Juan grins widely after Faith's hug and straightens his moustaches before bidding the party adieu.

The group quickly starts to recognize the area after disembarking from the keelboat, and makes their way without delay to the narrow defile leading to the Sacred Stone monastery. The air remains still and quiet, with the exception of a distant shout from the direction of the river about 10 minutes from the group's departure.

---

Map updated!

"I think we should use the entrance near Renwick's tower. The same one we left from. There's at least a small chance of getting in undetected."

---

Peer pressure made me add a Stealth check! Ehrendil Vakalyn rolled 20 for Stealth (DEX).
This message was last edited by the player at 23:26, Sat 13 Jan.

Morg nods at Ehrendil, and tries to move slowly in order to not make a noise.

---

If the party agrees to enter the monastry, then:
10:30, Today: Morg Danforge rolled 2 using 2d20+1, dropping the highest dice only with rolls of 14,1.  Stealth check with disadvantage (from splint) for entering monastery. – roll=1705134625.42711.272068

Faith nods at the wisdom of the elf and follows after Morg. Silently (or at least more silently than the dwarf) she follows, wincing at the creaking armor. “Maybe they didn’t hear that.” she murmured.

---

<OOC: Faith rolled 14 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 8.  Stealth check . >

Makari nodded at Ehrendil's suggestion of entrance. "I agree. I think that makes the most sense."

He winced at Morg's loud clankiness, which reminded him to give himself a small blessing as he attempted to be stealthy as well, but he was only stealthy in comparison to Morg really.

20:58, Today: Secret Roll: Makari rolled 13,2 using d20+3,d4 with rolls of 10,2.  Stealth (with Guidance).

Mostly just following Morg's general line of advance a bit off to the side it takes Gorm a while to even realize that he is trying to be stealthy, at which point she stops intentionally making noise but is still a big bear walking on what are to her very breakable sticks.

Zeb showed little more caution than Morg or Gorm, but, being smaller and less heavily armored, caused far less commotion in so doing.

---

Zeb rolled 17 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 7.  stealth

The group makes their way around to the back of the monastery and opens the door into the overgrown walled garden. Three doors are interspersed around the interior walls, and the lifelike statues remain overlooking the scene.

---

Map updated!

"Back in then?" Ehrendil whispers, somewhat rhetorically, pointing to the door on the west side of the garden.

Morg nods, trying not to move in order to let the quieter ones scout out the inside of the building.

Makari stayed silent as they moved. Or at least as silent as he could. He was restraining himself, as he wanted to go in fast and get to the other prisoners, but that wouldn't help anyone and only bring trouble. They had to take it slow.

He nodded at Ehrendil, staff in hand, ready.

Faith, rapier in hand moved forward with her friends, back into the den that had caused her many sleepless nights and pain - but this time she would be going in to rid it of evil, not as a prisoner.

The group approaches the door to the west of the garden, and finds the door just ajar and unlocked. The familiar Shine room beyond looks cleaned of all traces of the battle from days earlier, and the trapped stairs are once again visible leading down to the darkened lower level.

As the group reorients themselves to the somewhat familiar room, and loud thump can be heard from out in the garden, as that of a heavy door slamming shut.

---

Map updated!

"It seems we were expected." Ehrendil remarks wryly at the sound of the door slamming in the garden. "Perhaps we can jam the door?" he asks pointing at the door they just entered.

The ranger will close the door, lock or bar it if possible, and if there is anything that can be used as a barricade he will slide it in front of the door.

"We should probably get moving. The southern doors?"

---

The southern door will allow access to unexplored areas to the east.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:33, Fri 26 Jan.

Faith, rapier in hand looked at the wood elf's observation and rolls her eyes. "You really think so? Maybe the fact that a contingent of dwarves is missing or several of their people are dead."

She sighed and looked at the southern door and made her way to investigate it for any signs of tampering.

---

<OOC: Faith rolled 14 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 9.  investigation check.>

"I'm ready to go south or down, but this may also be a good room to face anyone coming from the east because of how big it is - and the pillars and altar offer cover." Morg says, positioning himself just to the south of the eastern door, but prepared to run south or down.

Makari flinched and frowned when they heard the door slam shut ahead of them. He let out a small sigh. Nothing was ever smooth or easy.

He glanced at Ehrendil and shrugged. "Sure. Let's explore what we haven't but we'll need to clear the whole place out, going back over the areas we already looked at to be sure probably."

09:04, Today: Makari rolled 12 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 6.  Perception.

The southern door shows no sign of tampering, though the doors and in fact the entire room looks to have been cleaned very thoroughly. The stone surfaces of the walls and floor look spotless, with no sign of dirt or dust anywhere.

Some muffled noises can be heard from somewhere else in the monastery, though detecting their source is difficult. The beast at the bottom of the stair, if it is in fact still there, is silent.

Zeb nodded at Marg's sage suggestion. The idea of making a stand somewhere with cover appealed to the gnome.

"Perhaps we can bait them into this room? Or... well... I suppose we're already the bait, aren't we?"

At first Gorm doesn't seem to react to the doors slamming shut, but after a few moments it becomes clear nothing is going to jump out right away she heads over to one of the doorways and starts sniffing around.  Proceeding around the room clockwise from the door they came in she checks all the areas around the doors for scents that might indicate what has come this way recently or even what lies beyond the doors.

Faith looked at Zeb with a wry smile. "rarely does bait recognize its purpose until it's too late." She whispered as she looked around the room. It had been cleaned thoroughly since their last time through here, and though there were sounds, it was hard to tell where from.

She looked at zeb and shook her head. "They may not know we have returned, giving us an element of surprise. Yes, their may be traps, but if we are careful, they may not even know of our presence until we are deep in."

"True enough, Morg. And Zeb makes a good point, that if they know where we are they may come to us.
My concern is that they could box us in here and we don't know their numbers. If we keep moving, we might be able to keep them off-balance. And as Makari said, we have to search the entire complex eventually."

Ehrendil smirked despite the seriousness of the situation, "Despite the missing contingent of dwarves and a number of their people being dead?" He adds more seriously, "What will it be wait here or keep moving? I am for moving."

Makari looked between the different members of the troupe as they each spoke their peace. Or jokes. Or their minds. He frowned slightly, his head cocked to one side a moment. "Well I heard something up ahead, but cannot tell from where exactly."

He gave a shrug. "We should be on guard but press forward."

"Oh, they know we were here. We made sure of that," Zeb answered with a smirk of his own. "I believe Faith's point was they may not yet realize we have returned. Although something slammed those doors...

Well, I suppose I'm all for exploring. Worse comes to worse, I'll take cover behind the tallest thing I see." The gnome laughed and dipped playfully between his companion's legs.

"South then?" Morg says, slowly and carefully walking to stand next to the southern door, ready to let the stealthy scouts go ahead of him or enter first if the others stop at the door.