Bodric continued downward to the east passage once everyone was ready. Like the long dropping cave they'd already come down, this one was filled with loose boulders and was steep. The last bit dropped almost straight down into another small cavern and the dwarf, with his wide bulk, barely made it through.

Inside the cavern was more of the glowing moss and fungi but it grew in small clumps and there wasn't nearly as much as the chamber where they'd found the crystals. Bodric's nose had been right though. On the far side was a seep of cold water and a basin-sized pool. The floor was relatively clear of boulders. They all noticed that this cavern was much cooler than those above.

A narrow opening low on the east wall was the only other exit. There were some old bones piled below where they'd climbed down that were covered with strange moss and so decayed that it was difficult to tell what animal or humanoid they may have once belonged to.

OOC: I'll have to update the map tomorrow, sorry.

Bodric made his way around the new cavern, giving it his attention as only a dwarf could. As he did so, the thought came to him that he was sorry he'd wasted time as a lad and later as an adult. He had missed out on much of the art and skill of stonecraft, forgecraft, and craft in general.  He hoped that somewhere his children were learning their lessons he himself should have been teaching them...

The pathway leading down another corridor to the east was smooth and sandy. Bodric hoped that they were getting closer to the costal caves, and possibly their escape. Looking at his old friend Maksim, he saw that the gnome was tired but not beaten up like himself and the human lass.

"Let's try to rest here, Maksim," he said softly. "There be water and less passages to defend.  The lass and I'll be taking rest iffn' ye can take first watch!"

Maksim gave a slight nod to Bodric. Even after all these years Bodric could read Maksim better than the gnome hoped he let on. Quite a bit of empathy for a dwarf… "Get some rest, I'll keep an eye out."

Looking around the cavern Maksim made his was to the seep and sniffed the water.

Bodric and Maksim assisted Agelia in getting comfortable before the torch was extinguished. Their eyes adjusted quickly to see a broader spectrum and they did not need torches to see underground.  Bodric settled against what remained of his battered gear and closed his eyes. He began to snore almost immediately. Maksim kicked him in the back as he made his way over to the small pool of water, and the dwarf rolled over and the snoring halved in volume.

The seep of water came out of the rocks in what Bodric had indicate was the northeastern direction. It had not been running a long long time like some of the other cave water had been. There were no mineral deposits built up anywhere. The water seeped and accumulated at the floor and then pooled in a shallow pool.  Maksim bent to sniff it... it smelled of spring rains and summer storms.  This was surface water that had made it all the way down here somehow. It was very clear and cool to the touch.

As he sat as his portion of the watch, Maksim could continue to feel the earth shudder and groan. A deep and disconcerting feeling in a dark cave for sure.

OOC: You may roll a Wis or Int (whichever is higher) TN >= 17

Maksim sat in the dark, his back against the wall between the seep and the door they did not come through. An uneasy feeling had been growing in him, but he couldn't place it. The underground surroundings too strange and unknown for this gnome of the woods.

---

OOC:11:24, Today: Maksim Munzuk rolled 5 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 4. wis check, tn 17.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:54, Wed 08 Jan 2014.

Bodric woke on his own a while later. Down here, there was no way to gauge the passing of time. Sure, they could have burned a torch and guessed the time based on how long it took the torch to burn out, but they only had a few between Bodric and Maksim and they dared not waste them needlessly. The dwarf felt revived and well-rested, he hated to think how long poor Maksim had been sitting at his watch, but now it was the dwarf's turn.

He walked softly over and put a hand on Maksim's shoulder. "Get ye some rest friend. I feel much better now, thank ye."

Maksim was still ill-at-ease, perhaps even more so than he had been before. He laid down on the sandy soil next to Agelia but sleep seemed to elude him. He tossed, turned, moved rocks, wiggled, snorted and even cursed (quietly and in Old Gnomish, which sounds a lot like snorting) until finally he basically willed himself to sleep. The heavy feeling stayed with him and he dreamed terrible dreams of ancient demon-pets and dead villagers seeking revenge. He seemed to have barely closed his eyes when Bodric awakened him and suggested they eat some supper and get moving.

Supper underground was a different experience for Agelia. She'd awoken finally at the gentle nudge of Bodric's wooden-soled dwarf boot in a slightly better mood than Maksim, but not much. She nibbled at the bits of rations shared by dwarf and gnome without really tasting them, for she felt the weight of hundreds of thousands of tons of earth pressing around her. The earthquakes had finally stopped during Maksim's watch, but she still felt very small and vulnerable under all this stone.

