The Stinking Bugbear Cave (Intro)

[Rex]

Othrod

Othrod keeps an eye out for anything different happening on the walls and when he thinks it best he sneaks up to the wall below the tower nearest the 70 footer. He wants to examine it and see if he thinks he can climb the wall anywhere. Then if nothing changes he will try to sneak to the base of the 70 foot tower and examine that. The whole time he will try to use his bugbear sneakiness.

[ravenn4544]

Ondrake is getting bored with doing nothing. "How we get in? If can't climb up, where is the door?"

[Urson]

Horsefly

Yeah, sure. Long as youse can take off again..

[Rusty Tincanne]

I hadn't read the map right before, and thought we were closer to the base of the tower, not down the ravine.

Horny Carl listens to the little voice and changes direction again, heading west along the base of the cliff. He will look for any signs of a larger tunnel or anything remotely useful. He feels odd about being so close to the Keep.

[Computer +1]

Shozbot

Shozbot starts following Kermet down the narrow tunnel. He matches the gnoll's pace so that if anything surprising happens Shozbot should be clear.

[Pulpatoon]

Thamansa attempts a light and stealthy landing on the blue-glowing corner tower. If she manages this feat, she'll see if she can hear anything from below. If she can't, she'll unstrap Horsefly and gesture that he should crawl closer to the open balcony.

[OGRE MAGE]

At The Tunnel
2 Days Left
Early Evening, Dark, Clear, Quiet

The groups leader, Othrod the bugbear champion, climbs up to the ledge of the plateau again and sticks tight to the wall there. He doesn't spot anything unusual with the stonework of the wall, and the guard hasn't looked over the edge of the wall yet, so he continues sneaking towards the tallest 70' tower. There he finds light emanating from all the cracks and fissures in the stonework. There appears to be light coming from each floor level, all the way up the tall tower. He can tell that this tower is very old and is looking quite dilapidated. At the base of the tower is a narrow open trench that runs from inside of the wall to the edge of the ravine. A pungent brown residue smelling of human waste fills the trench and the side of the ravine here is also coated with the stuff.

Horny Carl climbs back out onto the ravine wall, slowly moving across the back of the Keep towards the eastern rear tower. Again he finds nothing but strong stone walls at the rear of the structure, and no other means to access the keep. He sees light on the north wall and both rear towers, and spots slight movement from the guards there, but so far he believes that he hasn't been spotted yet. Ondrake the giant watches the bugbear and minotaur climb out onto the opposite sides of the ravine. He starts to grow impatient with all the sneaking, asking where the front gate is located so he can simply smash through it like any good giant would.

Shozbot follows Kermut into the narrow tunnel and sees the gnoll slip around a corner of the T intersection. Kermut sees a small room filled with crates and casks. There are several packs and cloaks hanging from pegs on one wall next to what appear to be staves or walking sticks of some kind. Everything in this room appears very old and unused. The orc and gnoll smell animal waste near the ladder leading up at the end of the tunnel, but don't catch any scent of living beings in the vicinity.

Thamansa stays well above the globes of light surrounding the towers and walls, heading towards the southwest tower with the blue lights. She lands hard on the heavily pitched slate roof, making a bit more noise than she was hoping. Perched there precariously on the peaked roof, she unstraps her passenger and tells the old goblin to climb down to the highest balcony for a closer look.

As could be expected, the flying kobold is soon out of the sight of the rest of the group. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Actions?

map:

IMG_2441.JPG (1.4 MiB) Viewed 327 times

Loopis (kobold) 8/8
Horsefly (goblin) 8/8 [3/3/1]
Shozbot (orc) 18/18
Kermut (gnoll) 16/16
Thamansa (bugbear) 20/20 [3/3/0] Fly:? (a good long while)
Othrod (bugbear) 30/30
Horny Carl (minotaur) 40/40
Ondrake (hill giant) 50/50

[Rex]

Orthrod

Othrod will inspect the trench and the wall where light leaks through carefully.
Could he use the trench to sneak in?
If he couldn't who is the biggest they have that could?

Othrod thinks to himself "I may have found a good weak spot for Ondrake to do some bashing."

[Scott308]

Kermut

The gnoll will inspect the cloaks, eventually choosing one to wear.

Speaking quietly in orcish, he gestures to Shozbot to wear one as well.

If we wear these, we might blend in a bit better. Maybe make a human hesitate a second so we can kill it.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Horny Carl continues his sojourn East along the base of the ravine. He tries to keep his clippity-clopping hooves silent.

[Pulpatoon]

Thamansa clings to the cool slate like a great hairy bat, straining her every nerve in eager anticipation of what Horsefly might discover. What wonderful magics might be at work here! All hers, rightfully hers, for the taking!

[Urson]

Horsefly

Muttering something about getting his ass killed, Horsefly carefully climbs down to the balcony.

Dex check Dex: 12 [1d20] = 3

[ravenn4544]

Ondrake is bored. If he sees a way up (and if he'll fit) to following along the wall to do something, he will.

[Computer +1]

Shozbot

Shozbot nods at Kermut’s idea and dons one of hte cloaks. In orcish Good idea. This looks like a forgotten escape route. Smells like we may be near stables. He moves closer to the ladder and waits for Kermut to go up first. Just take a peek, lets see where this goes and stay unnoticed.

