Yes, the gnome headed north.

Hatchman scouts out the area and maps out the below map.  You are in the area directly above the black area (which is blocked off by the heavy door).

The "freezer" section is the two long east-west hallways with the round room in the center.  The large area to the west of the "freezer" and the round room to the far south appear to be well lived-in areas where the giants lived.  They appear to have taken their things and left.  There are some marked graves where giants apparently buried their dead after visperillion attacks.  There are also two more corpses of the giant, stealthy winged vipers, as well as broken weapons, mainly spears, that are definitely giant-sized.  The large area to the west of the freezer similarly has porous holes in the ceiling and shows signs of having fires burnt there and many old gatherings before the place was abandoned.  The southernmost round room appears to be where they slept.  The remnants of straw sleeping places abound there.

Borimer examines Hatchman's map.

"Looks like we need to head north...maybe he's going to the ascending(?) tunnel in the far northeast of the map."

Didit snarks "wait you mean the path I suggested we took in the first place back when none of us was sick and dying?" she sighed "uff, I swear I'm no cut to be in these kind of situations, I should be on a palace being tended by servants and only worrying about keeping the traditions of my people alive and letting my seniors do the decisions"

"We could try that tunnel, though we'll have to climb up to it.  Which seeing how he is old I suspect he would have trouble doing so.  I'm thinking he might have a secret place that he uses that we haven't found yet." Tahldar says in reply to Borimer.

"Are any of us trackers?  We could try trailing his tracks from where we saw him last."

OOC:  If one of us can track, I suggest we all search for secret doors as we try to follow his tracks.  Starting from the point we saw him last and moving along the north tunnel.  With the tracker in front if we have one.  If we don't find anything then try the tunnel in the NE corner we haven't gone down yet.

Shae says, "I don't think we elves or half-elves are typically all that adept at tracking, particularly indoors.  I can shapeshift up to 3 times per day, but I'm more of an outdoors mountain druid than one who likes being caught in dark, deep tunnels.  We still haven't looked south of here.  It might not take long to see what's trapped behind that door if we use Borimer's strength."  She flashes googly eyes at the warrior.  "Who knows what secrets the giants left behind here."

Borimer blushes at both of the women's words, not sure which embarrasses him more.  "I'll go south if we want to...or north...um-"  He busies himself checking his armor and weapons for combat readiness.

Kahan says a quick prayer for Malissin, feeling regretful that his healing magics couldn't save him but knowing there was little left for him to do. Following after the others, he gives Didit a stern look after she complains of her place in life. "Do you think any of us want to be here? I was supposed to be making my way to a village that had a need for medical supplies before I was taken hostage by giant acid-spewing beasts who aimed to eat me. We've been through hell and back, some of us literally, narrowly escaped an erupting volcano, had to kill a black dragon and a giant purple worm along with a huge turtle, only to have all of our magical items unenchanted by Augmantium. We've been battered, beat, and almost killed on countless cases, and you have the nerve to complain about our pathfinding decisions? I understand being a little frustrated, but nobody's perfect. You're going to have to learn to deal with it or you won't last here. Trust me." the priest replies, clearly not in the mood to deal with snarkiness after losing yet another companion. "But yes, I agree with the concensus of which direction we should head." he adds.

Not wishing to decide which direction to go after where it got him last time, Redmond keeps quiet.  When Tahldar enquirers about tracking, he speaks up.  "I can try and track him, though indoors and after all this time it will be difficult."

The party begins trying to track down the gnome, leaving the heavy door to the south closed, along with the secrets of whatever lay within...

You head north.  The rock floors give you little idea where he went, but in going back to the cave to the west that had the water and the quicksand, you don't see any trail of him, and he probably would have left footprints there.

You then go to the northeastern cavern with the passage leading way to the southeast.  Here you find a broken piece of clay-like earth that must have broken off the wall recently.  It appears your emaciated gnomish friend scaled the wall.

