Interlude 2: Rest & Resupply & ... ?

[drpete]

Date: Skullmont 9, 4:00 pm
Season: Early Fall
Weather: Cool and Clear
Moon phase: First Quarter
Location: Camp

Deciding to leave the giant ape-man alone, the group climbs the short wall between them and the mountain slope, and clamber down the mountain. This slows your progress somewhat, but noone is hurt on the way down to the next switchback. Looking up, you can see the ape man watching your descent, now from above, but he doesn't do anything to follow you, or further harass you.

You make it down to the camp without further incident, and the two male mercenaries, Ammey and Othon, are there waiting for you. They have a fire going, and when they see you, they pour you some warm venison stew and give you some fresh bread, fruit and beer. They report that things have been pretty quiet, though they did see something flying overhead, possibly a dragon, around lunchtime.

You guys have made it out of the dungeon, without major casualties. What now...?

[kalstone]

Solaine grabs a bowl of stew and sets into it with the vigor of a veteran campaigner. "Something flying? Probably that wyvern. Hopefully it will leave us alone." She prepares to take a nice rest to recover from her wounds.

[bobloblah]

Brother Galen meditates for an hour on the vagaries of Fate while the others partake of venison stew. Once done, he joins the others in eating, feeds Ajax, and then prepares to head back to Muntberg.

How long is the hike from camp to Muntberg?

[drpete]

It's about an hour and a half back to Muntberg. You've been going for a "full" 8 hour day once you get to the camp, and though you certainly can keep going, you're definitely entering "forced march" territory if you want to march and use powers and stuff for 10-11 hours straight. I don't know if it matters, since you can rest a day, but keep it in mind if you want to push on today.

[bobloblah]

Chance of Wandering Monsters in Muntberg?
0%
Chance of Wandering Monsters in camp?
>0%
The peace of mind from no Wandering Monsters?
Priceless.

[drpete]

Sounds like a plan. Mediate & eat, hike back, and then detect magic on the masks. If people are on board with this plan, and/or want to add more to the day, please let me know. Once we see how that works out, we can get into the nitty gritty of what's happening in the next couple days.

[kalstone]

Solaine agrees with Galen's plan.

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr's mouth is too full of stew to do much other than nod in agreement.

[drpete]

Date: Skullmont 9, 7:00 pm
Season: Early Fall
Weather: Cool and Clear
Moon phase: First Quarter
Location: Muntberg

After a nice meal, the group heads back to town, leaving the mercenaries to guard the camp. As you leave them, it occurs to you that if you are not safe there, those 2 guys aren't terribly safe there, either, but somebody should probably guard the camp.

You go back to your rooms, and Galen casts detect magic on your booty. The mirror and the black skeleton bones do not detect as magical, but the masks do...

Solaine and Ranulf are certainly aware of "war masks" like this, which attach to the front of helmets. These ones look pretty badass, but it's not clear what they do, otherwise.

The masks are more monster/demon looking than this, but they are this kind of thing, kind of a monster costume, kind of a tool of intimidation. Think Jason, or Kyle Ren, or V is for Vendetta.

512SursOPRL.jpg (36.57 KiB) Viewed 1024 times

[bobloblah]

How many masks do we have in our possession?

Also, I thought we'd be breaking camp and bringing everyone back to Muntberg. Can anyone else think of a reason not to do that? Our mercenaries gossiping, maybe?

[drpete]

Well, the camp was brought out there with a wagon. You have a semi permanent installation there, with agreements to bring food, etc. You can arrange to bring it all back to town, but it's an undertaking.

You have 6 masks total, spread around among various people. Estimating their value as masks, they might be worth ... well, a lot. Maybe 2000 each, based on materials...? It's hard to say, really, at this level.

[bobloblah]

Okay, thanks. I'd forgotten how seriously we'd set up this base camp.

[Dogma]

"We'd probably get a better price for these in Adamas...maybe we could find some sort of artifacts collector? Or better yet, find someone who could tell us exactly what they are. Questions is do we taek the time to travel to Adamas or can we find someone we trust enough to be our agent and take care of it for us?"

We had set up a pretty involved camp. I was a bit surprised when I read you guys wanted to come back to town. But no worries Maybe Ranulf can pick up the crossbow he ordered. Be nice to pick up some other missle weapons for Audi and Emm to if we could.

drpete...I'm still thinking about the idea of setting up supply caches throughout the dungeon. If we were to buy small chests for food storage would that help protect them from vermin etc?

[drpete]

Date: Skullmont 10, 8:00 am
Season: Early Fall
Weather: Cool and Rainy (Cold)
Moon phase: First Quarter
Conditions: (-1 on to hit & damage rolls until 24 hours rest)
Location: Muntberg

You pass an uneventful night, and awaken to a drizzly, chilly day. Emm seems to have taken to caring for Ajax. She explains that she grew up on a farm, and caring fof animals comes naturally to her.

You head over to the Flask and Scroll Tavern for some breakfast, and Torgyr sees Durric, his dwarven friend, the guard at the moneychanger's, eating a plate of eggs and sausage. He invites the group to join him at breakfast. "Good Morning, Explorers! How goes it?"

[bobloblah]

"Most challenging, most challenging, Master Dwarf. Luck was with us, and She allowed us to escape with our lives, and not much else. There are black skeletons there, near impervious to harm, and over which the Gods hold no power..." Brother Galen pauses, looking at the dwarf's plate, "Are you going to finish that?"

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr sits wearily and asks for a plate of eggs as well. He looks long at Durric and when he catches his eye he holds up two stubby fingers.

"We found two fallen brothers, a few rooms in. Looks to have gone down fighting. I don't know if they were some of the ones you asked about, but it seems more than likely. My condolences."

[drpete]

Durric listens to Galen's story with curiosity, nodding, then pulls his food away, giving Galen a confused look when he asks for some. "You can get your own. They like it when people order food. .." Then he grins, thinking it was a joke.

Listening to Torgyr's story, Durric's face grows pale and serious. "That is tragic. Poor souls, lost inthe dark. It's been a while, so there may be more heartache waiting down below, but if the others are alive... could they be ...?" Durric leaves the details of his hopeful speculation unspoken, and shakes his head sadly.

[Lamech]

Steel supports selling the mask quickly.
It think we did some good. We cleaned out some of the orcs. Chewed up the skeletons. I suspect there is more to do though.

[drpete]

Durric nods at Steel "You've found two of your brothers, yes. The others are still down there. Maybe dead, but maybe not. Until then, surely there is more to do."

I assume you guys want to go try to sell one mask to the caravan merchant, and place orders for pigs, oil, etc. Is this right

[bobloblah]

Yes.