Bodric suggested they top off their waterskins at the seep, which he did by taking them all and submersing them into the pool. Maksim finished up his preparations and worked a few minutes at his battered backpack, fixing strained seams and adjusting leather straps. When he was ready, he gave the signal to Bodric and they moved out.

OOC: Agelia - Maksim and Bodric let you sleep without taking your turn at watch, resulting in the recovery of 2 HP (now 5/6). Maksim, you regain 1 HP (should be back to max). Bodric regains 1 HP plus 1 HP due to his Con bonus (now 5/9).

[Private to Agelia Redstart: You are having a difficult time negotiating all the large boulders and rocks, and your short escorts take turns with holding the torch for you. Perhaps it is a bit of a trick of the caves or maybe lingering artifacts of the fear from earlier, but you could swear you hear something moving coming from the tunnel ahead...]
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:56, Wed 08 Jan 2014.

Bodric led the way east, and it was not long before they were once again in the steep rocky pathway they'd seen prior. This was some slow going, as the larger boulders might shift suddenly, causing a bit of panic each time from the three. After they'd gone a long ways, Bodric stopped them, extinguished their torch and then whispered into each of their ears... "There be somethin' or someone ahead, I ain't sure, but I've been hearin' it for a bit. Thought my ears was playin' tricks on me, but now I be sure! Maksim, yer the sneakiest of us, why don't ye go scout it out a bit?"

"You're not the only one who's been hearing things..." Agelia assured Bodric.

Maksim looked up at Bodric and in a hushed tone, "Well if not wearing wooden shoes make me sneaky I guess I'm your gnome." Getting the general sense of where Bodric thinks the noise is coming from Maksim makes his way over the rocks as quietly as he can.

---

OOC:13:17, Today: Maksim Munzuk rolled 20 using 1d100 with rolls of 20. move silently tn 27.

"Well o'course yer the gnome! How many other...?" Bodric began to whisper hoarsely before biting his tongue.

Maksim was indeed the gnome for the job. He crept almost soundlessly in his soft boots. The cave they were in suddenly leveled off and the rocky and boulder covered floor changed to sand. He moved slowly toward a wider opening ahead. He paused to listen and heard a moaning sound. Someone or something around the corner was hurt!  He poked his head around the corner and saw a large cavern and couldn't quite make out what was on the far end, moaning in the dark.

~~~~

The collapse had been sudden, and with the ringing in his ears from the massive blow he'd taken to the head, the Lector of... of... hmmm... somewhere. was struggling to regain his wits. He had fallen a long ways down a narrow, rocky shaft, and ultimately attempted to slow his forward progression with his head. A large boulder had kindly helped out with that. Sepulos could feel the warm sticky sensation of blood on his hand. He tried to cough or catch his breath that had been beaten from his body by the buffetings, but nothing came out. Finally he emitted a moan of pain, about the best he could manage, and it freed up enough airspace in his lungs to allow him a breath.

~~~~

The Usher applauds : Storyline mergification complete!

Hearing the obvious sound of pain from the far side of the next cavern Makism thought about slipping back to Bodric and Anelia first. Then the image of Bodric's heavy wood-shod boots grinding their way up the passage… Best have a look first.

Making his way around the edge of the cavern Makism saw the fallen form of a round man. At first he thought he was seeing Bodric but decided it was to tall. Compassion getting the better of him, the gnome walked over to the man and placing his left hand on his shoulder, "Friend, you alright?", his right hand on his dagger.

OOC: BTW, Sepulos please note 2hp of damage from your fall... If there's blood there's gotta be a gnarly laceration right? ;-)

The scholar lay there moaning for several minutes until he got his wits about him enough to stop. What creature in this dark cavern might hear the dinner bell and come to eat him? The last thing he could remember was running down the strange stairs in the forest, tripping somewhere along the way and falling into some sort of trap. The rest was a nightmare of crashes, smashes, falls and tumbles.

OOC: Consider it hand-waved, I keep falling asleep. I'll continue another time _zzzzzzzz

Bodric waited as patiently as he could with Agelia. He held their torch for her as they waited for Maksim to return. They both strained their ears to hear what was going on and finally the dwarf decided Maksim must need some help, he'd been gone long enough!

