DAI suggests they leave the canvas here to dry, better then the inconvenience of having to handle it at the moment.

Marching order:

G J
S M
D Z

And when the door is open, if it's a dark hallway DAI will toss the copper piece down as far as he can.

Sili comforts Milo. He says "Rest?"

Zeig shudders as he tries to squash most of the excess water from his robes.

"For a bit. I could use a couple hours of sleep, but...I'll manage."

Zeig distracts himself from the insanity of what he just did by focusing on the present. He walks over and casts Restore on Jaga, relieving him of his fatigue.
MP: 63/67

"Let's take a bit to collect ourselves and then scout the area. If there isn't anything dangerous very close, maybe it would be a good idea to rest for a while before moving on."

Only Jaga and myself didn't get enough sleep last night. I'll manage being fatigued and I just cured Jaga's, although if it goes too far we'll have to make constitution checks. It's probably better to press on as we won't get much out of resting here again, although Dai would get some MP back. The day just started.

The group removes the stone bricks from the canvas and leaves it in the room near the rotted spool to dry eventually--you guess at least a couple days from now.

Peeking beyond the iron door reveals a hallway at least 50' long. After about 15' it slopes downward at a constant 10° angle, further than you can see in the same direction.

Garus is helped back into his armor.

You guys scout down the hall a bit but don't find much but a dank hallway. There has been talk of resting and whatever else.
This message was last updated by the GM at 22:29, Thu 27 Sept 2012.

Garus is the first person to peer around the door. The first thing he notices is that the frame of the door on the other side looks to fit the door very closely, as if shutting it would make a seal capable of keeping the hallway beyond from filling with water.

It looks as if it leads down a hallway, angled very slightly downward. The walls are made of the same well-fitted stone bricks. Apart from the door's hinges and a rare chipped brick along the ground, the hallway seems featureless.

The canvas is left in the room spread out in order to dry, and the party gathers themselves up. MILO's breathing is still a bit raspy, but he appears to be more or less fine... though definitely not overly fond with the situation or anyone in it with him, especially DAI.


The hallways is a bit over 10' wide with the same shallow 6' ceiling. Garus has to duck down a noticeable bit to walk down it, something he hopes ends soon, as an entire day would lead to some annoying back aches the next morning for sure.


After a few hundred feet, and gradually descending a total of 30 or 40' more, Another iron door, this one identical to the last, is seen, and shut. There is a large bar, like an over-sized door-handle just like the previous door that should allow it to be opened if given a quarter turn downward.


The party is traveling north, though discerning your direction will become more difficult if entering passages that twist, especially if you're in a hurry for some reason.

(The auto know north from ranks in Survival still applies, though it will increase very slightly in your travels to a maximum requirement of 10 ranks.)

And because maps are fun, here is one:

# = door
o = party member (and MILO!)

##
oo
oo
oo

This message was last updated by the GM at 17:07, Fri 28 Sept 2012.

Garus pulls out his shield and with his weapon hand tries the bolt on the door just testing to see if it is locked and how diffcult he would have to open it.

The door's lever sticks a bit, but giving it a second small thrust is enough to unlatch the door. The levers and locking mechanism can be heard to release with a definitive *Kthtcchh CHUNK*, though the door remains closed and the seal unbroken.

Jaga pulls on the now unlocked door in an attempt to open it. First lightly, then if he needs to use force, he will.

JAGA steps forward next to Garus, giving him the "Let me handle this" look. Garus steps back with the rest of the party.

The first light tug doesn't produce anything. The door is either slightly wedged or the friction of the hinges is too great. Undaunted, JAGA gives it a solid tug, which works... very well.

A *tich* is heard as the door opens a few inches. Nearly instantly later a massive fireball blows the door open toward the party.


08:57, Today: teslas rolled 28 using 8d6. fire damage.
DC 14 Reflex for half.

Allies generally never provide cover, but the back row is through quite a few people so DAI and ZEIG both get a +2 bonus. Gurlop, due to his small size and nature of resting on Garus's shoulder behind a tower shield and pauldron crest, is also afforded this bonus.
09:32, Today: teslas, on behalf of ZEIG, rolled 4 using 1d20+3. Fatigued Reflex for half.
08:59, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 15 using 1d20+7. Reflex for half.
08:59, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 16 using 1d20+7. MILO, Reflex to negate.
08:59, Today: teslas, on behalf of JAGA, rolled 13 using 1d20+7. Reflex to negate.
08:59, Today: teslas, on behalf of Garus, rolled 19 using 1d20+10. Gurlop, Reflex to negate.
08:58, Today: teslas, on behalf of Garus, rolled 4 using 1d20+3. Reflex for half.
08:58, Today: teslas, on behalf of DAI, rolled 17 using 1d20+6. Reflex for half.


