[Game #1] Osan Taan's Thread

[Landifarne]

Smashing his aklys into the thing's head, Osan visibly hurts the giant beetle. With both hurt, the antagonists circle each other briefly.

Firebeetle's Initiative: [1d10] = 5

Tiebreaking Initiatives:
Beetle's Tiebreaking Initiative: [1d10] = 10
Osan's Tiebreaking Initiative: [1d10] = 9

You won initiative, and can attack if you wish to.

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan

Osan puts his shield between himself and the wounded fire beetle twirling his aklys almost nervously until he sees a moment to strike.

Osan Aklys: to hit [1d20] = 17, damage [1d4] = 2

[Landifarne]

Cracking the beetle over the head once more, Osan smashes its shell and destroys the brain inside. With legs collapsing, the firebeetle slams into the rocky ledge with a dull thump.

Exhausted and panting, the druid takes stock and moves over to the pair of tunnels. Straining, he quickly piles the scattered rocks in front of both, ensuring that any returning beetles will take a while to emerge. Free of danger (at least temporarily), the druid tends his wounds and determines what to do.

ACCUMULATED EXP: (1 firebeetle) x (14 exp/beetle) = 14 EXP.

Osan regains 1 HP for bandaging/tending his wounds.

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan, (HP 6/8)

Osan uses a Cure Minor Wounds orison to heal some more of the damage dealt by the fire beetle's mandibles.
Taking out his knife, he turns his attention to the carcase of the fire beetle, cutting out the glowing glands that he then skewers on one of his arrows, creating an eerie red beetle gland torch. In the red light, he recovers his lamp and other gear on the ledge, and takes a closer look at the surroundings, especially for any tunnels leading out, whether above or below the water. He will dip the fire beetle stick under the water to help him see under the water.

If he hears any fire beetles working on moving the rocks, he will pile more in the tunnel opening.

Osan then rummages through his pack and pouches to find some lint or perhaps a feather or two from the grouse and places them on the water to help see what current may be in the water.

[Landifarne]

Looking about the cave the druid sees only the water chute that he fell from. That, and the two small firebeetle tunnels. The ceiling is low enough to note that there are no openings up there.

Placing a few feathers that he found on the water's surface, what intrigues Osan is that the feathers slowly work there way over to the side opposite the chute. Once there, they swirl around incessently, indicating that there is a small vortex below.

Hearing the firebeetles begin to work on the rocks from both tunnels, Osan decides to hammer a few smaller rocks into the piles, wedging them more firmly. Confident that the firebeetles will not be bothering him for a little while, Osan tries to figure out how to get out of his predicament.

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan (7/8)

Osan gathers his gear, checks his waterskin filled with air and refills it if necessary and tightly lashes his fire beetle bladder stick to his staff so he can put it farther under water to investigate. On the ledge he will look for a large rock or preferably some formation in the wall or floor of the ledge to which he could he could secure one end of his rope, he will use his hammer to fashion such a rope hold if necessary, and then tie one end of his rope to it and the other around his waist. While looking for such a point to secure his rope, Osan will tap the walls - high, low, and middle - to see if any sound to be hollow, or seem to be particularly soft, and looks for anything unusual that could indicate a passage or way out from the ledge.

Assuming no hollow or weak part of the ledge was found, and regardless of whether he is able to use his rope as he hopes, he will then enter the water at its shallowest point and using his skewered fire beetle gland staff, carefully make his way over to the vortex, skirting the edge of the cavern were he expects it will be the most shallow, and then investigate more closely the walls below water near the vortex.

[Landifarne]

Osan ties his rope off on a projecting rock and enters the water after thoroughly checking all the walls of the chamber with his hammer. Nothing seems promising, so the druid tentatively enters the cold water (which seems like it should be colder than it feels against his skin) and works his way towards the vortex's location.

Dipping his head in, Osan can tell that the force of the flow downward is not strong enough to cause him danger, and that he can probably swim down to the small hole that he sees near the bottom of the wall. Returning to the ledge, the druid grabs a fair sized rock and uses that to pull himself downwards...rather than fight his natural bouyancy.

