"That was a tremendous contribution, lad", said the beautiful priestess, smiling warmly at the child. "We'll be able to take them by surprise by going through here. Thank you." She pressed a gold coin into his palm.

Kyler listens carefully to the conversation, both to the said and unsaid. Different people interact as well as respond to stress differently. He finds it all very interesting.

He absently lets his mace sway in his arm a bit too caught up in the exchange to pay all that much attention to his surroundings.

Try as he might to make going back to the inn sound like a good plan for the kid it may have fell flat. So he was glad that the ladies also added their own words of encouragement. There was nothing more empowering for a young man than bolstering words from beautiful woman.

"So, no sneaky kinds, huh?" Mithra mumbles.

"That's okay; never liked sneaking around myself. Direct and forthright, that's me!"

"Maldor, you and me go in first then. I'd have included you, Bear, but we don't know what kind of tunnels these are. Wouldn't want you to get stuck halfway in while the Redbrands beat on you, know what I mean?"

She steps forward and with a quick swing of her arm, pushes the covering bushes aside and steps into the darkness, half expecting to be attacked while her eyes adjust.

Maldor glanced at his fighter teammate.

"Go. Good."

He followed Mithra into the tunnel.

Artem rushed to be in the second rank, knowing he was best up front and not stuck in the middle. "Bad guys, here we come!" he said in an excited whisper.

Kyler joins in with the second rank barring anyone else appearing eager to go there.

Serena goes in the middle, where her mid-range and support abilities could best be brought to bear.

Ero follows along after his more well-armored companions.  He takes a nervous glance behind.  "Shouldn't we have someone guarding our flank?" he asks.

"If you insist," Bear says to Mithra. He obviously wasn't too happy not being up front, but he knew well enough to concede to someone else's wisdom.

Bear and Kyler try to go in at the same time. "Please, allow me to go first. Should something happen, I can bear the brunt of an attack. Allow me to prove my worth to your group."

Seeing that the front rank is filling up, Lureene elects to enter just after them, forming a second rank of sorts from where she can cast her spells, heal the warriors in the front rank, or swap into their place as needed.

"You are more than welcome to take my place," Kyler says extending his arm,in response to Bear. "I'm new here too and I'm hoping to make a contribution as well though principally by my knowledge and healing."

He will let Bear take his place and then follow him. "Is it Bear?" he asks. "I'm curious how you got your name - if there is some story that you are ok sharing? Where are you from anyway?"

Kyler realizes that perhaps this isn't the best time for small talk. However, he is quite interested in learning more about Bear. He looked like he was not from any civilized area he had heard of and wondered if he was a barbarian. If so, what was life like growing up in the wilderness?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:45, Mon 21 Sept 2015.

Cunaar takes a place somewhere near Ero in the middle, be in more to the front or back should not make a great difference to him. Only determining his spell selection.
Overall he was ready to battle with a reported ten men plus or minus some but "Sleep" would be his primary choice, silent and effective. Unless elves were hidden below the manor.

"I am from Neverwinter, like many of my people are," Bear welcomingly answers Kyler, though keeping his voice low. "In my tribe, it is custom for mothers to name their sons after the spirits who visit them during childbirth. During my birth, Mother was visited by Great Father Bear. He spoke to her, saying that I will be a man of great stature and glory and that I will bring honor to our tribe."

He turns to look at Kyler with a sly grin. "He certainly wasn't wrong about the stature, was he?"

"I can't imagine your God lying about something like that. Have faith in your God and don't let anyway dissuade you - including yourself! I include you because times may become very difficult and during such times such a prophecy may well nigh seem preposterous. Even so, have faith! Though perhaps the road will be short or easy it may nigh be neither."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:23, Tue 22 Sept 2015.

The tunnel turns out to be rather narrow, wide enough for one person to go through fairly easily. The walls of the tunnel are just ordinary dirt for the first 40 feet before changing into rough-cut stone which goes on for another 60 feet.

After 60 feet, though, you need a light source, but Mithra quickly realizes that there is a dim light up ahead. It's enough to follow the tunnel, but not enough to see well.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, it appears to open up into an irregular cavern that stretches away from you that's around 30 feet wide and maybe 100 feet long. A 10-foot wide, 20-foot deep crevasse runs through the length of the cavern in the middle of floor, just to the right of the tunnel's exit.

A cold breeze wafts through the cavern, carrying a faint smell of decaying flesh. You can see two stone columns holding up the 20-foot ceiling. One is nearby on this side of the crevasse, the other is farther away on the opposite side of the crevasse.

There are also two arched wooden bridges over the crevasse, and the cavern is lit by two torches. One torch is in a niche 15 feet to the left, and the other is near the other end of the cavern.

Two other openings can be seen--one out of the left side of the cavern about 5 feet along that wall, and one out of the right side of the cavern but on the other side of the crevasse.

There might also be another exit at the far end of the cavern; it's hard to tell from here, partly because the stone column on the other side of the crevasse is blocking the view.

"Well. I suppose it was too much to hope for a straight-away path right until we met the Redbrands. Yet the brigands use this path somewhat regularly -- do any of us have any skill at tracking?" says Lureene. "I'm afraid this is quite beyond my ability."

"I'm afraid my studies never provided me such an opportunity though I would definitely like to learn. Has anyone here spent time in the wilderness and learned to live off the land?" he asks looking around. Although he grew up on a farm and hunting was a good supplement to farming, especially during the winter and early spring. Some of his brothers had such skills. His time away from the farm, however, was mostly spent at a small church in his village studying.

“One thing that would help is to have a little more light,” he says muttering to himself. “Would anyone mind if I cast a light spell? I don’t see so well when it’s dim like this.” Barring any objections Kyler will cast a light spell on his shield.

As the glow of light radiates from Kyler shield he walks over to the first bridge looking closely at it without actually getting on it. He then turns towards the crevice.

“Definitely far even down that I would prefer avoiding falling down there,” he says peering down into the crevice. ”I would suggest someone crossing the bridge first to make sure it’s safe and stable.”

“We could also explore this room a little bit first though,” he says looking back from the bridge to the room. ”Might not be a bad idea to see if there is anything down on the far end." Even as he says this, though, he looks at the other party members. He knows he is new and is ready and willing to accede to other ideas or suggestions.

Maldor approached the bridge next to the cleric and studied it.

"Maldor go" the half-orc firmly stated. "If bridge hold Maldor, bridge be good."

And, without waiting for a reply from the others, Mal took his first step.

"Wait Maldor, let me at least take a look at them. Perhaps I can tell which is more used."
Before Maldor steps upon either bridge Cunaar will look closely at them to see if one has more use. In which it might show the safer route.

The second bridge is about 60 feet away. Cunaar would have to walk down there to examine it. The near bridge doesn't look particularly well-used. In fact, it looks rather new.

"A new build....."
Did it pose a threat or just how the Redbrands choose to cross? It would not make sense to build an all new bridge to just trap it....would it.
Cunaar will walk down the way to see if it is also new.

With Maldor willing to cross the bridge to the other opening, Mithra decided someone should accompany Cunaar.

"Keep the noise down," she whispers to the others. "There's no point in alerting the Redbrands."

"Bear, would you mind watching that passage over there on the left? Don't wanna get surprised."

Clearly there was someone here, since there were torches lit. They looked fairly recent. In these tight hallways and rooms, it was going to be hard making use of everyone.

"Aye," he says with a nod. With Reidrbjorn in hand, Bear cautiously steps to the edge of the passage and peers in.

"We could set the bridges ablaze, trapping the Redbrands on the far side," Ero suggests.  "After several days, I surmise they'll be amenable to surrender."