Into the Lair

[wolfpack]

rondar will return to the group and tell them what he found up ahead

"looks like barrack rooms where the swamp people were staying. do you want me to scount ahead further?"

[Caspur]

Viscata suggests "Maybe we should search those rooms before exploring further, make sure there are none sleeping."

[dramaman]

Etruna tires of the indecision and decides to find a real authority regarding which route to take. She turns to follow the snake and if she can find it will cast her Speak with Animals spell. She will ask the snake regarding where it has been since its last sleep cycle and what it has seen and what places the snake avoids.

[Solinor]

Etruna makes her way up the treacherous stairs after the snake. Being careful you make it to the top without slipping. The snake is out by the edge of the dike slithering along its base slowly.
You begin casting your spell as the rain drops on you. It takes a good thirty seconds but the snake stays in view. When you finish your casting the eyes of the snake faintly glow, it stops and looks your way expectantly.

[wolfpack]

rondar is going to head into the roms with open doors and begin searching them.

[Argennian]

Kraden would not have let Etruna go out by herself and will have followed the druidess out to watch out for any other baddies around. When she completes her spell, the ranger will wait for her before carefully heading back down the stairs.

Once back, he looks to Rondar and the others.

rondar is going to head into the roms with open doors and begin searching them.

The ranger follows his compatriot over to the room and stands guard while he looks around. He's still holding what's left of his torch.

[rredmond]

Nuonne will stay at the stairs ready to help whoever needs it first. He'll follow Rondar if no one else does, and Kraden isn't back.

[dramaman]

Etruna will approach the snake carefully and sit with her legs crossed about 10 feet away from the snake to commune with it. She address the snake with, "Greetings [brother/sister] of the earth. I saw you in the hole below. Will you speak with me?"

Assuming the snake is willing to speak due to the spell, Etruna will attempt to discuss the what it has seen down in the hole, "Do you live down in the hole? Where are good places to go? Where are bad places to go? What creatures live down in the hole and where do they live?"

Etruna will also attempt to learn about where the swamp people are now, "Have you seen the humans that live in the hole today? Where did you come from before my friends and I first saw you down in the hole?"

If the snake knows and is willing, she will ask it to lead them to where the swamp people are.

[gray mouser]

Seeing his companion make her way towards the snake Halmod gives a little shudder and decides to scout further down the southern passage. Signalling to Kraden and Nuonne before heading off the Gnome does his best to Move Silently down the southern passage. He will go the sixty feet that has already been seen and, once at that point he will stop and use his infravision to look further. If the passageway turns one way or the other Halmod will approach the corner and, staing out of view by remaining by the corner(s) will look down the new passages to see if they extend past his range of vision.

[Caspur]

Viscata follows Rondar, listening for anything approaching.

[Solinor]

Etruna will approach the snake carefully and sit with her legs crossed about 10 feet away from the snake to commune with it. She address the snake with, "Greetings [brother/sister] of the earth. I saw you in the hole below. Will you speak with me?"

Assuming the snake is willing to speak due to the spell, Etruna will attempt to discuss the what it has seen down in the hole, "Do you live down in the hole? Where are good places to go? Where are bad places to go? What creatures live down in the hole and where do they live?"

Etruna will also attempt to learn about where the swamp people are now, "Have you seen the humans that live in the hole today? Where did you come from before my friends and I first saw you down in the hole?"

If the snake knows and is willing, she will ask it to lead them to where the swamp people are.

Kraden watches on as Etruna converses with the snake using unintelligible hissing words.

“I will be glad to speak with you and answer questions.”

“I never go deep into the hole but only watch the comings and goings of those who live within.”

“Humans lived in the hole but you have killed many here.” The snake looks about the dike at the dead swamp people. “More beyond the mud wall and will return soon.”

“Many bad places below, to many to recall. But no one enter tunnel with strong smell so I sometimes rest there.

“Snake men with arms and legs as humans live deep in the whole. They smell very bad and I avoid them.”

“There are more humans with shiny skins below. They are close to the half-snake known as the goddess and serve her as slaves. You should leave before you become her slaves.

