IC VIII

[Innana]

Innana the fighter:

Innana takes a torch from Tratiln, and the magical dagger in the other, and follows the rest of the group.

[Finglas]

Bregalad the elf

Bregalad quickly shoulders his shield and accepts Tratiln's offer of a torch. He follows Lanny's advice, entering the room far enough to determine where the creatures may have fled.

TK, at what level were these eyes? At the same level as our own eyes, or closer to the ground, or (gulp) much higher than ours?

Spear (Skilled): 1d20+5, 1d6+3

[sulldawga]

Marodin will move forward as the light is supplied.

[thirdkingdom]

Lighting additional torches, the adventurers advance cautiously into the room. It proves to be a long hall, thirty feet wide and about sixty feet long. At one point it was no doubt a mausoleum; niches have been carved at regular intervals into the walls. The niches all appear to be about seven feet long, two feet high and about three feet deep. They all prove to be empty, their contents spilled to the floor and thoroughly chewed on.

At the far end of the room from the entrance is a rough hole, perhaps five feet in diameter, clawed out of the stone wall. It appears to lead into a tunnel of sorts; perhaps this is the path the fleeing undead took, as there are no other apparent exits in the room. A quick search of the room reveals a vast array of splintered bones -- most human, although some clearly not -- as well as a suit of plate mail. The various pieces and accouterments have been scattered about the room, but the armor seems functional if re-assembled; it appears to be in much better condition than it should be, by all rights.

Um, most of the eyes appeared to float at about the shoulder height of the average human, although some were higher.

[frobozz]

Lanny the elf

As he cautiously enters the room, Lanny's eyes scan from left to right in search of the fleeing creatures. As soon as the entire room is lit up and he sees the hole in the wall on the far end, he quickly runs toward it.

"Move the torches back for a moment! Allow me to look through this hole with my heatvision!"

Arriving at the hole, Lanny peers through it into the darkness, trying to spot any sign of the fleeing creatures and trying to determine how deep the tunnel extends into the wall.

Heatvision (60')

Checking my mapping again: Did the 40' corridor to the north open up on the left side, such that it entered the mausoleum room in its southeastern corner (ie. is the room 60 feet east-to-west and 30 feet north-to-south)? Also, where exactly is that 5' hole in the wall?

[Alethan]

Rhys the Traveler

While unable to wear armour, Rhys is no stranger to quality workmanship. He begins gathering the pieces of plate mail together. "Odd that this armour shows so little sign of wear, unlike everything else in this mess. Makes it easy to find the pieces, even. See?" He picks up a pauldron that still glints as if it were worn the day before and holds it up so the others can see. "Maybe worth something to the right person..."

[sulldawga]

Rhys the Traveler

While unable to wear armour, Rhys is no stranger to quality workmanship. He begins gathering the pieces of plate mail together. "Odd that this armour shows so little sign of wear, unlike everything else in this mess. Makes it easy to find the pieces, even. See?" He picks up a pauldron that still glints as if it were worn the day before and holds it up so the others can see. "Maybe worth something to the right person..."

Marodin nods. "The right person is standing right in front of you, Rhys." He gives the Mystic a wink.

Looking toward Lanny, the cleric shakes his head. "Lanny, the undead aren't going to show up with heatvision. They're not warm-blooded. Heck, they don't have any blood at all."

Marodin will move toward the hole. "I'll stand guard here while the rest of you search this room. Let's see if there's anything else of value besides this plate."

[Alethan]

Rhys the Traveler

Rhys nods and smiles at Marodin's joke, "After a good scrubbing with some sand and rushes, it might not even smell like it came from a charnal pit!" After he has collected the plate armour into a pile, he uses his sword to poke through any piles or bits that have not been searched to make sure nothing was overlooked.

[thirdkingdom]

Nothing else of value is found. Lanny notes the tunnel appears hand-dug for perhaps 20' before opening up into what seems to be a natural cave passage.

The room is 30' east/west and 60' north/south. For ease of reference, let us assume both the corridor and tunnel arr in the center of the north and south walls.

[sulldawga]

Marodin says, "We should pursue the undead and clean them out if we are to make this our homebase. No better time than the present!"

