Spurred onward by the Trog's failure, Myrrick slashes yet again with his magical halberd.


12:28, Today: Myrrick rolled 3 using 1d20+1 ((2)).

Uthecar strikes a mighty blow! The big feller, likely the leader, falls dead at his feet.

Bruno and Zan serve to finish off the trog protecting his flank.

Over by grouping one, Weasel's blow is enough to fell the last hostile. You haven't escaped unscathed, but you endured and came out victorious. Alas for your hirelings though. Both men are dead, the blood already beginning to congeal on the floor.

Side note: regarding strength loss, since each melee round is 10 seconds (iirc), it'll take the party about 2 minutes to get clear of the nausea. I read the description as rounds, not melee rounds, fwiw. Myrrick, Uthecar and Kullonar should be good to go fairly quickly.

Party actions, please!

With the melee over and noting nobody near death/needing medical attention Bruno takes a deep breath and say a prayer to The Soul Forger giving thanks for their victory and giving a strong positive reference for the souls of the brave mercenaries that fell in the fight.

Finishing he moves forward and looks at the shield the chieftain had been carrying, "I think the honor in this shield was too much for that creature to wield it effectively. If you don't mind I'll take a look at it and see if I can't learning anything about it, Cousin", he says to Uthecar.

Picking it up he attempts to decipher the runes engraved upon it.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 04:16, Tue 29 May 2018.

The party sees Bruno deciphering the text engraved on the shield. It takes him more than a few minutes to do it and the effort is visible on his face as he mumbles his way through his attempted translation. Then, suddenly, it breaks.

Not the shield or his face, but the look of fierce concentration that has appeared with the mumbling and furrowed brow, "AH! By the Silver Hammer of Moradin I've got it!" he cries with a relieved smile.

"These ancient runes are almost as hard as granite, but if your mind goes at it like a drill...!", looking around he realizes that nobody really knows what he is talking about and none of them probably care.

Turning to Uthecar, "Look here, my friend. Here is what I read here:

The Anvil is of the earth. The folk are well anchored.
The Flame is the living fire through which the folk grow strong.
The Hammer is like the mighty waters, shaping the folk through trial.
The Bellows stir the embers of the folks' heart so that they should not falter.

While reading his bass voice takes on a tone that tells his comrades what he sounds like at a temple's podium, but once finished it looses a bit of timbre and returns to his usual speaking voice, <red>"This... Our finding this is no small matter, Uthecar. You know why we are out here... Why the two of us set out together. I think saving this honorable, ancient thing from that creature was no accident.

"Bear it with honor, my friend."

So saying he hands the shield to the Dwarven warrior.

Uthecar takes the shield from the priest as he transfers his battle-axe to one hand.  He looks a little ungainly clad in plate mail, with the massive shield covering the majority of his body but manages to gloat, "Ha, the All Father protects his chosen!"

OOC:  The shield is described as massive so probably at least 30-38" round.  Is Uthecar still able to wield his battleaxe along with the shield at only 46" without penalty?

Kullonar nods in appreciation of Bruno's skills and claps him on the back for his efforts. He then exits as quick as he can, so as not to retch on the ancient shield.

Uthecar finds the shield to be surprisingly light in his hand. At the same time, he doesn't feel any loss of maneuverability with his axe, which was a concern. There seems a quality to the shield that he cannot define that goes deeper than just a dwarven heirloom.

The rest of the party gathers in the right-left corridor where the trog boss was killed. Kullonar, Myrrick and Uthecar recover fairly quickly now that the stench of trog is replace by the stench of their bowels loosening in death.

Actions, lads?

So we've walked past the doors to room 17 and 18 and we're still to enter room 19.  We've just been milling in the corridor whilst we've faced off against these trogs right?

Continuing on, we are about to enter room 19 where the door has been checked for locks/traps but not opened.  Did any of the Trogs come out of any of the rooms?  Simply put, if the doors to room 17 or 18 have been opened then Uthecar would choose to go into one of those rooms first to make sure there are no Trog surprises left, otherwise, he will still head for room 19.

