Chapter Two: Back into the Mountain

[Dogma]

"That chunk of stone ain't going nowhere, Torgyr. Let's leave it for later."

[Zorroroaster]

"Right, ok. Good idea."

Torgyr will leave off trying to budge the altar, and prepares to leave.

[drpete]

Alright... so it sounds like you want to leave now. (Either way is fine for me, just let me know.) If you are going, let me know how you are leaving, and if you want to do anything with that bag, or the statues, or anything.

[kalstone]

Solaine drinks the rest of her water, making room in her pack for some pieces from the skeletons as they leave.

If empty waterskins count as an item, then she'll take two monster "pieces". Otherwise, she'll take three.

[drpete]

The waterskins count as one item, together, but can be worn outside the pack. So you want to take a stones worth of bones? (3 "monster parts")

[kalstone]

Yep. One stone's worth.

[drpete]

Sensing that they are pushing their luck, the party decides to come back another day to investigate the chapel. Solaine gathers some more of the skeleton bones, the torches are stashed in the dusty storeroom, and the food is distributed to Emm and Audi to carry.

The group heads out of the dungeon into the cold air of the autumn afternoon, and begin heading down the mountain. Part way down, as you are approaching one of the fortifications, you notice a large figure poking around the ruined tower. It is about 10 feet tall, and seems to be a giant ape-man, holding a large tree branch club. It looks up the trail at you, but doesn't move from its spot at the entrance of the old tower.

[Lamech]

Let's give that thing a lot of space. Steel whispers. He doesn't want to start a fight when they are in less than top form.

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr's voice is equally hushed.

"I agree, although I don't know if we can get around him or not. If it came to a fight, what would be the best plan? We'd get a few shots at him before he reached us, but after that I think we'd be in big trouble. Look at the size of that club!"

"Let's wait and see what he does. Maybe he'll wander off."

[drpete]

You've spotted each other from a fair distance, about 140 meters apart. You could avoid it by going off of the path (and trying to scramble down the mountain) but this guy has seen you, and you would get out of sight by gEttinger off the path, at least not for a while.

A picture:

It looks basically like this, but it is holding a club and wearing pants.

gigantopithecus-blackii.jpg (33.83 KiB) Viewed 1033 times

[kalstone]

You could avoid it by going off of the path (and trying to scramble down the mountain) but this guy has seen you, and you would get out of sight by gEttinger off the path, at least not for a while.

Pete, I'm not understanding this part. Do you mean that we would not get out of sight immediately by leaving the path, but that we would have to travel a bit before finding cover? How safe is leaving the path? Does it look like we would have a high risk of falling?

[drpete]

The path down the mountain does "switchbacks" to avoid going straight up, so on one side of the path is a fairly steep descent, and if you scramble down the mountain that way, you'd avoid having to pass the apeman directly, and you would reconnect with the path after it switches to going the other way.

The problem is that the mountain is pretty bare up here, and you have a pretty clear view down the mountain. There is a small wall along the lip, which would even give you cover if you wanted to shoot down at people approaching from the lower leg of the switchback. This means going "off trail" won't automatically get you out of sight of something in the old "watch tower".

[Dogma]

"Aye,"agreed Ranulf, "Hopefully if we don't do anything hostile to piss it off it will just wander away. Though keep your eyes open in case it has friends around."

[drpete]

The apeman watches you for a bit, then comes out from the cover of the tower. It roars at you, and beats on its chest with one fist, while waving its club in the air. It then runs about 10 meters toward you, and waves it's club in the air, hooting excitedly. It's not super close, but it is pretty intimidating.

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr shakes his head in frustration.

"Damn. We can probably reach the next leg of the switchback if we bushwhack for a bit, but it doesn't deal with our new friend. I have a sinking feeling he's going to claim ownership of that tower and we'll be seeing him again on our way back up."

[Lamech]

"Probably, but we can prepare for him. With the right equipment he'll be much easier to deal with."

[Dogma]

Ranulf, Human fighter

"I agree with Steel. If he wants the tower let him have it. We can always take it from him later when we're better prepared. Besides, what are we going to do with it right now?"

[kalstone]

Solaine agrees. "Mavors teaches that fortune favors the bold, but attacking this thing would be suicidal. Let's prepare and deal with this thing at a time of our choosing."

[bobloblah]

Brother Galen squints at the big, furred humanoid, sizing him up, "Then let's at least keep Ranulf and the Spear-maidens ready for him as we circle, and ranged weapons close at hand! No point tempting my Lady, now..."