[Bouv]

Tratiln nods, "Yes, Tratlin's Troupe will defiately want the undead gone from our base...Tratlin's Tower I think we should call it! Though we will need to be build a tower."

[frobozz]

Lanny the elf

Lanny nods in agreement with Marodin about pursuing the undead immediately.

"Let's be cautious, however, about how far we will go in pursuit of them. This burrowed tunnel extends north another 20 feet and appears to open up into a natural cavern... not likely part of the castle's original basement. You know what that means... Natural caverns like these can potentially go on for miles and miles and delve deeply into the bowels of the earth."

As the others gather up the pieces of the plate mail armor, Lanny slips quietly through the narrow tunnel and peers through the darkness into the natural passageway beyond, looking for any sign of the retreating undead.

Looking toward Lanny, the cleric shakes his head. "Lanny, the undead aren't going to show up with heatvision. They're not warm-blooded. Heck, they don't have any blood at all."

I wasn't sure if TK saying that infravision is not very effective against undead meant that they could not be seen at all, or only very dimly with no detail. I assumed that since Lanny can make out things like walls (which generate no heat) that he might have a shot at seeing the undead too. Of course, they may have already gotten too far away...

Oh and by the way: Why the heck do elves have infravision anyway??? They don't live underground!!!

[thirdkingdom]

So, can I get an idea of quickly you guys want to pursue the fleeing undead? Um, so they're moving at their maximum speed, which at a run is 90/round, if you're interested. You will be traveling through unexplored ground, which if you want a decent chance of spotting traps/hidden doors/green slime/etc. you will need to move at your exploration movement per turn. Just let me know what you mean exactly by "pursue".

[Alethan]

So, can I get an idea of quickly you guys want to pursue the fleeing undead? Um, so they're moving at their maximum speed, which at a run is 90/round, if you're interested. You will be traveling through unexplored ground, which if you want a decent chance of spotting traps/hidden doors/green slime/etc. you will need to move at your exploration movement per turn. Just let me know what you mean exactly by "pursue".

lol... that isn't RHYS's definition of "pursue", for the record. If there isn't another exit from the room, then slow and steady wins the races. We'll catch up to them eventually... That's my vote, anyway.

[zebediah]

Drudsa the dabbler

"Caution is in order indeed, no need to rush. On the other hand, tunnels of apparent natural formation might just as well be the product of magic. We have found indications of Alphatian influence in this place, I recommend making no assumptions and being ready for anything."

Drudsa is also in favour of pushing forward at our usual place and taking the standard precautions.

[frobozz]

Lanny the elf

Lanny's quick movement into the narrow tunnel was to try to determine if the undead were cornered in a chamber with no means of escape (and therefore easy pickings) OR to try to determine which way they were running before they got out of range of his infravision (if they had more than one avenue of escape). If they are already too far away, or if Lanny's infravision can not detect them anyway, Lanny will return to the room and wait for the rest of the party and their light sources before proceeding any further.

[riftstone]

Thordin the dwarf

"The mage is right, running off into the darkness after those things will lead to disaster. We will meet them again, I am sure of it. If we do, it makes sense to have the whole company ready."

Thordin stands with the lead torchbearer, not relying on his own sight in the darkness ahead.

[Finglas]

Bregalad the elf

Bregalad keeps a watchful eye on the roughly cut exit, as Rhys and Marodin discuss the party's new found prize. "Those pieces could be the rumored magical armor I had hoped to find here. If it is, then I would greatly desire it."

viewtopic.php?f=70&t=1661&start=175

"As for the fleeing undead, I must agree with Drudsa and Thordin -- chasing them into the unknown darkness would be unwise. Let us move cautiously."

[Innana]

Innana the Fighter:

Innana looks at the armor. "Bregalad, this armor might give you a fighting chance to stand a hit."

I agree we should move on at our regular pace.

[frobozz]

Lanny the elf

After peering briefly into the darkness of the natural caverns, Lanny returns to examine the stone tunnel that was burrowed through.

"Something clawed its way through this stone wall... not an easy thing to accomplish by hand unless you have a few hundred years to spare. It seems to me that there are two possibilities here... either something clawed its way out, or something clawed its way in. Let me take a closer look..."

Lanny examines the claw marks and tries to determine the direction of the digging and the burrowing through the stone.