Unfortunately, once at the bottom he sees that the hole appears to be not much larger than the druid himself- and begins to worry about the possiblilty of moving through the passage with his staff and shield. Inspecting the exit tunnel, the druid sees that he will have to shove his pack before him, or perhaps drag it behind, in order to get the thing through. His staff will never make it through the twisting tube, he sees. The shield may also be problematic. Taking a few gulps of air from his skin, Osan pokes his head into the underwater passageway and becomes a bit worried...moving through will be challenging.

Moving back to the center of the flooded chamber Osan uses the light of the firebeetle glands to find his pouch of sling pellets and waterlogged cloak. Grabbing them both, the druid hauls them to the surface.

Back at the ledge, the druid notices that the firebeetles have been worrying the small boulders out of the way, and that it won't be too much longer before they are able to break through.

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan

Looking at the fire beetle tunnels, far too small for himself, Osan is glad to have retrieved his bullets and cloak, but a bit concerned about the underwater tunnel exit. Taking the fire beetle gland arrow off of his staff he folds up his cloak as much as he can. He unties the rope, removes his pack and moves equipment into his pack so he himself will be more manueverable.

He makes sure to secure the 34 river pebbles, gemstones, gold, silver, and his red clay token tightly in his small belt pouch along with his mistletoe, and ties one of the fire beetle glands to his pack, put one in his large belt pouch, and leaves one on the arrow shaft.

Filling his waterskin with air again, he ties the rope to the center of his staff, puts a few knots in the other end and moves off to the underwater tunnel. Checking that his knife is accessible at his belt he pushes his pack into the tunnel in front of him, and moves into the tunnel holding the knotted end of the rope in one hand with the strap of his pack, and his fire beetle arrow and wineskin in the other. He hopes his trusty staff will serve one last task acting to secure the rope should this tunnel end up a dangerous slide.

[Landifarne]

Osan swims through the convoluted tunnel, managing to push and pull his pack quite a distance...parhaps eighty or ninety feet along the narrow, twisting passageway. Sipping air from the wineskin, he droppped his rope further back and had to abandon the pack a few times when he noted that his air was mostly gone. Returning repeatedly to the firebeetle cave, the druid did manage to push the pack further along, and he swam upwards, erupting into a small chamber at the top of a seven or eight foot diameter vertical shaft. Like the firebeetle cave, the small air pocket also had a small ledge.

Coming up for air, but leaving his pack at the bottom of the fifteen foot shaft, Osan blinks water out of his eyes and gazes upon an unexpected sight-

Lying below the skull are a set of calcified bones, with arms crossed and hands closed over some kind of object.

As he was coming up the shaft, Osan viewed a secondary tunnel leading off of the vertical shaft- about five feet below the air pocket. Sadly, the druid notes that he will barely be able to squeeze himself through the opening and will not be able to push his pack through.

The atmosphere in the air pocket is not terribly healthy, Osan notes, as the skeleton has somewhat befouled the cramped space.

I assume he left his shield in the firebeetle cave, as you don't mention it in the last post.

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan

Osan leaves his pack with the hammer, drinking gourd, map case, bowl, and soaked rations behind. Any dried meat that might survive the soaking he will move to his belt pouches. He also leaves behind on the ledge twenty eight of his sling bullets, and the other arrows found on the plateau.

Secured to his belt are his aklys, sling, knife, pouch with 12 bullets, his belt pouches, and an empty sack.
His belt pouches now contain:
Small belt pouch: red clay pebble, 34 river pebbles, 3 semi-precious gems, 20 gold, 1 silver, mistletoe, beetle gland, tinderbox, holly, shamrock, pine spring, pine cone.
Large belt pouch: 2 candles, oil lamp, oil flask, charcoal, 2 pine cones, 2 arrowheads, beetle gland.

He will also take off his armor, bundle it tightly in the cloak, and put that bundle on the edge of the secondary tunnel.

He will then find a means to secure his precious silver sickle, if necessary breaking off the handle and taking only the silver blade with him, hopefully secure to his person, but if there is no other choice he will bundle it in with his armor in the cloak.