JAGA is completely unprepared with both hands still on the door lever when hit.

Garus turns his body to shield Gurlop leaving the back of his head to be seared. His armor affords little protection as the heat easily travels through it, burning him. Gurlop is shielded from the brunt of the blast by Garus's body and comes out completely unscathed.

As a bonus, MILO is able to duck behind Garus as well. SILI attempts to slide in behind the group but can't quite find enough room, having half of his body burned.

ZEIG locks up a bit with apprehension only managing to cover his eyes while the flames surround him. DAI dives onto the floor and avoids a good bit of the blast.


Everyone gains 210 EXP.


The smell of natural gas (and burnt half-giant and human hair) fills your nostrils a bit. The door stands wide open and beyond it is a room the same shape and size of the one you originally landed. There are eight spots on the walls inside with gas flowing out at a decent rate, judging by the fire still burning at each of them.

It looks as if nothing more than a simple sparking mechanism with a piece of steel and flint is attached to the inside of the bottom of the door. The mechanism to unlock the door also looks to flip a lever on the wall, perhaps one that opens and closes the hidden valves for the streams of gas.

It seems clear that this functionality as a trap was at least partially intentional. SILI, who can't roll anything but 18+ on Knowledge checks, is of the opinion that the gas had a dual purpose. First, to produce the explosion, and second, to provide a source of light in this room.
09:01, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 22 using 1d20+3. Know (archi/engi).

Looking at the door more closely, it appears that opening the door only an inch or so and then reaching under and holding a small lever would have avoided the sparking mechanism, but the gas would have still filled the room. In the future, two people opening the door could reliably make sure the gas is never sparked.

The lever set into the wall is independent from the door mechanism, and could be changed from its current position of up easily, though only from the inside of the room.

You now know this type of mechanical trap exists on this type of door, and unless in a hurry, will always check for it.


Wondering why the hell non-magical fire hurt him so badly with his spell active, DAI gets down on his hands and knees next to the flint and steel. He's got a hunch that it's magical in some fashion.
Since someone made the DC I'll show the rolls.
09:43, Today: Secret Roll: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 11 using 1d20+6.
09:42, Today: Secret Roll: teslas, on behalf of DAI, rolled 29 using 1d20+14.
09:42, Today: Secret Roll: teslas, on behalf of ZEIG, rolled 14 using 1d20+12. Identify steel/flint.


This room contains nothing save a few scorch marks. It is made of the same brick as seen before. In the center of each of the four walls are passageways:

To the right lies a hallway that turns down and left nearly immediately out of view. It, too, is made of brick, and it, too, has the same style of large iron door that lies wide open. To the left lies another one of the doors you've just encountered, though closed. All of these doors open outward from inside the room. There is the same sparking device just inside the room beneath all three doors, though only a single lever connected to latching mechanism of the door you just came through.

Finally, straight ahead, the brick gives way to carved natural stone over a few yards. It gradually and steadily declines, though is otherwise a straight tunnel. The ceilings of this tunnel, much to Garus's relief, vary between 7 and 9' tall, meaning he could finally stand up all the damn way.

Left: Closed Door
Right: brick passageway going down
Straight: Natural tunnel that stretches beyond the range of your illumination
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:45, Sat 06 Oct 2012.

"Maybe someone else should decide which way we go." Jaga mumbled, "My last decision resulted in fire...lots of fire."

"Fine. Let's go straight ahead. Mind going first Garus?"

I waste all of my 18+ rolls on knowledge checks...

Garus Starts walking forward, "Not a problem."

The party decides not to fool with any more blatantly malicious drow architecture, and heads down the tunnel in front of them, making about five minutes worth of steady progress. The air in this tunnel is somewhat more fresh from time to time, as light gusts of air blow up from the depths. Many of the small cracks in the wall stink of sulfur, and hint that natural gas is leaking in from nearly all sides.