There are ridges in the wall that someone skilled in climbing could handle fairly easily.  Otherwise, you'd need a rope or something to get up to the exiting tunnel.

"I think I'm going there again" said Shapfren "anybody has rope I can tie to my waist and then to a suitable place once I'm up?"

Borimer hands Shapfren some sturdy rope.

standard 50' rope

"Let me give it a go"  Lukas took one end of the rope and tucked it through his belt and studied the wall for a few moments noting where the good hand and foot hole were.  Lukas rubbed his hands together to help heat them up before beginning the climb.

Lukas makes it safely to the overhead ledge and ties down the rope to allow everyone else to climb up.  The tunnel before him climbs steeply upward, turning slightly.  He can't see very far down.  Like the other tunnels, it is very large, wide and tall -- a good size for giants.

While waiting on the others to climb up, Lukas decided to go have a further look of the tunnel especially whats around the turn.  He tells the first that reaches the top, "I'll be right back"  He scurried up the sloping tunnel a bit further

Borimer curses and lifts himself up the last few feet with his one remaining hand.  He stands guard while the others finish climbing and Lukas scouts ahead.

Lukas scouts out ahead.  The passage climbs and curves for a ways and then opens into another giant-sized roundish cavern.  This one has exits to the north, northeast, and southeast.

Like the others, this cavern is abandoned.  Luckily, it is not a stone floor.  It is carpeted with a gentle, smooth sand like at a beach.  You see gnome-sized feet going north.

The rest of the party reaches the top of the ledge and joins Lukas at the edge of the large cavern.

Borimer waits for the others to assemble before leading the way in pursuit of the gnome.

Without missing a beat, Borimer leads the others north.  The gnome apparently did not go far into the large roundish room but instead headed close to the western wall to go north.  You follow.

After a short hike, the cavern widens into an extremely large cavern running east to west.  On the north and south sides of the large cavern are ledges running along its side.  You stand on the southern ledge.  Over the ledge, there is approximately a 50 foot drop to rocks and a shallow streambed.  The stream seems to come from a small entry point to the east and to collect and drain through the rocks on the west side, forming a small pool from which the giants apparently extracted water.  It is a strong stream with a heavy flow into the pool.

Two large rope ladders, far larger than human sized yet usable nonetheless, hang over the east side of the ledge toward the stream entrance.  Two identical ladders hang over the north side.  Empty sconces of giant proportions line the walls both at the top of the ledges and near the stream bottom, each one about 8 feet off the ground.

From where you stand, there is no discernable exit, unless the gnome climbed upstream through the hole at the bottom of the east wall.

You lose track of the gnome footprints at the nearest ladder.  He apparently went down.

(NOTE: You will need to make a dexterity check to successfully use the large rope ladders due to their size.  Small characters must roll at a -1.  Rogues may use a wall climb check with a 15% bonus instead.  If you climb up the hole to go upstream, modifiers will also apply there.)


This message was last edited by the GM at 00:03, Tue 03 Dec 2013.

"I won't make it down safely I'm afraid." Tahldar says as he looks dubiously at the rope ladder.  "Can someone lower me down via rope?" he asks of his group.

Also, if you miss your dexterity check, you will need to roll a d100.  Every 2 rolled is how many feet you fall, rounded up.  Example: If you roll a 40, you fall 20 feet; if you roll 100, you fall all 50 feet.  So even if you fall, you might not get hurt, or you might get very hurt.

can borimer lower him down by wrapping the rope around his one forearm and using his one hand from the other arm? if not he is probably strong enough(?) to lower tahldar down using only one arm and hand

He can do that.  This is not a major game issue at the moment.  Just remember that what goes down must go up -- at least in this case maybe?

Borimer considers the situation.

"Do we want to continue following the gnome or do something else?  Head back and check out that other giant door?  I'm good with whatever we choose, but the trail here is getting a bit harder."

Lukas made his way over the edge getting down on his belly.  He look down to the area down below looking for signs of activity.

Perhaps only some of us could look on a bit further.