In hand are his waterskin and the arrow with a beetle gland on it.

If the air here is very bad and his waterskin is still mostly full, he will not add air from here to his waterskin, otherwise he will refill the air supply.

This done he takes a closer look at the skeletal remains, nudging them away from the water with the butt of the arrow, to get a better view of what the object beneath the bones is.

[Landifarne]

Retrieving what he could, Osan secured his valuables in his pouches and managed to tie his silver harvesting sickle to his belt in as unobtrusive a position as possible. The sickle shaped blade curved down to his groin and was affixed in the most awkward of fashions- the druid was going to have to watch how quickly he moved about, else he would geld himself.

Although the air was foul Osan realized that he was already breathing it and would need to fill his water skin once more. Doing so, he then placed his valuable, but unavoidably impossible-to-take, armour and cloak next to the calcified skeleton. Having situated himself, and beginning to run out of air, Osan shifted the unfortunate fellow's hands and beheld what he had been clutching-

The figurine was recognized by the wilder as being an idol of the Norlund Gallians' primary god...some Ballish, or Bellush, or somehitng of that sort. The man who died on the shelf must have been cradling the idol when he perished.

Could Osan get out of his predicament? The only thing that reasured him was that the dead man's skeleton revealed that he was a very large individual. Perhaps his bulk had prevented him from proceeding down the only passage that seemed possible...

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan

Seeing his only choice for the placement of his sickle, Osan carefully dulls its edge on the lip of the rocky ledge, I'll just have to whet you a bit longer once I'm out of here, he mumbles out loud to himself. He then takes a moment to gather his composure and reach out for any unexpected energy sources nearby, casts a Cure Minor Wounds orison to bring himself up to full strength, carefully takes the idol in the skeleton's hands, places a silver coin in its place, and then puts the idol in his large belt pouch, and heads down to squeeze his way through the next underwater tunnel.

ooc: still has the cocoon remnants in the sack on his belt. I updated his character sheet to reflect all the changes in items carried.

[Landifarne]

Squeezing into the very tight, twisting passage, Osan works his way through sixty or seventy feet of hell. At a point about half way through the druid gets caught and runs out of air. Freeing himself, he moves into a larger space but immediately feels the tug of outflowing water pulling him downwards. Sucked near the floor of a larger cave, where a water rushes into a small crack on the rock, Osan begins to panic. Pushing off the floor to get away, the wilder fatigues and starts to drown. Water seeps into his lungs.

Roll a Constitution check. If he fails, then d4 for drowning damage.

Feeling that he is about to die, the wilder shifts laterally, away from the vortex and finds himself popping up like a cork. Emerging from the water- with eyes beginning to show spots, Osan chokes on a combination of water and air.

Floating helplessly in the water, Osan's arm brushes against a sediment-coated floor and pulls himself out of the pool ever so slowly. Arcing his arm in imitation of a backstroke, the druid drags himself up. Completely drained, and hacking water out of his lungs, the wilder waits quite a while before he is able to flop himself over and drag himself out, onto dry ground. Whatever had been keeping him warm throughout this ordeal continued to do its job, as the druid noticed that the room was even cooler in temperature than the firebeetles' cavern. Osan feels cold, but not dangerously so.

The room that Osan finds himself in is ellipsoidal, ten feet across and twenty feet long. Beached on six feet of dry ground near the far end, the druid sees that he came up out of a pool that occupies most of the cavern's space. Directly above him, at the end of the cavern is a curious sight:

A curtain of tree roots extends fiftten feet down from the top of the cavern wall. At that height is an obvious passage- from which the numerous roots descend. The opening is wide and tall enough to allow a human to pass through, but the druid will have to climb up the curtain to get there.

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan

Finally catching his breath, Osan waits for the spots to leave his eyes, and in the light of the fire beetle gland Osan looks at the dry ground for any telltale signs that anything else has been here recently, tracks of some sort, droppings, or the like. He then looks to the walls and ceiling for any crevices or niches where something may be hiding.