The floor has been hewn to be roughly flat and smooth, but the walls are rough and un-attented apart from their initial excavation. Longer outcroppings have been worn smooth at their endings, hinting at a fair amount of use despite the relatively unfinished look of the tunnel.

13:19, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 22 using 1d20+3. Know (dungeoneering).
13:19, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 21 using 1d20+3. Know (nature).
If you keep doing this on Knowledge checks I'm going to boot you for cheating.
SILI further deduces that the gas seeping out of the walls is probably pervasive in the region, and that the use of fire in natural tunnels might have some... side effects--especially when the odor is strongest. Much of the walls are also made of a stone that sparks readily when struck with metal, though it's quite hard to spot if you don't know how to properly identify what you're looking for.
DC 5 Wisdom check to tell if you're in an explosive environment from the gas. DC 10 Know (dungeon), DC 15 Know (nature), or DC 25 Spot to recognize spark-producing stone.

I'll keep with the system of Knowledge checks are almost always rolled visibly so you as a player know when they'd be useful. Some hidden checks, like this one, I'll only post if someone succeeds. This one was a DC 20 Heal or DC 25 Know (dungeon) check.
14:54, Today: Secret Roll: teslas, on behalf of Garus, rolled 29 using 1d20+12. Heal.
14:54, Today: Secret Roll: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 7 using 1d20+3. Heal.
14:54, Today: Secret Roll: teslas, on behalf of ZEIG, rolled 11 using 1d20+6. Heal.
Garus is pretty sure breathing the gas for prolonged periods of time would be detrimental. An hour or so shouldn't hurt anyone at all, but more than that should be avoided. Sleeping in the gas would be a very bad idea.

The party presses on down the hallway. The gusts of cool wind from the tunnel ahead of you clear the smell of the gas periodically, but only for a brief minute.

If you're going to heal yourselves (with potions or having ZEIG do it), I'm going to pause here now for it to be done. Depending on when we leave for Rome, you may have very little or a hell of a lot of time to do this.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:01, Wed 10 Oct 2012.

Zeig throws out some restoration, mending the party's wounds.
17:31, Today: ZEIG rolled 9 using 1d8+6. cure - Zeig. (10)
17:30, Today: ZEIG rolled 7 using 1d8+6. cure - Zeig. (8)
17:30, Today: ZEIG rolled 10 using 1d8+6. Cure - Garus.
17:30, Today: ZEIG rolled 8 using 1d8+6. Cure - Garus.
17:27, Today: ZEIG rolled 9 using 1d8+7. Heal. (10) for Zeig
MP: 56/67

The next twenty minutes of progress down the hallway is done mostly in silence as the party is (at varying levels) apprehensive about what they're actually doing down here. The sun would be coming up right about now topside... except topside is a dismal swamp that rarely sees the sun anyway.

The gusts of wind from the tunnel in front of you continue, and it seems their temperature has lowered a degree or two as you progress. The smell of gas is strong, but no stronger than it had been previously.

A couple of times Garus's metal-shod foot scrapes a piece of stone, and the party quickly decides not to risk him sparking the gas with an errant kick or an unlucky stumble. An adventurer and outdoorsman at heart, he removes the plates covering his thick leather boots. A bit clunky, but much better for overland travel than traditional sabatons.

The party begins to relax a bit, and after another twenty minutes of hoofing it finally reaches a change of scenery.

The tunnel opens up into a large cavern. It is about 70' from floor to ceiling from out to the range of what your light illuminates. The tunnel mouth into the cavern is about 10' off of the floor and empties onto a metal platform 10' above the ground at the same level. It is about 12'x12'.

On the left side of the platform there is a sturdy-looking and rather long-stepped metal staircase against the cavern wall that leads downward and away for 10', loops back toward the platform, and then ends underneath it. On the other side there is what looks to have been a small crane or loading arm attached that has been ripped off. The metal is torn as if something extremely heavy or powerful had simply pulled or ripped it off of the platform. Looking over the edge, the arm is lying on the ground, relatively in-tact. There is about 50' of steel chain wrapped around it and coiled up beneath where it fell.

All of the metal components of the platform, stair, and chain are slightly rusty, but otherwise appear extremely sturdy.