Trogs exited to face you guys from every room. Weasel would've noted the trogs in 17 & 18 (Myrrick too). Uthecar, Zan, Kullonar, Bruno would've all noticed the big bastard coming out of 19. The only round you were surprised was the very first.

Hope that helps.

Yup it helps plenty.

Uthecar makes ready to duck into room 19 saying to the others as he makes ready, 'Shall we check these rooms are safe?  It looks like we wandered into a den or war party of some sort.  Hopefully, they are cleared already."

We can probably check several rooms at once given the initial all on attack I doubt any have been left in reserve.

Bruno nods in response to Uthecar's comment, "Aye. Let's be wary, fellows."

Myrrick begins to search the bodies, if there appears to be anything of worth on the enemies.

"Yes, lead on, but cautiously."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:40, Mon 04 June 2018.

"Works for me"  Zan was busy making mental notes on how many missles that he has used so far.

As Myrrick begins picking at the corpses in search of loot, Weasel saunters over and takes a gander.

"Ya think these bastards have any coin on 'em?" he asked the ranger.

Room 19 description:

In the upper left corner of the room, along the north wall, are log sections of various size: 8"-24" diameter & 1-4 feet in length). They are dry to the point of near rot, i.e. they'll burn fast and hot, but won't sustain long. It seems an odd place to put wood.

In the lower right portion of the room sits it's most intriguing feature: a hole leading downward to another level. It is dark below.

On the south wall sits a large iron ring. There seems nothing else of interest in the room.

Myrrick nods to Weasel, and then moves along with the group. "I wonder what the ring was used for... shall we into the dark hole then?"

Uthecar doesn't care much for the items in the room, keeping away from the wood, and showing more interest in his new shield than the room really.  "I don't want to go deeper yet.  We haven't cleared very many rooms on this level, and the deeper you go underground the nastier things you tend to find."

Kullonar keeps near the door while others search the room.
He agrees with Uthecar. "Let us not go deeper...at least not until we make a clean sweep of this level."

For some odd reason, the wood caught Zan's attention most.  He walked over and examined the pile more closely,  using his sword to poke around.

PM

Bruno nods in agreement with Uthecar, "My friends, I do not know that I have spoke yet of this, but I have... an ability. A gift from The Soul Forger.

"With it, I may ask a question of Him. He may indicate to me whether an action taken in the immediate future will be for the beneficial or harmful. It is a tricky thing to use, because he does not offer a detailed response to my question and I must therefore be careful how the question is composed.

"It seems we have much more to investigate down here, and I would not wish to do this too often, so with that it seems we are not quite at the right point to Auger. That said, I am open to your advice on its use."

Uthecar remains dismissive of the room, replying to his companions.  "When you are a soldier you learn that when you cut into an enemies ranks too deeply too quickly it can be dangerous, as they can swing around and flank you.  Soon the attacker is attacked."

"It is the same with these rooms Bruno and there is little need for you to use your power with the All Father just yet, as I am wise enough to answer you.  If we go too deep too quickly we might be overcome before we can get out.  We need to always keep an eye on our retreat so that we know what is in front of us is more dangerous than what is behind.  We temper our actions based on our ability to survive and get out, not on our ability to beat what is ahead."

With that said Uthecar makes to move away from the room.  "We still don't know what is behind us in many of these rooms, let's become a little more certain before we flank ourselves."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:51, Fri 08 June 2018.

As Uthecar speaks, Weasel retreats back toward the other rooms.

So, I'm assuming the party has nixed Bruno's thoughts, and saved his special gift for another time. You may want to keep in mind the hole in the ground for future reference. By the way, who's mapping? If no one is mapping, then there will be a chance at some point that you can't actually find your way out. Keep in mind, this is a fairly labyrintine dungeon, built to confuse invaders. I will posit the dwarves would have a great understanding of such things...but that doesn't guarantee anything.

Weasel leaves the room. Zan explores the wood pile, poking the wood with his sword.


What are the rest of you doing?