If he sees nothing indicating any creatures having recently been here, he will gather himself together, sit up, and reach out with his senses. Afterwards he will check his pouches and possessions, making sure everything was secure, and seeing if anything was lost in his last scramble through the water.

Standing up, he walks closer to the roots and with the eerie red fire beetle light sees how difficult it appears to climb the roots.



Osan Con Check (12-): [1d20] = 2

[Landifarne]

Looking about the cave, Osan sees that there are no tracks or traces of any animals on his small dry stretch. Moving to the tree curtain after ensuring that all of this possessions were in place, the druid saw that the roots varied in thickness, from less than a finger width up to the thickness of his wrist. Braiding the roots into some type of lattice would allow him to climb up fairly easily.

I noticed that you mistakenly put 20 gp rather than 2 gp and 20 cp. That would be a huge difference, as 20 sp = 1 gp and I give 1 EXP per sp.

[NJWilliam]

Osan

Osan jabs his fire beetle arrow light into the earth near the roots so he has both hands to work with, and begins braiding the roots into something he can climb. He takes his time, glad to be in surroundings that he feels more akin with, and allowing the time to help start drying his clothing and gear.

Fixed the coin, I thought it seemed like a lot.

[Landifarne]

Reaching out with his senses, Osan doesn't feel much life nearby: insects, the trees that he's in contact with; tiny organisms in the water. The cavern is fairly devoid of life.

Working his way up the braided curtain it takes the druid twenty minutes of braiding and knotting to reach the top. As he reaches the top he notices that there is and abundance of thick cobwebs filling most of the sill-like horizontal cavern that he's come to.

The new, wide cave varies in height from three to four feet, and extends out in several directions. It looks much like a web-shrouded, natural maze with low ceilings. Osan will either hanve to crouch or crawl while he makes his way through the cave.

Osan doesn't have any ember, and his tinder may be wet...

1-33: tinder is not wet; 34-100: tinder is wet

Wet Tinder? [1d100] = 93

Feeling his tinder, Osan discoveres that it is wet. He'll have to use something else if he wishes to make a fire.

[NJWilliam]

Osan (hp 8/8)

Having had a look at the cobwebs and the next part of his path away from the sarsens on the plateau, Osan gathers a handful of cobwebs and clambers back down the roots and collects his fire beetle gland arrow. Taking a seat on the dry ground near the water, Osan takes out the two other fire beetle glands that he had stowed in each of his belt pouches checking to see how much light they still have in them, and if a useful light remains returning all three to the arrow that has become his light source.

He then scours the roots for some thinner tendrils and some dry pieces. With his knife he splits and shaves the wood into small pieces useful for starting a fire, and spreads out his wet tinders to allow them to dry. Osan strikes some sparks onto the cobwebs and new shavings and adds a little oil to his lamp to allow a flame for a little while that he gathers the damp tinders around to help them dry. He then goes through his pouches, drying what he can, and taking a bit of time to study the 34 river pebbles he found earlier.

Once the tinders have dried enough to be serviceable, Osan puts them away with his new shavings, and if the beetle glands still have light, snuffs out his lamp to save what oil remains. He then proceeds back up the roots, lights his lamp and crouches down and proceeds to the left of the cavern above, lighting cobwebs that block his passage as he goes.

[Landifarne]

Crouching and stooping, Osan makes his way along the left wall of the wide chamber. Burning those cobwebs that are in his way, he notices that there are a large number of carcasses hanging in the webs- the dessicated remains of giant rats.

There are three passages that he can choose to go down, his lamp illuminating only about 15' ahead due to the thick webs.

Map Spoiler-

T = tree roots

[NJWilliam]

Osan Taan (8/8)

Osan grimaces at the number of rat corpse husks in the webs. Nothing to do but push on, he thinks, this lamp won't last forever. He moves the beetle glands up to the end of the arrow where a flick of his wrist would launch the gland off the arrow and holds his aklys in his hand with the arrow. Keeping his eyes open for any signs of recent activity on the floor, low ceiling, or walls, he skirts around the left wall of the cavern to get a closer look at the furthest tunnel, it appearing to be the widest.