Of the myriad of checks, one of you survival experts or lucky rollers is bound to make it, so:
Finally, at the bottom of the stair, you're pretty sure you can make out two distinct paths on the cavern floor. Like the tunnel, the rock is worn smooth from what must have been years and years and years of use. One stretches into the darkness at roughly the same direction the tunnel is pointed, and the other takes a bit of a right turn.

The smell of the gas on the platform is still quite strong, but it seems that it's all coming from the tunnel behind you and flowing very slowly down the tunnel and out onto the cavern floor. The temperature inside of the cavern 10' off of the ground on the platform matches that of the breezes you've been feeling. The rock walls of the cavern appear to be mostly the same, though more variety of minerals and rocks are becoming apparent.

> < = stairs
[-] = platform
/   = fallen loading arm and chain
.   = worn stone

     | |
     | |
-----| |---
     [-]>>|
    /[-]<<|--|
   ......    |
    ....     ---|
    ...         ---|
   .  .            ----|
  .   .                |
 .    .                -----|
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:23, Tue 20 Nov 2012.

Sili and Milo go down the steps, looking between the two path's. Sili takes out a coin, flips it, and takes the path straight ahead, letting anyone who wants to walk ahead of him do so.

Pretty straight-forward method, and I don't believe anyone would argue. Moving along.
Assumed marching order:
 /\
 GJ
 SM
 DZ

Garus and JAGA advance to their positions up front and the party moves on.

The cavern floor has a layer of slight fog about six to seven inches deep. It doesn't obscure your view of the floor very much in your vicinity, but it's enough that the dim areas of illumination aren't enough to pierce it at an angle, blocking your view of the floor 15' away (30' away for those of you with low-light vision (and your pets)). If you bend down to take a look at the floor, the smell of the gas returns. Apparently it pours out of the tunnel and sinks to settle onto the cavern floor about two feet deep.

As you travel the cavern expands on either side of you until you can no longer see anything to your right or left out to the edge of your illumination. The ceiling varies between sixty to a bit over hundred feet tall, to the point where Garus and SILI have to strain to make it out. In a few places they're not sure they can see it at all. The floor stays relatively level, dipping and raising only slightly as you walk. If one wasn't looking for the worn path on the ground, they'd have essentially no way to get their bearings with no walls visible in any direction. Survival, for future reference in situations like this.

Eventually, in the distance, a cavern wall can be seen in front of you. The party progresses down the worn pathway for the better part of ten or twelve minutes before reaching another large metal door identical to the previous ones. It is shut and is recessed into the cavern wall a bit five feet off of the ground. A broad and sturdy metal ramp leads up to it. To your right and left the cavern wall stretches off into the darkness.

DAI's hat and the rock one of you is carrying have Illuminate on them. This will run out at about 7:30am. Someone will need to light up another torch or recast the spells then. Please say which one. The OOC or IC thread is fine.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:00, Tue 20 Nov 2012.

Zeig renews the Illuminate spell on the rock, followed by Shellra.
+3 saves to party for 80 minutes. I'll probably swap out extend brew potion for extend spell at 8th level.
MP: 51/67, 6/7 0th.

He then prods someone that is not him to try to open the door, like Garus.

As they arrive at the door, Jaga feels a small prodding on his shoulder. Turning around, he see everyone staring at him expectantly. With a small puzzled look he turns back to the door then sighs as realization dawns on him. Jaga then walks up the ramp and tries to open the door.

JAGA walks up the ramp, which makes a dull *clung clung clung* noise as he steps. He twists the locking mechanism which unlatches with an expected *KA-THUNGK*. He then pushes on the door while reaching underneath it to block any sparking mechanism that might be there. He doesn't find one, and gingerly pushes the door open.

Beyond lies a 12' wide tunnel. Its walls and floor are made of stone bricks a little larger than the ones you saw topside around the entrance. The ceiling is also made of bricks, but has a shallow arch to it. Stepping inside, the smell of the gas is gone.

Looking behind the door reveals that it's just a door.

SILI spots something in Undercommon scratched into a brick in the wall a few steps inside. It looks like someone tried to scratch it out but the etches are fairly deep, and it's still legible. He reads it aloud for everyone.

"Dark elves not welcome here. Go back down to your pits."

The party shrugs and sets off.


Ten minutes of walking later, the party comes across an anomaly in the tunnel wall. A 3'-wide hole has been broken out of the wall with bricks strewn all about. The hole itself is collapsed just a few feet inside.

Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 11 using 1d20+3. Know (dungeoneering).
13:33, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 12 using 1d20+3. Know (archi).

SILI guesses something was digging through the stone and then bricks, but otherwise shrugs. Whether the creature was coming into the tunnel or leaving it isn't immediately clear.


Going to pause here for a minute to start a turkey and drink a few. If anyone wants to do anything, post it, else post in the OOC (or IC) that you'd like to move on.

The party continues along for another forty five minutes or so. They see another of two such holes in the stone brick walls on their way. The tunnel seems to follow a slight slant upward, back toward the surface, though due to the shallow slope the party guesses they don't ascend too awfully far, no more than a sixty or seventy feet.

At the end of the tunnel it opens out into another large cavern. This time the ceiling is only 20 to 30' above your heads. The walls to your right and left stretch off into darkness. The floor and ceiling from time to time have extremely large stalagmites and stalactites growing up from the floor and hanging down from the ceiling. One pair, nearby, looks to have had the top of the stalagmite sheared clean off.

SILI and Garus are able to pick out what look like stone brick structures about 80' away in front of you, though anything other than that a wall at least 10' tall is there is not visible from this range.

None of you can smell gas, nor is there fog present on the floor.

Everything in the below map is drawn assuming everyone has low-light vision since Garus/SILI would explain what they see. This will obviously change in initiative-based situations.

Only ZEIG currently has a light source. You must declare, in character, if you do something to change this. ZEIG's rock will only last ten more minutes.

. = worn stone on cavern floor
X = stalagmite/stalactite pair (soft corners), there are more, but only the "close" ones are drawn.
x = sheared stalagmite/actite
= = brick wall of structure


                  ====




      XX               X       X


                  x          X
      X
                         X
       X        ..
           X    ..    X            X
                ..
           X    ..  X         X
    X           ..
                ..              X
---------------|GJ|--------
               |SM|       |----------
               |ZD|
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:11, Fri 23 Nov 2012.

Sili starts moving forward (though he again let's anyone who wants to walk in front of him.) He keeps an eye on the stone structure.
This message had punctuation tweaked by a game editor at 13:28, Sat 24 Nov 2012.

Jaga stays in front of the group along side Garus as he continues forward. Though he seems to be having a little trouble in the darkness.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:15, Sat 24 Nov 2012.

SILI gives Garus a nudge, which he doesn't notice, but JAGA does, so JAGA begins stepping forward. The worn pattern on the cavern floor continues as you advance.

The building, or rather buildings as is now obvious, are of very shoddy construction. The doors, or rather holes in the walls that would be where a door should go, are about four and a half feet tall, and are a bit wider than "normal"--almost as wide as they are tall. The roofs look to be made of some kind of shambled mess of vines, textiles, and garbage of varied sorts. Garus spots half of a splintered tower shield on top of the nearest one.
09:47, Today: teslas, on behalf of SILI, rolled 21 using 1d20+3. know (archi).

SILI notes that the bricks were obviously pilfered from somewhere else and then re-used to make the structures. The party has yet to encounter where this occurred, as the bricks strewn about the previous tunnel were more or less all accounted for around the holes. Whoever or whatever constructed these had no idea what they were doing apart from that you can stack bricks on top of other bricks to make a pile of bricks.

All in all there are at least a dozen of these things. One of them (not on the map) is two stories tall. Most of the others appear to be roughly the same size as the ones nearest to the party.

. = worn stone on cavern floor
X = stalagmite/stalactite pair (soft corners), there are more, but only the "close" ones are drawn.
x = sheared stalagmite/actite
= = shoddy brick wall of structure
[ = shoddy brick wall of structure
? = incomplete structure or area that goes out of your line of sight

      ====      ..
      [      .....
      [  ]     ...
      ====      ..====        =?
                ..[  ]        [
   X            ..   ]   X    [  ?
                ..====        ====
                GJ
                SM            X
                ZD
                ..
      XX        ..     X       X
                ..
X               ..
                ..x          X
      X         ..
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:59, Sat 24 Nov 2012.

"Seems like some kind of makeshift town. By the height and width, I'd say dwarf, but I don't know any dwarves that would make something so shoddy. Is there anything inside?" He mutters, still plainly heard due to the acoustics of the cave. He peeks inside the building to the right of their path as they walk past.