Expedition - Lug/Exploration - May 20, 1 VC

[Zhym]

Lug probably can't throw a sword quite that high.

"Well, what do you all think?" he asks. "Climb up here and set camp on the slopes, or go the long way around?"

[Zhym]

"Let's go around to the north side," decides Lug. "At least that way we'll get to camp at the base of the mountain."

[Keehnelf]

May 26, 1 VC - 10:20am

The party heads north around the steep debris-slope that has been left by the mountain's collapse on the northwest side, toward the larger and more intact sections of the mountain visible further to the northeast. About a half-hour before dark, they find a large formation of broken stone that provides shelter in two directions from wind and from observation, which allows them to make a decent camp with a cookfire for the night. The dark hours pass uneventfully, and in the morning only a light drizzle disturbs the ascent up a much shallower and more stable section of the flow from above, making it tiring but relatively safe work despite the reduced visibility from steam pouring in increasing volumes out over the caldera above as the falling rain is converted to a hanging fog bank.

By late morning, the group has attained the final gradual ascent to the broken lip of the caldera alongside which the openings of the night before had been spotted. They can see that their initial observations were correct: multiple levels of corridors and chambers have been revealed going up from the party's current position, exposed by the sudden disappearance of the stone that had housed the now-missing fraction of the mountain's side. It is clear that the outgoing lava flow has re-covered at least one or two levels of corridor that would otherwise be exposed, but the nearest above ground level is only six feet up and they see at least four more distinct openings at roughly twenty-foot intervals exposed on the broken stone face above them, arrayed back and forth.

As the group approaches within range to see these details, they also spot three humanoid figures sitting on the floor of one of these exposed corridors, legs hanging out into open space, roughly 25 feet above the ground. They make no motion to hail the party from where they are (still a few hundred feet distant), but neither do they make a move to retreat.

Please deduct one day's rations apiece.

[Zhym]

Lug drops low to the ground—well, low for him, anyway. Crouching, he's still taller than Orrin standing up. He wonders if the three figures, who look like stereotypical workers on their morning coffee break, can see him.

"Can any of you see them better'n I can?" he whispers. "If so, do you see any weapons or anything?"

I'm having trouble visualizing where we are. Have we climbed to the lip of the caldera? Are the exposed passages on the outer face of the mountain or inside the caldera? Is lava visible?

[Marullus]

My understanding:
We're on the lip of a "Caldera" or pool of still-liquid lava. The mountain face above us is sheered off, revealing a side view of several layers of the dungeon within. These layers are every 20'. So, the first is 6' up, the second (where these guys sit) is 26' up.

I don't understand how they're still "several hundred" yards away. How far from the mountain face are we?

Can we gauge their size or race?

When you say, "multiple levels of corridors and chambers have been revealed going up from the party's current position" can you provide more detail? Are we looking at the end of a hallway (essentially a single exposed doorway) or the side of a hallway (a long inset with several hallways or doors we can see going off of it) or chambers (how large a room and with what clues to its contents?)

[Zhym]

The caldera is basically the volcanic "crater," right? So if we're at the edge of the caldera, we're as high as the mountain goes on the side we're on. For anything to be above us, it'd have to be to one side or the other or across the caldera. And we'd be looking down toward either lava or a smoking lava dome. So I don't understand how we can both be at the edge of the caldera and have a mountain face above us, except for the part that's across the caldera.

[Keehnelf]

It's obviously a bit complex. I'll draw a rough diagram to demonstrate in a bit.

[Keehnelf]

due to meetings, I totally did t get to this today, but i'LL put something together tonight to post in Paint.

[Keehnelf]

Don't deride my Paint skills too much, please!

[Zhym]

Ohhhhh! Okay, I get it now.

Lug, still crouching, looks back on the devastation to the west. Can he see Xavro's grove, sticking out like a green thumb in a sea of grey? Somewhere beyond is the tree witch's tree. He touches the pouch of tree witch hair around his neck and wonders if she survived. Probably so, he decides. Her tree was all alone in a large clearing. What about the spider cave? Is that buried under debris too?

So much destruction. Would tossing the black sword into the lava that is now so close unleash the volcano's fury like that again? Maybe he should try to make friends with the lizard men.

