Kahan grins a little, dinging his mace against his magical plate mail armor. "I'm a fair bit sturdier than I look. As far as taking a blow, I think our other poorly armored companions would need protecting before myself. Would you mind taking a rear guard position until we find these giants you spoke of? Those visperillions are sneaky and quite deadly." the priest replies, not trying to be rude to anyone as he speaks quietly.

As Leo is tracking along the right side, he suddenly feels a lurch forward as he is plunged waist deep into the sand.  It feels like it is moving all around him, and that's when he realizes it is quicksand.

The party is about 100 feet behind him.  The quicksand is about 20-30 feet from the edge of the water in what appeared to be fairly sturdy land, but apparently the water has some sort of underground deposit or aquifer that has created quicksand along the furthest side.

Borimer does not detect anything strange about the water.  If anything, it appears to be quite clear and clean.  It bubbles up in ripples in the central area as fresh water is pumped to the surface.

"Perhaps we should try to swim?. If there is water there is a chance it came from a passage underwater"

"Can you get out Leogold?  Do you need us to throw you a rope?" Tahldar says as he sees the man get mired in muck.

Borimer takes out his rope and, after securing one end around his arm-stump, he uses his other hand to pull Leo out of the quicksand.

if it seems that the rope is not secure, he will wrap it around his waist instead and then use his one good hand

Leo grabs the offered rope and attempts to not struggle against it or the quicksand to allow Borimer to pull him free.

Leo is pulled out safely.  You are not sure how far the quicksand extends on the south side of the water.  The north side looks rockier and less likely to have much sand.

Shae will walk along the north wall, wary of any traps, secret doors, or other dangers.  She uses her spear to prod around the ground and wall as she goes.

Borimer puts away his rope and resumes his guard duty, keeping en eye on Shae's progress along the north bank.

Redmond realizes that he's smaller than he's been in a long time and takes a position in the back, for now.

Leo attempts to get the sand and water out of most of his gear while the others explore. Pulling his boots off and comically dumping out tons of sand and water.

The northern path appears to be clear.  Shae makes it all the way across without incident.

Borimer moves along the north wall to investigate the eastern part of the cavern, still wary of the water.

Shapfren went too, staying alert for any weird noise coming fro the water and ready to help Borimer should he slip or slide.

Tahldar moves north with the others, keeping his back against the north wall as far away from the water as possible.  As he moves he keeps a wary elven eye out for anything that might lie hidden along the north wall.

OOC:  I'll scan for secret doors as I move along the north wall.  I'll do this as the others investigate the way ahead.

After Leo has gotten most of the water and sand out of his clothing and gear he re-equips and moves to his scouting position following the northern route instead of the dangerous southern route. He is slow and cautious this time, almost like he is concerned about pressure plates and other floor traps. He presses lightly with his foot on each forward step keeping most of his weight and balance on his back leg to avoid any more surprises with quicksand until he makes it to the far side of the cavern and the opening exiting from it.

Everyone makes it back safely to the east side.  The primary difference between the northern and southern shores is that the northen shore was more rocky, with more stalagmites to weave around, so it takes longer to cross.  The south side was more sandy and easy to cross -- up until the quicksand.  You keep these things in mind in case you ever have to make a hasty retreat.

You move forward to the east.  The cave here is the widest you've seen, 50 or more yards wide and half as tall.  After a straight stretch, a slightly narrower cavern breaks out to your right (south).  It is about 20 yards across.  The wide cavern continues forward.

"I'll keep guard if anyone wants to check out the cavern."

Borimer leaves that initial exploration to those more qualified to find something noteworthy.

From what you can see from its edge, it is another tunnel that will lead you to further choices of which way to go.  (It is not a dead end cavern, in other words.)

"What say we continue straight forward for a bit?" Borimer asks his companions.

Hatchman says, "THat sounds good to me."  As a paladin, he will stand up in the front of the group by Borimer.

Kahan follows behind the paladin, glad to have another party member of the faith with them. "Perhaps we should keep track of which way we go, for future reference?" the priest suggests.

"Good idea, maybe you or someone else could do it...I can't really write much these days..." Borimer raises his shield-strapped stump.

You continue forward.  Soon, another tunnel branches off to your right, and just ahead of it is a large, round cavern.  The large round cavern is fairly dark, but you can see that it has another tunnel about 30 feet off the ground that climbs to the southeast.  The ceiling in the round cavern is about 100 feet high, it seems, as it disappears into darkness overhead.

(NOTE: For purposes of clarity, we can call the three right branching tunnels, tunnel 1, tunnel 2 and tunnel 3.  Tunnel 3 is the one that climbs to the southeast.)

OOC: For moving forward, you can turn down tunnel 1 (which was in the last post) or tunnel 2, explore the large round cavern, or try to climb up to the southeast sloping tunnel.


This message was last edited by the GM at 22:25, Thu 19 Sept 2013.

Borimer continues following Leo into the far cavern.