“I hear them coming….” The magic that fills the snakes eyes dim and he returns to his path before the spell was cast. Taking no notice of you.l

[Solinor]

Kraden and Etruna are in the dike area with the snake. (One round up the stairs, One round to approach the snake and cast the spell. Two rounds speaking with the snake. Two more rounds to get back to room #2.)

Halmod has moved down the south passage. (Going to say Halmod did this after he watched Kraden and Etruna follow the snake up the stairs.)

Ankhar and Nuonne are in the first room (#2) at the bottom of the stairs.

Viscata and Rondar are searching through the 4 rooms in area 8. (Six rounds total to search all four rooms and move back and forth to room 2)

[Solinor]

Seeing his companion make her way towards the snake Halmod gives a little shudder and decides to scout further down the southern passage. Signalling to Kraden and Nuonne before heading off the Gnome does his best to Move Silently down the southern passage. He will go the sixty feet that has already been seen and, once at that point he will stop and use his infravision to look further. If the passageway turns one way or the other Halmod will approach the corner and, staing out of view by remaining by the corner(s) will look down the new passages to see if they extend past his range of vision.

Halmod finds a large room

This lofty room has a ceiling 15’over the floor, supported by four stout columns of unadorned wood. A murky pool of muddy water dominates the center of this room. There is an exit passage on the far side of the room, at the edge of your infravision.

After a couple of minutes of scanning and listening nothing in here seems threatening.

Faint torch light then appears from the opening on the far side of the room. It is getting brighter as someone bearing a torch approaches. With Halmod's keen ears he can also hear the clinking of armor.

[Solinor]

Rondar and Viscata find four similiar 20x20 rooms with four bunks in each. With some evaluation you recall only seeing about ten of these swamp people. These rooms really have nothing of value and the occupants pretty much live in squalor.

[wolfpack]

after searching the rooms Rondar will continue down the hallway and go south.

[zebediah]

Ankhar casts a shield spell on himself.

[dramaman]

Etruna reports all she learned from the snake to those around her.

"If the snake sensed the others coming, we don't have much time. We should get the others. It wouldn't do well to be separated when they come upon us. The snake said they don't go in the smelly room, although not why. The snake said that it rested there, so I don't think there is anything living in it that may threaten us. I still worry that a torch might prove a dangerous combination with the gas. I'm not carrying a torch and can see heat and cold. One of you go and find our missing friends, while the other stays here and watches from a distance while I open the door to the gas room and look in. Hopefully any built up gas will escape allowing us to enter safely with torches."

Etruna will then proceed to the west door and attempt to open it and look inside.

(OOC: hopefully opening the door will let the gas out, making it safe for the party with their torches to enter the room.)

[rredmond]

"Crap," whispers Nuonne, looking at all the passageways where his companions are spread out. He'll look to Ankhar and Kraden (who I guess is back with us) and say, "how do we quickly bring everyone together... especially since we're pretty sure that the alarm has been raised?"

If there are no suggestions, at a loss Nuonne asks, "can anyone whistle loudly?"

OOC: http://www.emeraldrose.com/consuite/nev ... eparty.htm

[Caspur]

Viscata taps lightly on Rondars shoulder, "Shouldn't we wait for the others before moving on?" she whispers.

[Argennian]

"Crap," whispers Nuonne, looking at all the passageways where his companions are spread out. He'll look to Ankhar and Kraden (who I guess is back with us) and say, "how do we quickly bring everyone together... especially since we're pretty sure that the alarm has been raised?"

If there are no suggestions, at a loss Nuonne asks, "can anyone whistle loudly?"

Kraden shares Nuonne's concerns about splitting the party up. Rondar and Viscata have gone to the eastern passage and then north(?), Halmod to the south, and now Etruna is making for the door to the west. He responds in kind to the cleric. "Aye, most likely an alarm was raised and no doubt this Garath or someone else is on their way here now. Tis certainly not a tactically-sound idea to split the party so, but it appears everyone has their own ideas about how and which way to proceed. Besides, something tells me we will find out soon, one way or another..."

At a loss for what to do while everyone is spread out, and not wanting to yell out or make any more loud noises, the ranger waits with the cleric at the intersection, getting out and making ready with his last torch for when his current one burns out.