurt it this time


14:45, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 6 using 1d6. Damage.

14:45, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 17 using 1d20. Attack  (THAC0 17).

Kahan attacks the giant bat-like creature with his mace, hoping to fell it before anyone gets swallowed alive.

Borimer ignores the blood-sucking bat attached to his thigh for the moment and steps closer to the serpent beast, taking three more swings at whatever he can reach with his blade.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:43, Wed 28 Aug 2013.

ROUND 2

Borimer strikes, making three gashes in the creature that badly wound it.  (-65 dmg)

The creature strikes back, missing Borimer with one talon and its deadly mouth, but raking him with its other talon.  (-8 hp dmg.)  The other bat creatures strike, and two more of Kahan's mirror images disappear as they are stricken.

Shapfren strikes out and hits the creature as well.  (6 hp dmg.)

Shae hits, striking a blow to the soft mouth of the viper creature.  (Critical hit.  22 dmg.)

Tahldar's magic missiles strike home, killing the two bat creatures on Borimer and Shapfren.

The blows are too much, and the visperillion collapsed dead to the ground, its scales turning a dark brown as their chameleon abilities stop working.

Though the bats slough off them in death, both Shapfren and Borimer begin to feel ill at ease in their stomachs.  (Disease from the bats is starting.)

Borimer tries to keep the contents of his stomach where they belong while whispering to Kahan.

"I'm not feelin' too well..."

Three of the blood sucking bats have been taken down, and the remaining three return to the viper creature, land, and begin sucking at its blood, cozying and pushing their way to the inside of the wings, back into the darkness to feed.

Didit just falls to her knees giving out to pain. "Neither do I "

Tahldar looks at his sickened companions with concern.  There is nothing he can do to help and he waits intently to see what Kahan can do for them.

OOC:  FYI, I have a shield up for the next 35 minutes.

Kahan digs out the opened jar of Keoghtem's ointment he is carrying and starts rubbing an application of it onto Didit's wound, then moving to Borimer. "Well that was interesting. I have never seen such a creature in all my travels... Perhaps Allevia holds all sort of new monsters who will try to kill us. Wonderful." the priest complains, mostly to himself.

Shae says, "The silver lining here is that I got m'self a new pet, neh?"  Shae begins casting.

Shae casts animal friendship on the bat on her shoulder.

Shae successfully casts animal friendship on the parasitic bat.  It still does not communicate but at least its a friend.  Of course, it was also a friend with that viper creature, and it was sucking its blood for nourishment, so we'll have to see where the friendship leads...

You begin the process of waiting for your companions to return.

OOC: If you want to do anything, feel free.

Borimer keeps an eye out for danger while simultaneously seeing where this new friendship goes.  Probably end in bloodshed.

"He-she-it's a cute one, alright."

Shae says, "Not my first choice in pets, but it could be worse."  She pauses.  "Maybe," she corrects, "though I'm having a hard time thinking of a worse pet offhand."

"As long as you keep it away from me I won't care."

Shae says, "Even the ugliest creature can be beautiful in its own way.  All creation serves its purpose."  She strokes the bat's neck and chin.

Didit speaks still feeling dizzy and weak "I don't question it being pretty, but even the dumbest deer knows better than roam around wolves and let me tell you, keeping a parasite like that around isn't a good idea"
I don't know if the plant Kahan used cured us or just restored hp

Shae says, "But it is my duty to do no harm except in self defense or for a good cause. I cannot simply kill it when it is not threatening me."

If anything bites me tonight while I sleep, it dies, Borimer reassures himself.

"No sense killin' it now anyway, you're right, it could be a useful friend."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:17, Wed 04 Sept 2013.

"I didn't say kill it, I just don't want it near me for as long as it carries disease"

Speaking of which, Shapfren and Borimer continue to feel uneasy in their stomachs, accompanied by tingling in their extremities.

Tahldar looks at his sickened companions with concern.  Turning to Kahan he says "Is there anything else you can try?  I am afraid I am no healer and cannot help."

Borimer absently rubs the stump where his fist used to be and wonders if the hand's uncomfortably tingling somewhere else in Time like his remaining one is now.

did the ointment heal any hit points even though it didn't take care of the disease?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:47, Thu 05 Sept 2013.

Sorry, I somehow totally missed that post.  Must have been when I was on vacation or something.

Kheoghtem's ointment cures the disease, and Borimer and Shapfren begin to feel better as it starts to work.  They also feel a slight healing.  (It works as a cure light wounds, per the spell.  It also neutralizes poison.)

