A sour, rotting stench wafts up from below, stinging your lungs. The dark well and its crude rock wall are both stained a vile shade of olive green. You have heard tales of armies poisoning wells with corpses and worse. Peering down into the silent well, these tales seem very real.

"How many flasks do we have?" Chayce asks. "We can use it either the channel the worms toward us, or to douse them when we know exactly where they are. Specifically, in the channel of the well with nowhere to escape."

"I have a barrel!" Bradley the cooper announces proudly.

"Yes, you do!" Chayce agrees patiently. "And wouldn't it be something if we were to fill that barrel up with something heavy - like rocks - and then drop it down the well right when the beasts are ascending?"

She smacks her palms together in a flattening motion. "Squish!" she says, in case the point wasn't clear.

Bradley looks pleased for his barrel to have a role in this plan.

"Let's prepare the terrain. We always wish to be higher. You three" - she points to Bradley, Sharper, and Ocrin - "the Strong Back, Weak Mind crew, let's dig some ditches. Who has a knife? I'll make us some spikes."

Pyke finds a defendable location distant but within sight of the well. Perhaps a boulder he can scamper onto or a reachable tree branch. He makes sure he is well supplied with water and snacks.
"A better vantage point for spell casting!", he calls out.

In reply to Tecumseh Lane Crew (msg # 2):

"A knife? will this do?" says Jack enthusiastically,  offering the use of his sharpened giant snake fang.

Chayce's eyes light up. "Ah, yes, lovely!" she declares. She recognized the origin of the fang and turns it over admiringly in her hands.

Chayce gets to sharpening sticks or tools or whatever else she can lay her hands on in the abandoned town.

"Where should I put this?" Bradley the cooper asks of his barrel.

"Put it on the edge of the well," Chayce suggests. "Then fill it with rocks. Heavy, but not so heavy that we can't tip it over. Then you just..." She mimes pushing the barrel into the well so that it can begin its rapid descent.

Bradley does so, then returns to his ditch-digging and spike-laying with Ocrin and Sharper. Ocrin's duck supervises the work.

"Urmdrak, with your dwarven eyes will you be able to see them coming?" Chayce asks.

Urmdrak nods, reluctantly. Without saying anything, he gets his spear and shield ready, and moves to the edge of the well, peering into the darkness. He gets ready to move backwards once he spots any movement, ready to spear poke and shield bash anything that comes out if necessary.

Infravision: 60 ft

In reply to Tecumseh Lane Crew (msg # 5):

Jack beams with pride as his prized fang is used to sharpen the sticks. He ezcitedly waves at the distant Pyke and shouts,
"I'm gonna help dig a pit now!"

In reply to Jack Quick the Beggar (msg # 7):

As Pyke settles into his his vantage point, his attention is drawn to the distant Jack, who waves and shouts something unintelligible.
"Idiot!" says Pyke, making a rude gesture back.

Horst peers down the well and then glances back at everyone else.  To his surprise, it's just him and the portly elf.  He gives her a thin smile and reassures her in a soft voice, "Well, my dear.  Don't let anyone ever question your bravery.  You possess a heart of stone, worthy of a dwarf."  He nods back at the well behind him.  "I don't fear any tunnel and would gladly have you at my side but I'm afraid that this endeavor will require more than just the two of us.  We'd best follow the group's plan and join the line.  There will be plenty of chance for heroics soon enough."

He gestures to one side and Rota glumly follows him to take up her post and wait for something to emerge from the well.  Mila joins the pair, looking concerned.

Slik chuckles in amusement at the general chaos and climbs up onto a nearby roof to watch the show.