[OGRE MAGE]

At The Tunnel
2 Days Left
Early Evening, Dark, Clear, Quiet

With his gangly bugbear mount clinging tightly to the slate shingles of the peaked roof on the corner tower, Horsefly begins to climb down. The area below them appears empty, but a pale blue light shines from an open stone doorway out onto the balcony. Climbing down till he is just above the glow of the light, the goblin confirms that there are no guards present. He can see over into the main area of the keep and spots several wooden buildings in the common area below. A few lights here and there give him a glimpse of a few humans still out wandering around far below. If he climbs any lower from this spot, he will enter the radius of the blue light and could be seen by a distant guard.

Horny Carl continues climbing across the ravine wall to the far corner of the keep. He doesn't spot any alternate ways to enter and sees only more thick, fortified, stone walls above him. Once he reaches the corner of the ravine, he sees that there is another ledge that runs along the base of the keep on this side of the plateau where a raider could walk along, just like on the opposite side where Othrod is searching outside the tallest tower.

There the bugbear leader inspects the human waste trench a little closer. He finds that the opening under the tower is too small for any of them to enter, only about the size of his thick forearm. There is definitely waste flowing through it down into the ravine, but unless he could be shrunk down, he wont be able to access the trench. The huge bugbear cant see into the tower through any of the lower cracks, but there is a wider fissure with light escaping about 10 feet above his head. The guard above him on the wall doesn't appear to have spotted him yet.

Inside the narrow tunnel, Kermut and Shozbot don the old dusty cloaks. Being human sized garments, they don't fit the best, but they would keep them warm in a pinch. The orc inspects the ladder at the end of the tunnel and notices that it is covered in animal waste that appears to be dripping through the cracks of a closed hatch, 20 feet above his head. The excrement covers all of the ladders rungs, likely making them slippery and challenging to climb. Kermut looks over the rest of the boxes, crates, and casks in the tiny room and spots what appears to be a pair of naked human legs sticking out from in between 2 of the crates.

The 3 minutes of boredom finally gets to the groups hill giant. He shrugs his massive shoulders and climbs out beyond the outcropping hiding the tunnel and up onto the ledge behind Othrod. He sees the light from the torches just above his head on the wall and also spots the bugbear searching outside of the tall tower. He sees that this ledge runs along the side of the keep all the way to the front corner and possibly beyond. He isn't the sharpest spear in the barrel, but he assumes that there must be a front gate he could smash his way through somewhere along this ledge. So far he hasn't heard any alarms that would indicate that one of his little partners has been spotted.

Actions?

map:

IMG_2453.JPG (1.94 MiB) Viewed 299 times

Sorry! I don't know why this happens or how to fix it.

Loopis (kobold) 8/8
Horsefly (goblin) 8/8 [3/3/1]
Shozbot (orc) 18/18
Kermut (gnoll) 16/16
Thamansa (bugbear) 20/20 [3/3/0] Fly:? (a good long while)
Othrod (bugbear) 30/30
Horny Carl (minotaur) 40/40
Ondrake (hill giant) 50/50

[Rex]

Othrod

Othrod will try to climb up using the fissures for foot holds to see if the larger crack 10' above is big enough for anyone to sneak in through.

[Scott308]

Kermut

The gnoll will investigate the human legs, dagger at the ready.

[ravenn4544]

Ondrake watches Othrod climb the wall and wonders if he could get up there too. He'll wait to try.

[Urson]

Horsefly

The goblin holds his position for the moment, studying the area inside the keep and trying to memorize the buildings and sheds, so that he can add them to the map later.

[OGRE MAGE]

At The Tunnel
2 Days Left
Early Evening, Dark, Clear, Quiet

Ondrake climbs up a few feet to look into the larger fissure in the tower wall. All he can see inside the crack is a blinding light that pours out from each floor. Once in front of the crack, he blocks the escaping rays of light, causing a bit of a on off effect that can be seen from a distance. Ondrake walks a little closer and notices the variation in the light source. He then spots the guard on the wall, who might have noticed it as well. Other than the missing kobold, Othrod doesn't believe that the cracks are big enough to allow any of them entry into the tower.

Horsefly stays put on the roof, above the blue light balcony at the top of the round corner tower. He looks around for a minute to get the gist of the keeps inner layout. The wooden buildings below look harmless enough, with a stable, warehouse, and Inn near the front gate. There are a few other buildings that might be private residences or businesses, but there is little action around these at this hour. Most importantly, the goblin shaman spots a thick iron gate under the guardhouse that separates the inner and outer courtyards. One heavily armored guard stands in front of this gate, even at this late hour.

Kermut moves in between the boxes and crates to get a better look at the pair of legs he saw. There on the floor he finds a desiccated body of a young human female. She is dressed in only a light nightgown and appears to have been here for quite a long while. Her features are quite sunken and she has a look of fear and hatred on her death stare. There is a rather large dried blood stain on the front of her gown, but she doesn't appear to have anything else on her.

Actions?

map:

IMG_2458.JPG (771.86 KiB) Viewed 277 times

Loopis (kobold) 8/8
Horsefly (goblin) 8/8 [3/3/1]
Shozbot (orc) 18/18
Kermut (gnoll) 16/16
Thamansa (bugbear) 20/20 [3/3/0] Fly:? (a good long while)
Othrod (bugbear) 30/30
Horny Carl (minotaur) 40/40
Ondrake (hill giant) 50/50