In reply to Jack Quick the Beggar (msg # 3):

Jack is able to flank the abomination and jam the fang into its neck. Vile fluids spurt from the artery where blood should be. The thing collapses.

[2 XP for Jack, Sharper, and Ocrin.]

[RIP Bradley]

Chayce follows Jack down. She looks aghast at Bradley's fate.

"Yarbardabbadar!" Ocrin shouts in a notably demonstrative display. He points at the zombie, then points at Bradley, seeming to suggest that the zombie shoved Bradley into the alcove. "Labbadardarwhaddawar!" He then points to the zombie corpse, then to a hole in the thick mucousy floor, and holds up two fingers to imply that two zombies fell through the hole. He looks quite worked up.

"Well there's nothing to be done about that now," Sharper growls. "Gimme that if you don't know how to use it." He snatches Ocrin's pitchfork away from him. "It's time to do what needs to be done."

With that, Sharper proceeds around the cave, impaling the corpses with Ocrin's pitchfork. He runs them through several times for good measure: once in the chest, once in the belly, once in the brain. Sharper is bleeding quite a lot from a sustained injury and seems to be taking out his pain and frustration on the corpses.

He pauses momentarily when he gets to Bradley's body. "Sorry, mate," he grumbles. "Nasty business." But the he runs him through all the same. If possible, he'll try to use some leverage to pry the body out of the enclave.

The torch fell when Bradley was cut down. Chayce picks it up and tentatively examines the hole in the floor, trying to figure out where it leads. Is it the only way out of the cave besides the entrance to the well?

Also, the rusty hooked polearms are still lying on the floor.

Once he's done with the corpse-stabbing, Sharper will hand the pitchfork back to Ocrin and say, "That's how you use it." Ocrin takes it back with an unintelligible mutter and a pout.

Sharper picks up one of the rusty hooked polearms. "Whaddya think these are here for?" he asks. "Think we're not the first ones tryin' to fix this?"

"But who would bring a polearm down into a well?" Chayce responds uncertainly as she continues to search for an exit. She picks up Bradley's crowbar off the floor, realizing that she cannot use her shortbow while holding a torch.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:44, Thu 30 Mar 2023.

Jack grimaces at the foul liquid covering his snake fang and wipes it off with a rag. He turns towards the well and calls up:

"It's safe! At least for the moment. C'mon down!"

At the top of the well, Pyke hears a muffled clamor followed by Jack's call.

"Well, if that lot managed to survive, it mustn't be too dangerous," he says to those around him, before making his way down the rope.

Urmdrak goes to head down, but hesitates. "Does it... does it actually go further? Are there actual tunnels at the bottom of a well? Why am I going down, it's what I'm really asking."

In reply to Urmdrak the Rebel (msg # 10):

"A dwarf tentative about going underground? Never thought I'd see the day!" says Pyke before his head disappears out of view.

"I'd enjoy the prospect of a tunnel significantly more if there weren't rotten corpses and potentially brain eating worms in it" was the only response he gave, still waiting for an answer to his question before going down.

"Chayce, hold your torch by the hole there. Can you see anything? And where's that Urmdrak anyway? Dwarves were made to burrow through dark holes in the ground!"

Urmdrak raises his voice, repeating the questions from before but now yelling them at the well.

Chayce brings the torch over at Pyke's request. She does her best to avoid slipping down into the hole herself.

Ocrin keeps his pitchfork pointed at the hole, just in case one of the things that fell down there reaches back out unexpectedly.

Sharper yells up the well at Urmdrak. "Get down here, you lazy git! The Adventurer's Guild won't pay you to camp!" He's angry from the pain of his wound, and the hurt is evident in his tone.

Chayce tries to be more diplomatic. Or maybe it's a good-cop-bad-cop routine. "We could use your dark-sight, Master Dwarf," she calls up to Urmdrak. "Your presence would be most welcome."

Urmdrak groans, loudly but not so loud as to be heard from the bottom of the well, and starts going down the rope, after making sure it's securely attached. If he finds a dead end at the bottom after asking multiple times and not getting an answer, they are never gonna hear the end of it.

"Ugh. Smells as good as I expected"

He looks around, seeing the mutilated corpses and nods in approval. He then notices the hole. He walks up to the border of it, and peers through, aided some by a mixture of his dwarf vision and the torch Chayce is holding.

"Anyone else has rope?". Regardless of the answer, he'll look around for a rock (or skull, if none is available) and drops it on the pit, trying to hear how deep it goes.

With the mucous covering the hole it’s kind of like the opening to the moon bounce, if you know what I mean. You are able to push your hand through and drop an iron spike. After a second you hear a SCHLUP as it hits - no surprise here - more mucus.

Pyke looks at the hole with disgust.
'Someone needs to explore down there. Who's it going to be?"

In reply to Pyke the Astrologist (msg # 18):

At Pyke's question, Jack quickly looks away, his attention focused on a non-descript patch of nothing on the ground.

"Labadardar!" the farmer Ocrin says emphatically. "Blardedarbaryarwar!" he adds. It translates to either 'it's no worse than a cow giving birth' or 'I've been elbow deep in a horse' or something like that. Long story short, he looks willing to go.

"Falling for a second is a long way," Chayce points out. "That's 15 or 16 feet. Maybe the landing is soft with all the mucous but let's lower him down."

Chayce has the muscle mass of a 7-year-old boy, so it's clear she's not fit for this.

"Ocrin, grab the end of your pitchfork. Sharper, Urmdrak, Jack, grab the other end and lower him as far as the pitchfork will go. Then let go so he can land armed and ready. Pyke, be a dear and hold the torch, would you?"

Ocrin gets ready. Sharper looks annoyed, mostly because he's still bleeding and in pain, but wordlessly complies. Chayce readies her bow, just in case she spies something through the hole that needs to be shot with an arrow.

"For the record: I'm a strong supporter of checking if that mucus is flammable and just torching the entire hole. If you insist, I'll assist with the fellow's suicide, but I'm torching that hole down if anything other than him comes back up"

With that said, Urmdrak grabbed the pitchfork without further complaints.

How will you spy what’s below him? Who is carrying a torch?

Depending on the size of the aperture it may not be possible to see through it, or to have an angle on anything useful. Chayce's idea would be for the stronger folks to be around half the hole, lowering Ocrin down. Chayce would be on the fourth side of the hole. With luck Pyke could hold the torch up high to cast light down into the hole. Perhaps Pyke could step forward once the men lowering Ocrin have completed their task and backed away.

[I see a lot of -perhaps- but could you clarify what the party is doing next?]

Chayce has the stronger folks around the southern half of the hole to lower Ocrin down.

On the north side of the hole, Pyke will hold up a torch to try to cast light down into the hole so that Ocrin can see when he's down there.

Chayce will also be on the north side of the hole with her bow to pepper anything that moves (that isn't Ocrin).

Pyke grimaces his lips into a tight smile as he obediantly holds the flickering torch over the hole.
"If you'd like any else... just say the word," he says, stiffly.

Jack pokes the edges of the hole with his snake fang.
"Watch yourself going down there!"

Ocrin begins his descent...

A trickle of muddy water runs down the center of the narrow cave. By the light of the torch above, the rusted weapons and bits of armor buried in the walls cast wicked shadows down the corridor.

The two zombies that fell down the trap door are standing below, swaying uneasily.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Fri 28 Apr 2023.