Lureene charges at the bugbear alongside Mithra, mace held high, shield leading the way.

Although the tunnel was a bit tight for him, once Mithra and Lureene moved out of the way, Wendell felt he had enough room to maneuver. It was still a bit cramped for him to use his bow, and he wasn't sure one arrow would take out the bugbear, so he decided to follow Mithra's advice.

His size gave him an advantage for the jump and he was pretty athletic, so he made a short run and leaped over the ravine to attack the bugbear on the other side.

22:07, Today: Wendell rolled 10,9,11 using 1d20+5,1d20+5,1d20+5 ((5,4,6)).

Jump, Jump, Attack.

Not very good rolls. He may have made it across, but he probably only hits the bugbear if it's surprised or distracted.

OOC: You broke the dice roller Wendell!


Suddenly, things started happening fast! Alexia had no warning that Mithra was going to charge ahead, but, then again, she was a warrior; she should have expected that.

As Wendell cleared out of her way, Alexia targeted the bugbear on the far side with an Eldritch Blast.

22:47, Today: StarMaster, on behalf of Alexia Dukard, rolled 17,8 using 1d20+5,1d10+3 ((12,5)).

*sigh* That might hit. Even if it does, it's not doing much damage.

She keeps an eye on how Wendell fares battling that bugbear, but also sees how Mithra, Thressa and Lureene are doing with the two bugbears in the ravine, prepared to fire another Eldritch Blast if it becomes necessary.

The other group, sort of following after Nixon, decide to backtrack and head for the tunnel at the other end. It's a rough-hewn tunnel, too, almost as if it's a continuation of the ledge, and looks like water probably once flowed through it.

It goes 30 feet before suddenly making a sharp right turn onto a short flight of stairs carved out of the stone. They clearly go up to the upper level... the same level where the flaming skull is, but... the skull is in a different cave/room.

This new cavern seems rather large, and you can see a man-made structure built against the right-hand wall. In fact, it looks like it might be two structures--one small and a larger one on the other side of it.

You can just barely see that there's a door on the front of the closer, smaller building.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 913):

Thressa says some magic words and a flame like radiance descends upon the target.

“ Light him up, my Lord ”



Dex Save dc 16 or take 6 radiant damage


This message was last edited by the player at 23:46, Tue 30 Jan 2018.

Victor signaled a halt, pointed at the smaller building, and created a sign in front of Ero: See if Spinner can sneak in.

Mithra's 'death from above' tactic--jumping down on the bugbear--worked just fine. The creature was caught completely by surprise. Bugbear and warrior went down in a flailing heap. Mithra's sword strike may not have killed him, but when his head bounced off the rocky floor, he stopped moving.

Alexia's spell may not have done much damage to the bugbear boss, but it was enough to keep him from attacking Wendell when Wendell just barely managed to jump across the ravine. His swing at the bugbear missed, but due to Alexia's spell, he got another free shot at it. He made the second one count. The backswing with his handaxe not only caught the bugbear by surprise, but knocked him forward and into the ravine. Wendell followed up the swing by jumping down on top of the bugbear.

Thressa's first spell seriously softened up the second bugbear that was down in the ravine, and Lureene's follow up attack finished him off.

Thressa's second spell was directed at the bugbear Wendell was still fighting. It failed its saving throw, and the damage finished it off.


Down on the other end tunnel, Spinner scuttled over to the small building and looked inside, as the door was hanging half off its hinges. The room was empty but looked like something nasty had happened in the room, as there were scorch marks on the walls.

Mithra regained her feet as quickly as she could, looked around for more enemies, and the gestured to the others to be quiet as she listened to see if anyone might have been alerted by the brief battle.

The bugbears had been digging, so the battle sounds might easily have been mistaken for that digging.

She now looks around this cavern. There had to be another way out, since the bugbears were there.

Victor enters the room warily, to look around.

Ero waits a few moments to see if anything attacks Victor.  Ero passes the seconds to take a look at the door.  Assured it's safe, the wizard enters and heads over to the scorch marks on a wall.

Examine the scorches, door, and debris to determine 1) if the scorches were from magical fire and 2) where in the room the blast likely started from.

19:07, Today: Ero Sulaanin rolled 8,15 using 1d20+5,1d20+5 with rolls of 3,10.  Arcana, Investigation.

As Victor moved towards entering the smaller room, Nixon quickly created a magical sign advising that he would overwatch in case trouble or trap, and to alert before moving farther inward if more doors were found.

A basic failsafe set up made life easier when it came to traps.  Not perfect, but safer.

Nixon's feet carried him quietly through the cave complex, looking for trouble as did his eyes and ears and everything in between.

When Victor enters the small building, he can see that it was probably a workroom of some kind, as the walls are lined with narrow counters. Parts of the counter have been smashed. There's another door on the right-hand wall.

Ero can see that the scorch marks are on the back wall and the left-hand wall, indicating that the source was the door they came in and then the other door. They are definitely magical in origin.

Nixon moves out into the cavern, looking down the tunnel on the right for any possible threats. He's pretty sure that it leads back to the cavern with the flaming skull.

As soon as he steps out in front of the larger building, he gets a better perspective of the cavern. It's much larger than he at first thought--around 150 feet long, and maybe 60-70 feet wide. He can't be sure of that because he can't quite see the whole cavern.

