IC III

[VonAlric]

Gardo

Hand on hilt, he appraises the newcomers. "Now, that is service! Didn't Ardath just say there were two people were coming and, here they are. Even better, Madame Fleur sent them to us. Funny how she forgot to mention that the last time we talked to her. It seems to me that there was something said about other people that were supposed to come along with Ardath but didn't make the initial trip. Maybe Ardath got twitchy and decided to leave quicker than expected. Well, we should be better now. One person left with two others to take their place means we are up one person. That's good math in my book."

[R.R. Brando]

Horatio

One of the riders is a bookish looking man with gear that looks just a little too new. He has a map in his hand and takes a moment to amend it before smiling pleasantly at the group, "A pleasure it is to meet you friends. My name is Horatio, sage and scholar, although I have skill with spear and spell. We were told to make haste lest we miss our chance at companionship in these woods. It is most auspicious that we have met here. It appears that we almost missed you! It's been a long ride, but if you'll allow us to catch our breath, we can head out with due haste."

[shaidar]

Newton looks over the newcomers

"No rushing required. Just before you got here we were about to discuss a search pattern to locate our target. More bodies makes this easier, so it's less rushing and more looking"

He smiles.

[R.R. Brando]

Horatio

Horatio removes his spectacles and cleans them a bit before placing them back on his head and pulling the hooks around his hears. "Well, yes, hmm. Finding things is actually a specialty of mine. Would you happen to know of an object that is in this trove? I do have the ability to track down the nearest example of a certain class of object. If there is something in the treasure that is unique, I may able to help you triangulate it. The range is short, but we could use it to eliminate certain areas once we start to narrow things down"

[The_Wanderer]

Feargus

"Sage, Scholar, Spear AND Spell. Wow! Mardan Cy - this guy's alliteration is better than yours!

We truly are blessed to meet your acquaintance and welcome you to our merry band. As for specific items in the horde - I'm afraid we are not quite so sure of that. Quite possibly the remains of Bandit Queen Datziznaid. But other than that...we are looking for disgustingly vast quantities of wealth. Ha! Does that help?"

[kalstone]

Svenn

"Just exactly how disgusting are we talking about? I'm not an expert at finding things; I usually help things get lost, but I'm certainly willing to try something new if it involves money."

[The_Wanderer]

Feargus

"Truly we do not know, but I have high hopes!"

This is a good time to point out our Planning thread with a long post in it with all the story threads we have.
viewtopic.php?p=555249#p555249

[thirdkingdom]

Sixthmonth, Seventeenthday
Hex 226.117?

The adventurers direct the mercenaries to begin establishing a base camp while adventurers discuss their next course of action. The mercenaries brighten visibly upon being told they will be remaining at the base camp, but their elated mood sours somewhat when Goshawk and Toma will be babsitting them. Eventually, a plan is hatched, the camp is established, and everyone settles in for the night.

Encounter on 1-2:: 1d6 6

Sixthmonth, Eighteenthday
Hex 226.117?
Team 1 starting at 12 o'clock and moving clockwise to 3 o'clock .
Feargus
Svenn
Newton
Ribar
Wulfka

The party heads north, then starts moving counterclockwise. Midway through the day, roughly in hex 08.07, the group stumbles across a cave, set into the side of a small hill. The mouth of the cave is blocked with rocks, arranged in a manner that seems intentional, and unlikely to have occurred naturally.

Sixthmonth, EIghteenthday
Hex 226.117?
Team 2 starting at 12 o'clock and moving anti-clockwise to 9 o'clock
Gardo
Horatio
Shmara
Wilter (from Newton)
Notai (from Gardo)
Mardan Cy (from Feargus)

The party heads north, then starts moving clockwise. They find nothing of interest during the day.

We're going to use shaidar's map, that I've superimposed with a hex grid. It may not be properly oriented, but hey, you guys aren't really sure where you are, anyway. This is more of a visual aid than a direct representation. Huh. That's weird. Cropping the image distorts the layout and scale of the imposition. Hmm. Let me see what I can do.

Two encounter rolls: Encounter on 1-2:: 2#1d6 5 4 Well, well, well. You guys lucked out.

Treasure Hunt.png (92.22 KiB) Viewed 344 times

Ignore the above. Let's use the below.

Treasure Hunt Try 2.png (82.96 KiB) Viewed 344 times

That's good enough.

[kalstone]

Svenn

"This seems promising." He examines the area around the pile of rocks, looking for traps.

[thirdkingdom]

Svenn

"This seems promising." He examines the area around the pile of rocks, looking for traps.

Sixthmonth, Eighteenthday
Subhex 08.07?
1:00 pm

Svenn approaches and carefully examines the stacked stones. They are arranged in such a manner so that, even though there is no mortar apparent, he would be hard pressed to slip a knife through any of the joins. The rogue notes that the stones are covered in moss and lichen, with generous amounts of leaf mold accumulated in the crevices between the stone; some with small plants sprouting. It seems to him that these stones have not been disturbed for many decades, perhaps longer. Moving the stones, in his opinion, would take several hours labor of many strong backs.

Roll redacted.

[shaidar]

Newton

"This indeed looks promising. So, do we note the location and continue the search, or do we stop and excavate? If the latter, do we send someone after the other group? Personally, I vote to finish the search and then return to any possible sites located as a group. "

[kalstone]

Svenn

"I agree. We don't know what may come out of that cave, and we should probably be all together when it is opened. Plus," he says, holding his back. "we could probably use people other than myself to help move the rocks. My old war wound is acting up."

[The_Wanderer]

Feargus

"Fair enough. Newton - take good notes so we can find this place again. You've got the best woodcraft of all of us I'd guess. Then we move on.

The mercenaries may not like it but we may have to put them to work clearing this opening, when the time comes. It wouldn't be the first time soldiers were used for manual labor."

[shaidar]

Newton notes the surrounding landmarks, travel time and direction and makes ready to move on.

He gets another skill at 7th level, seriously thinking about taking cartography, or would that be navigation?

[thirdkingdom]

Newton notes the surrounding landmarks, travel time and direction and makes ready to move on.

He gets another skill at 7th level, seriously thinking about taking cartography, or would that be navigation?

You can take either. There's a slight overlap between the two; Navigation would probably be more useful to you, since I haven't really been a stickler about making you guys map.

[shaidar]

Cartography does sound more formal and a profession. Navigation sounds more like what we are doing, finding our way around, making makeshift maps, etc

[R.R. Brando]

I have navigation if it is helpful. I also have cartography as a profession (great minds think alike!).

[thirdkingdom]

Sixthmonth, Eighteenthday
Hex 226.117?

The adventurers, in two separate parties, return to base camp. One team has found nothing during the day's exploration, while the other thinks they may have found what they were searching for.

[Rex]

Shmara

"Maybe we can have one group search out from the cairn and the other try and determine if it is buried at the cairn or there is an entrance nearby?"

[shaidar]

Newton

"Perhaps Horatio could use his spell to determine if there are coins in the cave, and if so we could start to excavate it. Best to know any effort is worthwhile beforehand"

Ribar pipes up "Manifest can grant me a spell to locate traps and such dangers, that might be useful to cast one we have a small entrance before anyone goes in. It will be dark and hard to see such dangers."