"Come on lass," he whispered, nudging the cleric with his elbow. He held her delicate left hand in his gnarly right and they began creep forward. Maksim had often teased him about his wooden soled boots, however, here underground descending rubble and boulders, the grains of the wood grabbed and gripped the sharp, cracked stone like a spider on a wall. Not only that, wood soles cost much less than descent leather and could be replaced just about anywhere!

Bodric halted just as the cavern began to open up again to the east. "Munzuk! Ye leaf-eater! Ye alright?" he whisper-shouted.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:58, Sun 12 Jan 2014.

"You know," Agelia said, reaching into her backpack.  Oh, gods, how embarassing.  "Once we're out of here, I might like to buy you a meal.  Or two."

She withdrew a torch, and...lit it with Bodric's.  "Because while you two were busy coddling me, I had torches all along!  Damn fall must've addled me." she grumbled, thoroughly embarassed, but at least owning up to her short-sightedness.

She stopped when Bodric stopped.

"Hhrumph! I'll hold ye to that lass, I could use a good meal and the leaf-eater probably could too!" he murmured back. He was growing nervous and was questioning his judgment in sending his friend forward, after all, the underground was Bodric's domain, not that of a tree-climbing twig flicker like Maksim. "Come on!" he growled at Agelia and rounded into the cavern.

Maksim's quick hearing and soft heart led him rapidly through the cavern to its far end where he saw the scholar laying in a pile of rubble on the ground moaning. He knelt and tried to communicate, but so far had only been answered with more moaning. He heard Bodric hissing about something at the far end of the cavern. Maksim supposed he should have known his old friend wouldn't have waited long before coming to 'save' him...

The torchlight flickered off the walls and finally rounded the corner and entered the cavern proper. At the far end, (Northeast if Bodric was to be consulted on the subject) knelt the Gnome beside a pile of what Agelia determined to be a human male, but that's not really what she was looking at. The cavern itself was impressive and not at all like what they had been traveling through so far. The ceiling was much higher and it had the look of being more... worn. The sand on the floor was a lighter color than the stone of the walls, suggesting that they were not the same material. The few rocks that were strewn about the edges of the cavern looked to have been cleared away and stacked with some sort of purpose in mind, and they were rounded and smooth, not sharp, broken and craggy like the stones in the rest of the cavern had been. The air also felt more humid and fresh and... salty.

In the center of the cavern were a few stacks of empty crates that had been lashed together in an arrangement to make them as shelving. There were some broken casks and barrels about as well. This had been a storage area some time ago. Perhaps it had previously some access to the sea and was used by pirates or brigands. Now however with the recent storm and shaking of the ground, any access to the north or east was either caved in or filled with sand.

To the southeast was another narrow opening than they mostly ignored as Agelia and Bodric came to Maksim's aid with the scrambled scholar. Bodric looked at Maksim who sort of wiggled his ears inquisitively and shrugged. Bodric unstopped his waterskin and splashed some of the cold water he'd filled from the seep onto the scholar's bloody face. He wiped away some of the blood with the sleeve of his shirt so they could see the man's wound. It was a typical head wound with lots of blood but no chunks of bones protruding.

That's when Agelia's sharp ears picked up the sound of something approaching from the southeast tunnel. She nudged Bodric and pointed.


The Usher sighs: Finally, complete mergification! Now we can see the story progress as one!

Sepulos wondered vaguely if he might be dead and beginning to suffer the purgation of the afterlife. A grim thought, indeed, although even while it flashed across his mind he knew quite well that he was alive and had fallen into the very caves he had been seeking--those known to lie underground in the area of Gilgamar and whispered to be the site of a long-vanished elven city. These and other thoughts, images and strange waking dreams came and went through the ringing corridors of his mind as he lay motionless for what seemed like several hours after regaining consciousness. He knew he had suffered some sort of head wound, and he also knew that because of that wound he was not at all in his right mind. If he had been, he realized, he would probably have been more upset by what had happened--and its possibly dire consequences for himself--than he was. As things stood, however, he was aware that he did not really feel afraid or worried about his situation; there was just . . . a sense of bittersweet regret for having failed to appreciate the many wonderful aspects of his life which he knew he had taken for granted. He thought of his mysterious and fey mother, and of his good-humored "normal" father the judge. A more unlikely pair could hardly have been imagined, yet somehow they had gotten along just fine. He missed them, and suddenly he was aware of a desolate grief over their deaths, a grief which he had not permitted himself to feel previously.

