Inas gazed into the gloom, trying to acclimatise his eyes to the darkness. He scanned around, trying to spy movement. As the others discussed possible inhabitants he joined in. "I doubt the lizardfolk live down here. They need sunlight and warmth to survive; I see precious little of either down here. We should be careful, I doubt our presence will be welcomed here."

"They seemed pretty happy living the tunnels of that Ziggawhoozits. Plus down here they would have water, that's pretty important for living too..."

"Two ways to find out I guess," Eagle muses. "Either we go and ask the lizard men, or we go down and explore. I favour the first option, but since we're here, I suspect others will think otherwise. . .

"So the question is, how do we scout it? I am happy to take the form of a bat again and flutter down to explore, or follow others."

"I can use my magic to cloak us in invisibility; either Eagle alone or all of us though I remind you we'd have to stick close to each other in the latter case." Saliq explained.

Norion stares out in the twilight of underground, "By tha' gods, a whole city, tis beautiful is it naught?" His voice is soft and in awe of the sight.


"Yes, could be dark dwarves, an' they'd 'ave no need ta light their city, nor likely would demons, which given tha' name ov the stone above seems a possibility, but ah dinna ever here of demons building cities but they could have captured one, anyways, don't imagine that the darkness in the city doesn't mean it isn't fully occupied.  What if we sent an invisible bat doon there to look around and then come back and we can decide if this is worth a closer look, or whether we are best to back up, seal that hole, and keep this place our secret till we are better equipped ta' handle it. Dunna get me wrong, ah have a strong desire to go and see it close up, but also one ta live awhile longer...."

"An invisible bat would cause more concern then a regular, no? If someone hears it and can't see, that would cause concern, but I think a regular bat wouldn't be much of a surprise."

Rath gives a tired smirk and a nod of approval. Ben makes a good point.

Saliq sighed and looked deflated but nodded nonetheless.

In reply to Saliq Musfara (msg # 12):

"Interesting, ah never thought much about magic but the more you learn ,
First bats are silent when they fly, have t a be they see with their ears, squeaks
And hear the echoes, can't have their wings deafening themselves, dwarves
Know that, but does yer invisible blind all kinds ov light, even us who can
See Ina dark, and thems who can see heat, that's the question"

"Bats hear the sound the send out reflected back Norion, if they were silent, they would be essentially blind."

Rath shakes his head, confounded. "Wait. You see heat?" He scratches himself on the neck and glances to Saliq. "Does your spell help with that?"

Eagle looks confused by the conversation. 'Surely if you're not using vision to see something, then it doesn't matter either way if I'm invisible, as you're using a different sense in the first place? So regardless of whether the magic works against that other sense, there'd be no suspicion either way?. . .' He trails off.

'Enough of this,' he says more firmly. 'I will take my chances as I find them. Even if something sees me, it still has to catch me. . .' With that he stands still, concentrates for a moment, and then his body starts to transform into a small black bat. If Saliq makes a move to cast his spell he will wait for it, but if not he will flutter off.


OOC: Eagle will cautiously approach the city, trying to stay close to the side of the cavern, but checking the walls as he goes attempting not to fly past any open caves into the side of the cavern.

Eagle flutters off into the gloom, staying close to the cavern's walls, and begins his reconnaissance of the strange underground city.

The city seems completely lifeless and abandoned, for there is no activity anywhere to be seen. Gliding in for a closer look, Eagle finally sees evidence that something lived here at one time. Decaying bodies!

More specifically, the mostly rotted-away corpses of what appears to be dwarves are found lying on catwalks or atop bridges spanning between city platforms. Something happened here, though it is not immediately clear what calamity befell these humanoids.

Eagle cautiously flutters in closer, seeing if he can 'see' any windows or whatever using his bat senses.

Inas stood in silence, waiting for batman to return. He stared deep into the gloom, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Eagle detects several windows scattered about the underground city, some open, others not. Save for the fact this city is located deep underground, it is in all other respects, very much a normal city complete with windows, doors and other effects.

The underground fortress is divided into four distinct structures, two of which lie closest to the heroes' awaiting Eagle's return, near the stone double-door. The other two lie further behind the two lead structures, one of which is high up off the cavern floor, with seemingly no access to reach those lofty heights. Of course, this is no concern for Eagle, while in bat form.

The bottom three structures rise off the cavern floor some 30 feet and are connected by sturdy stone bridges. The fourth structure sits atop a platform at least 100 feet higher than the cavern floor.

Rather than being similar to a city, this underground dwelling is more akin to an underground fortress. Each ward contains but a single door granting access within, with very few, if any, windows at ground level and few windows even higher. Whomever once dwell in this cheerless place apparently took no pleasure in the outlying scenery.

The doors to the bottom three wards are cast wide open, within each is a grand hall littered with dwarven bodies here or there. Various hallways and corridors lead off of each of these halls, though without a thorough investigation, what lies beyond will remain a mystery.

The west wing contains the most bodies and there is a powerful stench of acid within that hall. Nothing stirs as Eagle approaches each open threshold.

The ward located near the cavern's ceiling contains no doors or windows: it is merely a stone fortress perched high above the others, with seemingly no way to breach its walls.

OOC: I posted a general map showing the general lay of the cavern. Hopefully the above information provided enough for you to work off of. Take a look at the picture I posted in the opening thread as well, that should give you a good idea of what the place looks like. Kind of a complicated place to describe without being too wordy.

Eagle takes it all in, particularly the stench of acid, before flying back to the party, where he transforms back into his usual self and reports on what he has found.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:32, Thu 20 Feb 2014.

In reply to Eagle (msg # 22): "Did you peek over the top of the high one? I'm guessing that's where the best treasure is..." The little thief's eye gitter with greed at the thought...

There was a glitter in Saliq's eye too.  "An entire city... think of it my friends if we could secure this place we would have a great stronghold of our own to store our treasures and people with our followers."

Rath glances at Bruno and Monvo, imagining them peopling the city. It is not a satisfying thought. He looks up at the dark ceiling. "Never to see the sun, Wizard?" He shrugs. "But at least we'd never be rained on."

Norion listens with gathering worry, "Dwarves, by the gods, ah hope not, but either way, if they are Duergar, they too thought this a safe fortress....ah must know..." he takes a deep breathe, and begins his way down the trails to the city.

With a shrug Ben follows, hoping to hear the Eagles answer to his question as they head down to the City of Death! He also begins to hum dramatic sounding scary music...

The party makes its way along the well-worn stone path leading to the underground fortress ahead. A carpet of giant toadstools rise up to the group's left, proof that life of some sort may flourish in this desolate realm.

The group walks along for about 100 yards when someone, perhaps Ben or Inas, notices a squat humanoid creature kneeling between the shadows of two large mushrooms about 50 feet off of the trail.

The humanoid's back is turned to the heroes, but it appears as though the humanoid is armed with a crossbow and has the weapon drawn and raised toward the some point in the darkness above.

The humanoid gives no indication it is aware of the heroes' presence. Rather, it stands quite still, seemingly fixated on whatever target might be lurking somewhere above.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 28):

OOC: Did Eagle peek over the top of the top fortress? I would have assumed he would have in my general 'flutter around and investigate without risk' instruction, and the description of the insides you gave was generic to all four quarters, but now Ben asks the question it occurs that maybe I didn't!

Eagle stops as they see the humanoid, and hangs back, unsure how to best approach this threat.