He first notices the double doors on the larger building, barely hanging on with a single hinge each. It, too, shows signs of scorch marks.

He then notices the third building. It's at the far end of the cavern. It looks to be as large as the closer large building. It also looks like it is set at a lower elevation, like there might be a dip in the cavern floor about 50 feet ahead.


Mithra looks around in the other cavern, which is a ravine. It looks like the whole ravine collapsed from the common elevation on both sides. It has a stream of water running through half of it, which originates in the middle of the opposite wall.

Since the water appears to drain out of the ravine to the right, that's probably another way out.

Mithra also spots another tunnel in the same wall as they one she came through, only this one is clearly a worked tunnel.

On the opposite wall, where the water comes from, there are also two passages, about 20 feet to either side of the water source. Both of these start with a flight of stairs going up about 10 feet.

There are 3 ropes hanging down into the ravine on the opposite side, presumably to make it easy for the bugbears to climb up and down.

The arcane swordsman, satisfied at the lack of immediate peril, backed off to a position where he could see the small building's doorway, and still monitor the area for trouble.  He took a swig of water from his waterskin - ironic considering from whence they had just come, but the body had needs - and removed a piece of trail jerky/grain ration to eat while the opportunity was present, and the lack of battle allowed.  With the chill of the water gone from his clothing, and no immediate trouble, he flavoured the bar to bring all the spices of Tulero's garlic and pesto pasta... which would dismiss in smell, but still permit the diner-in-cavern the joy of better repasts.

It was part of the reason a man explored fine dining, for the knowledge.

He released a trickle of his magical reserve, willing a familiar image of the signs being used for communication.  In result, the said sign popped into existence inside the small room.

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                          |   |
                                          |   |
                                          |   |

This leaves us with plenty of options as to where to go next", said Lureene in a low voice. "Perhaps we should backtrace the bugbear's steps and see where they lived." She eyed the ropes.

Calling on his knowledge of the arcane, Victor looks for signs of any magical traps that may be triggered by opening the far door.

Using Arcana to look for magical traps.
21:52, Today: Victor Harkness rolled 17 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 14.  Looking for magical traps on door in back wall.

"The only problem with that thinking," Mithra whispered back to Lureene, "is that's where there might be more. And their boss."

"I'd rather know more about this place before bearding a lion in its den."

"Following this little stream out on the right would probably just take us back to the underground river, while the tunnel behind us should take us back to the others."

"So, our choices aren't that great after all. And, since we're already wet, I'm thinking the path least likely for the bugbears to have used is the better choice. It's a question of whether Wendell can negotiate that tunnel with the water."

"How about it, Wendell? Up for it?"

"I wonder what they were digging for down there?"

In Victor's group, Victor and Ero had entered the small building to examine it in detail.

Nixon had stepped forward on the outside to survey the cavern and keep watch.

Krazh had stepped up behind him.

Cunaar was next, but held back in case his spells might be needed.

The last one through the tunnel and up the stairs was Raus, also keeping rear guard.


As Victor examines the door, which clearly leads into the larger attached building, he does not find any trap, but he sees that the hinges have been partially melted, which means it may be hard to open the door.

Victor places his ear against the door, and waits til the echoing quiets down, listening for any creatures on the other side.

19:01, Today: Victor Harkness rolled 9 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 7.  Perception.

Victor listens at the door, but between the booms he hears nothing from the other side.

Victor create a sign: Hinges are damaged. I could try and force it, but be ready in case it makes more noise than the water.

Ero smiles and lifts a hand.  Flames hop between his fingertips.

After giving a quick look to the new room, Raus turns back to face the stairs and the tunnel, keeping a distance he deems as safe. Should anything be alerted by the door's sound, it will come from the tunnels. After taking up a position, he nods in Victor's direction.

After hearing over a dozen 'booms' from the water back in the water tunnel, Victor has a pretty good grasp of the timing of the sound, which is constant and consistent. However, it does remind him that loud sounds will carry throughout this cave system.

He moves over to the door, times his actions just right, and tries to open the door. His first effort fails as the hinges seem to be welded shut. He examines them again, in case he missed something. They aren't rusted shut, which would be the whole length and width, only slightly melded, meaning just on the surface, and probably not consistent for the whole length, given the nature of the scorch marks.

He gives it another try, putting a bit more effort into it.

This time, there's a bit of a 'pop' as the weld breaks. Only those in the room even hear this, and that's probably because they are closer to it. The room itself also seems to act as a bit of a baffle, so minimizing the sound that carries.

The hinges are still likely to creak after so much time of disuse, but a bit of oil would probably help.

Victor can see that the door leads to a larger room, no doubt the one that connects on the outside. That room shows the same scorch marks of an arcane battle.

After Mithra's comment that the bugbears might have been digging for something valuable, Alexia, before climbing up the other side, decides to look where they were digging, just in case. She can't imagine what might be down there. Of course, there's always the chance that the bugbears didn't know what they were looking for either.

It only takes a minute before she spots the bones. She begins to uncover them to see what they belonged to.

"That's a rather unpleasant discovery", said Lureene, moving alongside Alexia. She crouches to examine them. "Could it be that the bugbears were not digging so much as burying?"