He was conscious that he was moaning, and at some point during this inarticulate recitative, he became aware of a shadowy figure shaking him gently and mumbling something that sounded like like, "Do you want some lobster eggs, friend?" Then, other shapes appeared with torches, and he saw faces in a blur. The faces were connected to bodies and spoke to each other with words he was too exhausted to understand. He was aware of an awful headache and a furious thirst. "Is this the afterlife, or just a cave?" he finally managed to say with a weak voice.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:52, Mon 13 Jan 2014.

"Just a cave..." Agelia shook her head.  "If it is the afterlife, I'd like to have a word with my power-that-be about the state of things, and false advertising."

The tallest of the figures hovering over Sepulos is a pale-skinned human woman with long dark hair and eyes that might be brown or red.  If it weren't for the muck and grime and - was that the beginning of a scowl? - she might be pretty.  She wears armor consisting of overlapping leather scales; a symbol hanging from her neck suggests that she is a priestess of some sort.

"Are you alright?"

"Hello?  Is anyone there?  Friend or foe let me know now so I can decide how to introduce you to he-who-makes-resolution.  I am called Zeeny-Deedle, a humble monk and I mean you no harm."

Zeeny-Deedle had waited until he was within a few steps of the opening into the light before he called out.  As he did, he stood on-guard, staff raised diagonally and ready to deflect any nasty surprises.

As annoyed as Maksim was for Bodic following him-- after sending him ahead-- he was glad that the man was finally responding. Looking up at Agelia, "Better since your here. That was more than I was able to get out of him. I think he likes you." With a chuckle Maksim stands and backs away from the fallen scholar.

As he turns to give Bodric a piece of his mind the call comes from the southeast passage. Drawing his bow the gnome lines up the shot but looks to Bodric, "Would you call that figure back in Gilgamar a 'humble monk?'"

The dwarf smiled broadly at his old friend's teasing of the scowling young woman. They'd lighten her up if they ever got out of here. He figured they probably would, after all, just a day or two ago he'd been trapped in the cellar of the Golden Toad for two days and they'd gotten out of that hadn't they? Well that was due to the powerful Korak and his sturdy ancestral battle-axe. The barbarian wasn't here now, and finding this man lying here gave him a bit of hope that they'd see Korak and Durgon again.

He glanced over at Maksim, the smile at Agelia's expense still playing about his lips when he noticed the gnome wasn't smiling but glaring at him in the torchlight. "Ye gotta prob..." he started to growl, as he had so many times over the years, when the agile gnome snapped his bow upward toward the southeast. Forgetting whatever was about to be said between them, Bodric dance-stepped away from Maksim and readied his axe, prepared to defend his old friend... as he had so many times over the years.



"Bah!" came Bodric's reply. "He weren't a monk, maybe some sorta lich-priest or somethin', but with them pets of his, he weren't no monk."

Bodric advanced a few steps to give himself room to defend the others and boldly spoke back down the tunnel, "Mayhap friend, mayhap foe, we be not knowin' ye! Come on around and let's have a look at ye... keep yer hands were we can see'em an' I'll make a resolution not to kill ye!" Bodric surmised that perhaps this... monk, might have been the one that waylaid the fat scholar, after all, why would he have just left the man bleeding here in the dark and wandered off if he was a friend?

Bodric turned his head just a little and drawled to his friend, "Maksim, if he even twitches wrong, you stick'im!"

Agelia hefts and puts a bullet in her sling.  But, she says nothing, instead relying on the dwarf's warning to whoever was out there to keep them at bay.

Sepulos was still too frazzled to wonder at the appearance of these people who were gathered around him in a small semi-circle. "You kobolds are much nicer that they usually give you credit for!" was all he was able to say, even though as he said it he realized that they certainly weren't kobolds or anything of the sort. The torchlight flickered on their faces which, begrimed as they all were, seemed kind and genuinely concerned for his welfare. There were two little men and a young lady, who offered him a much-appreciated drink from her water skin. His head was beginning to feel slightly better, and he slowly started to realize that his earlier surmises about his still being alive were correct. He had merely had a great fall--he just remembered starting down those steps and then . . . that was all. Either way, he was better off than he might have been; he was unhurt except for the head wound, though he was still not at all ready to get up. While he was thinking this, he heard another voice coming from somewhere else in the cave; the others looked alert and ready to fight, and the scholar--realizing that he wasn't at the moment disposed to join them--decided that he might just take a little nap. And he did.