XP:

Some of you are not participating much, even in the battles.  Please participate more, and you will get more XP along the way (and survive longer).


You gather your strength and begin to plan your next action.  Here is the last map of your current location.



You are in the main cavern (with all the exits):

"In the main cavern, you see a tunnel heading to the west, and as you circle it around in a counterclockwise direction, you find what appear to be two stone doors, one heading west and one heading south.  The stone doors appear to be enormously heavy, and each is connected to a pulley similar to the one by the pit you crawled out of.  Even use of the pulley appears to require significant strength, and this again gives you the thought of giants.  The pulley and door do not appear to have been used recently.  The south door is somewhat larger than the western one.  The west door is about 10 feet wide by 20 feet tall.  The south door is about 20 feet wide by 15 feet tall.  (So south is wide and squat while the western is tall and thin.)"


Junar had fled up to the north.  He was the gnome you spoke to before the screech brought the mother visperillion to you.  The room with the crack to the visperillion eggs was in the northeastern dead end room shaped like a hammer.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:56, Thu 14 Nov 2013.

"If someone will check out the western passage I'll see about the west door."  Borimer sizes up the west door and his own ability to open it.  But then he thinks about it further.  "This door doesn't look to have been used in a while, maybe someone could check it for traps first?"

OOC: Sorry, guys, you should be posting here now.  Also, please make sure to update your characters with the experience points above.  If you level up, let me know.

Malissin checks and finds no traps in the western door.

Chances are, Borimer could single handedly open the western door with some effort, or more easily with some help.  It will take 2-3 people to open the larger southern door.

Hatchman investigates the doors.  They do have faded writing on them, etched long ago.  The writing appears to be in a foreign tongue, probably of giantish origin.  You guess that because the letters appear very large so that it looks almost like a scrawled picture or large scratches than writing.

The doors and pulleys also appear worn, as though they were used quite frequently in times past.  Given your overall view of this area, whatever group lived in these caves apparently used this area for group settings and get-togethers.

You also find giant sized footprints walking around the dirt parts of the areas near the doors, 20-24 inches long on average.  The rest of the floor is mostly bare rock, but you can see the footprints -- now faded -- at certain points.

"Which way did that gnome take off? Gonna open this door now..."

Borimer opens the west door.

Borimer struggles and pushes, and the western door opens.  It was tightly sealed, and you see that some sort of rubberized bee pollen or something was helping seal it.  He is immediately hit by a cold rush of air.  The heavy stone door opens onto a smooth stone corridor that is freezing cold.

It is dark beyond.  There are not even the purplish-pink crystals that add a soft glow to the rest of the caverns around you.

Kahan shines his torch down the corridor to see if there is anything inside.

Answering Borimer's question, Donovan says, "the gnome ran to the north."

The torch reveals shadows.  The inside of the tunnel has ice around its floors, and the shadows reveal what appear to be bodies deeper within.

Hatchman goes in for a closer look at the bodies.  His sword is ever ready.  Whatever was back here was locked with a heavy door, and it must be dangerous.

"Is continuing on a wise idea?" Tahldar as Hatchman enters the chamber.  "I am out of spells and will be unable to help if we find ourselves in another jam like the battle we just finished.  And Malissin is poisoned.  I am of the opinion we should seek the Gnome to see if he can help him, or backtrack to the room with the healing waters to see if lowering him can cure him."

"Continuing may be folly.  This chamber was sealed and contains many bodies.  Usually one does not make the effort to seal a chamber unless something must be kept within.  And by the look of things I would say that whatever must be kept inside is harmful.  To say the least.  I say close it back up and come back to investigate when we are more at full strength."

Keeping a safe distance from the now opened door and it's grisly denizens, Tahldar waits to see what they will do next.

As Hatchman steps in, he finds what the bodies are.  They are some sort of meat storage by the giants who lived in these caves.  The bodies are generally of cattle and other beasts.  They are skinned and stacked.  Some hang from the ceiling.  At the far end of the corridor, which like the others is tall and wide, there is another sealed door that locks in the cold.

Borimer's stomach growls when told of hanging meat in the giant's food chasm.  Still, he nods at Tahldar's words.

"We're not strong right now, I think we need to find that gnome."

Shae says, "Maybe this is a sign from the gods that we should eat.  We have been provided food.  We can rest, eat, and get our energy and spells back to full strength.  There may even be something of value beyond the larger locked door to the south.  Or maybe we can lock ourselves in and then rest in safety.  These are all possibilities.  If we chase after the gnome, we may be running into even more danger at the moment.  I vote we stay here, have a hearty meal, and rest.  Then we find the gnome.  What say you?"

"Our companion requires healing and the gnome may be able to help us.  Otherwise this chasm is as good a place as any to hole up for a while I think, once we're sure it's clear of danger anyway..."

"We can rest first, then find the gnome.  He likely will still be trapped in here too.  If your friend becomes weaker, we should look sooner."

"Resting now seems like a good idea, besides wouldn't Shae be able to prepare something for the poison given enough rest? And since I'm been there being constantly moved around while in that condition won't help him at all"

The meat appears well preserved, though it has obviously been frozen for many months.

You realize as you get a big picture sense of the area you are in that this was a gathering place for the giants before they were driven from the cave system by the visperillion spawning.  It appears an earthquake or some disturbance caused a crack in the large round room that allowed the visperillion to get through, leading to the killing or driving away of the giants from this area of the cave system.

It is obvious that this large area was for gathering, and that the large round area (where the crack in the wall was) was an area used for fires and cooking.  Hence, the pores and cracks in the ceiling were used to let the smoke escape.  They would obviously bring preserved meat to that area and cook it.  You don't know what is south of the large heavy door, but you imagine it has something to do with fitting into that lifestyle.

OOC: SHapfren asked what has happened since the hole.  You simply opened the heavy door to the west and found that it was a large freezer area with stored animal meat.  The enemies are all destroyed.

"This seems like the wisest course of action to me."

Borimer watches for any signs of ambush.

OOC:  I'm assuming (without checking) that you have more than 100 feet of rope.

The party backtracks to the hole where you all first appeared in.  As you travel, you start to put some pieces together.  The first group that was rescued from under the rubble was trapped by some sort of cave in after the giants apparently lived here peaceably for some time without incident.  Then there was something months earlier that caused the rift and opened the cracks that let the visperillion viper creatures get into the giants' "lair" and drive them out.  So there has been very unusual seismic activity (however your characters think of that concept) happening recently.

You carefully crawl back over the rubble that had collapsed on the first group, and get yourselves down into the hole where you started.  The healing waters there heal all of you, except they seem to have no effect on Malissin's disease.  (Everyone is back to normal hit points.)

OOC: Are you resting for the night here or doing something else?