"Okay," he whispers. "Let's scoot toward those figures all quiet-like if we can. Niles, please be ready to sleepify them when we're in range. If they're good guys, we'll just wake them up and no harm done. If they aren't, I don't want 'em taking pot shots at us as we approach."

[Marullus]

Niles nods and flips up the hood on his cloak, using his tall staff as a brace as they climb ever closer. "That I'll do... they always like to shoot the wizards first."

He advances cautiously behind Lug until he can discern more about the figures or they get within range of the spell.

[Keehnelf]

May 26, 1VC - 10:40am

The party turns and looks back toward the west and north. At the horizon, they see a dull silver glimmer that must be water of some kind, and slowly snaking around in an arc north and east they can see the long wide ribbon of a river that passes no more than twenty miles from the north face of the mountain, drifting away again to the northeast and disappearing in a low range of blue hills that marches south out of sight behind the mountain's broad flank. A bridge crosses the river almost due north from the mountain, a broad highway disappearing into the rocky wilderness on the far side and stretching south like a welcoming hand toward the mountain. There must be a gate further east on the north side, unless if too was destroyed or buried in the eruption.

To the south of the river, almost everything is gray mottled with black: the remains of the forest with small slender sticks rising out of the ash here and there--massive sentinel pines or ancient oaks that somehow escaped the worst and would help the forest, eventually, to regenerate.

Far to the west, halfway to the shimmer of water on the horizon, sits an embarrassingly small clump of green: the portion of the forest preserved by the adventurers, in the midst of which lay the jarban grove...and Xavro, perhaps.

Vaul itself is invisible from this vantage, hidden behind the southwest part of the mountain rising sheer out of the broken land, but the group can sense it there, their senses honed to it almost supernaturally as the one true respite and shield against the wild.

Turning away from these considerations, the party continues up the uneven slope toward the unknown figures. At two hundred feet, they resolve as human, wearing tanned hides, their skin a radiant golden brown. They appear to be partaking of a mid-morning meal from their vantage point. The one on the right side raises a hand in silent greeting, and calls out in an unknown tongue, his speech full of whorls and quick hops. When he receives no reply in kind, he calls out once again in the tongue of Law, though his words are clipped and unpracticed.

For Lawful characters' ears only:

"Hail, travelers! It is time for peace-making! Do you come from the mountain, or the west?"

edit: just bolded the time stamp to make it stick out for me as i cruise back through.

[Zhym]

Lug, startled to be greeted in something other than a hostile fashion for once, raises a hand and waves. "Hi there!" he calls out. "I'm Lug! These are my friends! Are you friends?"

[Marullus]

Niles is apprehensive and suspicious, poised and ready to cast his enchantment. "Well?"

[Zorroroaster]

Orrin chuckles a bit at Niles' apprehension.

"It's ok, I believe they mean us no harm. They speak of peace. I'm inclined to believe them. Let's see who they are."

[Zhym]

"Tell 'em hi and say we're friends," says Lug. "Then see if you can figure out who they are and why they're here and if they've seen Adrienne and if they know how to make friends with lizard people."

"Maybe not all at once."

[KingOfCowards]

Bertram lowers his bow as Orrin talks of peace.
He looks on hopefully as they continue.

[Keehnelf]

I'm going to move forward on the assumption that Orrin, if not others, begins to operate as a translator for the two groups.

The one who spoke before responds in kind to the greeting, still speaking in the Lawful tongue.

"We are Horathi, the rock-tribe, from the northlands. I am Kieros, Champion of the Sun. With me are my spear-brothers Leyor and Aneiros. We saw the great fire and came to learn more. We heard the green-skins had taken this mountain from the short-men. You are a short-man too, I see--but we have seen no green-skins. Are you from the mountain, or from the west?"

[Zhym]

"We're kind of more from the south?" says Lug. "Though I guess it's kinda south-west. Why? Are you friends with people from the west?"

[Keehnelf]

"In the west is only the swamp and the Giriritak. We no longer make war with the Giriritak, but they are friends to no man. If you come from the west, perhaps things have changed there. But you say you come from the south. South is only emptiness and void, the old wild lands and beyond the mountains at the end of the world. Are you ghosts, risen from the graves of the short-men because of the great fire?" Kieros looks concerned, and his companions exchange a dark look.