Here is the house rule again for cure light wounds:

Healing Spells:
 The Cure Light Wounds will heal 25% of recipient's original hit points (minimum 4, rounded down), the Cure Serious will heal 50% of Original (minimum 9, rounded down), and the Cure Critical heals 75% (minimum 18, rounded UP). The Heal spell stays the same, including all the disease and blindness healing, because it is basically a heal 100%.
 

This probably fully heals both Borimer and Shapfren, but I didn't do the math.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:42, Thu 05 Sept 2013.

Borimer stretches and takes a deep breath of appreciation.  "I'm feelin' the healin' now." He listens to the tunnels for a moment while peering through the pale glow of the walls for any signs of movement. "I say if they're not back soon we go looking for them."

As if calling them from the darkness, Mal and Leo return.  They have someone following behind them.  It is a human, darkly dressed, who seems a little suspicious, yet also relieved.

He says, "My name is Lukas Rimshaw.  We also came from Tienna via one of the portals, though we have lost count of the days we have been here.  This was one of our companions."  He indicates the corpse against the wall.  "He and several others were taken ill by some disease in this cave.  One was killed by..."  He sees the dead giant winged viper.  "...by one of those."

He points down the tunnel from where they just came.  "I have two more companions still alive, but they have been trapped for days by a cave in.  With all of us together, I am sure we can free them.  They are hungry and weary, and we are all in danger in these caves."

"How far are your friends from here? You're sure they're still alive?"

Rather than relaxing Borimer tightens his resolve to stay alert for danger, or betrayal.

Lukas tells you that they are probably about 5 to 10 minutes away at a quick pace through the caves.

"I say we go and get them out, the more the better against these serpent creatures, not to mention giants."

"I'm afraid to go if there are more of these  things, but they don't desrve to be left to their own devices" says Shapfren while getting back on her feet, she then sheates the sword and prepares her instrument not wanting to be caught making the same mistake again

"Lead the way Lukas.  My name is Tahldar.  I will do my best to help your friends, though I think my powerful new friend Borimer here might be of more use to you.  Yes he may be short a hand, but I'm sure that won't slow him down."

"Had I more time and materials I might be able to think of something a blacksmith could craft for you, Borimer, which could fit over your stump and act like a new hand, or perhaps even a secondary weapon, like a hook or dagger." Kahan states to the warrior, feeling a bit more than responsible for fixing his missing hand problem even though he had nothing to do with it. "But yes, we should find your companions before more of them perish here." he agrees.

"would you be able to use that stone shaping you had done earlier?" Leo asks the mage who performed it before.

You walk through the tunnels, with Lukas leading the way.

Finally, you get to the cave in, which occurred at a point where the tunnel narrowed.  Rocks and boulders are everywhere.  Two humans are pinned inside but do not appear worse for wear.  Their arms are free but their legs and torsos are pinned between the leaning rocks.

One is a paladin, who introduces himself as Hatchman.  The other is a ranger, who introduces himself as Donovan Redmond.  They are behind a wall of rocks that has collapsed, so you can't physically touch them or pull them, but they can talk to you.  The giant rocks are leaning against each other, so they create pockets, but moving them the wrong way could result in makig the rocks collapse and crush the two humans.

"Where's a damn dwarf when you need one...anyone have an idea of how to start moving these rocks?"

Borimer eyes the rubble and tries to determine the best way to free them.

"Moving them in a non-crushing manor would be my preference.  It would be great to get out of here before we get eaten."

"Well I can only think of maybe making htem slippery and hope that helps them to get away and maybe conjure a servant made of force, but I'm afraid it won't have much strength and won't be able to hold the boulders. Why can't we try the reshaping trick again?"

"I can make the rocks smaller, or larger if need be.  I can also make those trapped smaller or larger too.  I can grease up a boulder or those trapped.  Though I don't like any of these plans.  I think the best bet is we take our time and dig them out, testing the rocks as we go so we can try to safely open up a space to get them out.  Even better if we had some wood to shore things up as we remove rocks, but I don't know where any might be."

"If you can shrink them down, then perhaps they could move without wiggling the rocks about."  He looks at the trapped people and shakes his head.  "Or I can aways try just moving the rocks..."

OOC: What happens with the rocks will primarily be determined by random dice rolling, depending on your choices and skills, which will add or take away from the roll.

"I like that fellow's idea of slowly trying to dig us out," Donovan offers indicating Tahldar.

"Is there one us here who would care to lead the digging effort?  I will be little help in this endeavor I am afraid.  I have little skill in engineering or mining and I am not all that strong either.  But I can keep myself prepared with a reduce spell in case a boulder starts to fall on someone."

Shae will throw her limited muscles into the endeavor.

