DM, any river/stream ish? How do they access water?
- They have wells, though the water isn't fit for drinking without careful treatment (its sulfurous). They equipment for it but the ones who knew how to maintain it died.

Slope on the room?
- even for most party, though its a packed dirt/stone floor - the kobolds can build trenches if you like

Are we talking big blocks fell?  Pebbly fill?  Are the walls of the passages still intact, and only the ceiling fell?
- dirt + rock thats been transmuted from mud to stone. Walls are intact, part of the cave system. Spell that caused the transmutation is slowly fading- a day or two ago it was mostly solid rock.

What is below this area (if anything?)
- warrens and tunnels where they raise their young

How high a ceiling to the Great Hall passage?  How long a passage?
- the current room is a dome, starts 10ft high and rises to 40ft at its center. Most passages are 5-10ft high. The "path" leading to the great hall has been blocked by a mountain of rubble inside the current room + packed stone inside the tunnels.

Is the Great Hall itself collapsed, or just this passage to it?
- no idea, at the very least the main passage is blocked

Just got word from Azie'r's Player; while he hasn't shared the specifics, he had to go into the ICU and is still currently there.  So with consideration for his health and recovery, it's probably best Azie'r likewise takes a back seat in events for the immediate future until his Player is in a better spot.

Thanks for the relay, Moira.
Glad to hear Azie'r's still kicking.

Hello! Sorry for the sudden disappearance; it’s true as Moira’s player says, I am still holed up in the ICU. Figured I’d confirm it. Don’t know when I’ll be able to return to the game.

Sorry for my own quiet lately; a mix of the recent holiday and my having come down a bit under the weather is interfering with my ability to be creative.

Regarding how long we plan to stay and work on clearing out the rubble: I'm actually not certain about that?  I was under the impression we were on a fairly tight schedule getting down the way and the move off-road was an indulgence for Moira's theory about Giant targets.  While proven correct, the Party is already so far behind either the Fire or Cloud Giants that we really have no chance of catching up if they've already set out in either direction for the remaining two Dragon Caches in the area.  We do still have a message to deliver up the road, so it's best we don't linger too long in any case.

In terms of what Moira can bring to help the effort, all she's really got to offer is manpower.  She doesn't have any relevant abilities or items that could help beyond just being an extra set of hands for labor.

@Azier

No worries - please focus on getting better Azie'r. I will regale him to the background until we reach a convenient "hiatus" point for him to rejoin the party later.

@Moira

Yea holiday season infects us all xD

I would say depending on how U'lin wants to do it, the party can aim for some partial success/access to the vaults within a shorter period. A tenday clears tunnels to -all- the Great Halls. If you just want the one - it would be shorter, maybe within 3-4 days. Shorter if U'lin can implement his ideas I expect :P

As much as a player I'd like the loot, I sure don't see us spending a week here.
Hours, sure.
A day ... maybe?

DM, have the kobolds checked the other entrances?  It would feel pretty dumb to spend a tenday digging from A to B if C or D to be was still open :)

In reply to U'lin (msg # 861):

Yes. The Great Halls specifically had a limited number of entrances because the Great One liked her privacy.

I have been busy, then sick. Will try to push things toward a little on Monday, hope everyone is having a good holiday month!

I'm essentially myself again. I'll read up on what I've missed and might even try to get a post in either later today or tomorrow :)

I'm all but recovered as well, and hopefully our dear GM is too by this point.

As for the current events in the Kobold Cave, a day or two sounds good to me.  The rolling system GM put up for us works just fine by my count; I'd like to hear what Claire and Azie'r have to say about it but, overall, this feels like an U'lin endeavor when it comes to who's taking the lead.

I am! It was a weird bout of food poisoning plus working for a deliverable. Glad to hear you and Azier are both largely recovered. Let's get things back on the road :)

The alchemy room is not particularly interesting as an option to work towards opening.
The fragility of such a room dramatically increases both the likelihood of the most valuable items being broken if not outright destroyed, but a room of acids and poisons are... not encouraging towards recovering living kobolds.

If we used the tunnels, burrow up from below, cart away, could we access other rooms first?

Even better, if tunnels run beneath any of the rooms, could we bypass needing the upper level tunnels at all, and just bring down/burrow up an area in the big rooms?  That should speed things up, no?

The point is all their side tunnels got collapsed in the process of sealing the rooms as well.

---

But if you want to skip the Alchemy room...

Hmm.

Here's a list of rooms the kobolds are willing to tell you about:

The Great Lab (Alchemy room)
The Great Study (Library)
The Great Chamber (Meeting room)

They also hint at a Vault and a Rest room that they consider off limits even to themselves. These apparently have pretty powerful wards around them they aren't willing to risk.

Going to a chamber thats not the Alchemy room would involve making new tunnels, maybe an additional days work. So 3-4 days to access the library or meeting room. 4-5 days for the Vault/Rest room, though those are extra heavily protected - the kobolds are unwilling to break into those chambers and warn that the wards there are lethal.

Okie folks - weigh in on thoughts for where we go, time okay?  We have more information, which could change positions.

In the absence of any discussion, I'm going to assume the party isn't really interested. You can claim some gold and trinkets from the kobolds, and let's move on to another section?

Guess so.
As a player, more interested in magic than coin, but it spends, and buys supplies :)

It does feel like there's not a lot of momentum behind this situation, so summarizing and moving on might be a good idea.  Better to just cut to our next beat than let ourselves languish, especially during the dreaded Winter Season Slowdown that always happens here on RPOL this time of year.

For stuff we can claim, did you have a list we can peruse or would it just be dice rolls for results?

To keep it simple, just give me two d100 rolls for gold and silver respectively.

Moira Ruadh rolled using 2d100 ((44,39))

Any chance at items or gems?  No worries if not, but it's always worth asking.

Seeing as the party didn't really help them, the kobolds aren't going to go out of their way to offer stuff. Most of the things they can offer are alchemical/digging related, which they would prefer to keep for their own use.

There's the priest's staff, which seems potentially magical, if you want to force the issue.

Ah, I was under the impression we were going to stick around and help excavate for at least a day, given the deal Moira struck with the Kobold Priest.

Either way, Moira's not going to press the matter herself.

That was my understanding.  U'lin helping with framework to help reduce re-fall, and potentially tracks and carts below, to break the floor to fall down (depending how thick)

Whew, hectic past week. Sorry for not posting anything sooner. Holidays are creeping up as well, which will undoubtedly steal some more time. I'm all caught up on in-game going-ons, but I'm hesitant to sneak a post in as I'm uncertain what the situation will be proceeding forward. Don't feel like getting a 'last word in' when Aziér has been sidelined to the extent he has.

As for his opinion, he'd like to stick around for as short a while as possible considering the race against the clock, despite the allure of treasure.

Holiday season has me really busy. Seeing as you are helping a little, a few of the kobolds will loan/gift you some alchemical gear. Two vials of acid and a small piece of zircon that apparently "chipped off one of the cloud giant's armor" (for an additional 50gp)

I'll push forward and skip ahead to the party arriving at the next stop soon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:15, Fri 23 Dec 2022.