Kahan looks at the situation for a time, staying quiet as the others discuss the best course of action. "If need be I could create a trough underneath the rocks for them to fall down, but it won't be an immediate fix like a Reduce spell would be. That is unfortunately the only likely purpose my magical repertoire could serve." he observes, as he prepares to help the digging situation, carefully planning which rocks should be moved when.

"how large an area can you impact? Could you reduce most of the rocks on top of them so they are not so large or heavy and easier to remove w/o causing harm to those underneath?"

OOC: It seems to me that a combination trough and reduce spell (on the PCs) would have the highest degree of success of any of the ideas I've heard so far.

OOC:  Reduce will affect one object only.  At his casting level the object will shrink by 70%.  Tahldar is willing to cast as many as two reduce spells.

Percentages of success:

Trough and reduce spells: 90% per person
Moving rocks: 75% per person (+5% if they are made slippery)

If you have other ideas, I'll assign a percentage chance of success.  Failure will result in a roll on a table of crushing effects, which will in part be based on how much a saving throw is made or missed by each individual.

Borimer prepares to move a lot of rocks...

ready to lift whatever needs to be moved if someone wants to direct the effort, otherwise we are left with borimer's 8 int and 8 wis :)

Kahan will confer with the others about which rocks to move first, attempting to get the largest out of the way after he makes the trough on the floor.

Kahan makes the trough and Tahldar casts two reduce spells.  The two humans begin to make their way out of the rocks through the trough, their bodies reduced tremendously in size.  Then the rocks begin to shift because the trough has taken away a part of their foundation.  Hatchman barely jumps through before the rocks come crashing down behind them.

(Both made it out safely.  The last roll was really close (87% rolled).)

In their high, squeaky, miniaturized voices, the two humans give thanks.

"Many thanks new friends.  Are you from this ... uh ... place?"

Shae says, "No, we are from Tienna.  We had to escape before the world blew up.  This is our first time on Allevia.  What about you?"

As you begin introducing yourselves to each other, there is a cracking and crumbling sound.  You look over just in time to see the mountain of rocks and rubble collapse around the trough Kahan had created, producing an explosive thunderous sound and making the ground shake.  You are quite sure the noise has echoed throughout the caves.

"We need to move as I'm afraid that woke up the entire mountain." Tahldar says, stating the obvious, as he dusts off his elven finery that make up his clothes.  Looking to the newcomers he adds "Which way?"

Here is a map of the caves so far:



The three humans just encountered can tell you they came from the south (where you just came from) but they can't remember the exact path in the twists and turns.  However, they can tell you that the point where they entered from the portal was at a point that climbed down and where they heard the giants (from which they fled).

The effect of the caving in of the cave in is that now the pile of rubble is low enough that you can climb over the top of it to get to the northeast side if you want.  In other words, you can continue to the northeast or go back the way you came.

"I say we continue this direction for now, get away from giants and-winged whatevers, heal up."

"sounds good to me....want me to scout ahead again?" Leo asks the group.

"I agree.  Let's pick our way through and hasten away from this cave in." Tahldar says in agreement with Borimer's suggestion.

"I say we skip scouting until we get past the cave in a little ways.  It would not do if we remain here while you scouted ahead and it caved in again and separated us." he adds in response to Leogold.

"Oh I didn't mean for you to stay behind. I meant for me to be a head abit moving to scout while you all traveled slllloooooowwwwly behind me giving me enough room to make sure I find who ever is there first, before they see or find us. See?"

Shae says, "I see two possibilities.  We can move forward into unheard of territory or try to backtrack to where these three humans came in.  They seem to know where the giants were at, and I'm guessing the giants know the way out.  If we move forward, we may find the way out ourselves since these humans apparently came through some sort of portal like we did and also haven't seen the light of day."  She will follow the others forward but wanted to get that idea out there.  "Also, the paper on that dead human seemed to have been marking the way they came in, so it might also help show us the way back."

Shae pets her new bat pet and uses her spear like a walking stick.  She will crawl over the rubble with everyone else if that's the plan.

"I'm more of the opinion of going to the place we don't know anything off yet instead of going to the place were we know giants roam"

Borimer listens to the others and nods.

"Shae makes sense, and if we can't find our own way out then going back where the others came from is our path. But I'm curious as to what lies beyond the cave in, and we need to rest and regroup before running into those giants. What if we go ahead past the rubble with Leo forward as scout?"

"Maybe we should use the rocks to block the path into ere just in case?"

"That would be good, I can do it after everyone's through."

Borimer prepares to guard the others as they move through the rubble, and then pass beyond himself. He will then cover the hole with rocks before resuming the original marching order (Leo scouting forward, followed by himself, and then the others).

Leo, nods to the rest then slips quietly over the rocks and moves ahead of the party, scouting slowly and carefully ahead keeping to the shadows created by the crystals light source.