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Back In The Cave
Moonday, 15th of Goodmonth
Mid Morning, Damp, Dim, Humid

The smoke and stink from Cora's burnt corpse starts to subside a little allowing the others a view of the lower chamber again. Since smoke normally rises, it seems a little weird that this smoke isn't hanging around near the low ceilings of these passages. In fact, the smoke seems to be actually settling into the pit with the snakes instead, somehow venting out in that direction.

Gramble and Tlachtga easily twist the turned kobold statue back around to face the wall like the others. Nothing happens.

Andronichishche watches with great curiosity as Cu sniffs repeatedly near the only statue that was tampered with. He compares this group of stone kobolds to the dancing minotaur's they found earlier, but finds almost zero similarities. These look like normal kobolds to him, complete with tiny patchwork armor and weapons, marching on bare, three toed feet.

Actions?

The smoke in the lower chamber has now vented out enough to reenter without cause for concern, if you wish.

map: Sir Crestbrook 10/11 LoH
Gramble 13/16
Lerrick 11/11 2/4 1st (torch: 40'r/3.2T)
Tlachtga 8/8 0/4 1st (torch: 40'r/4.0T)
Cu AC:3 13/13
Saracen 28/33 3/5 1st 2/2 2nd
Alordan 15/18
Andron 6/6 0/3 1st CL, DM, RM / 1/1 1st
Maag 12/12

seeing the smoke clear gramble reenters the room and crosses his arms tapping his chin.

hmmmm it would appear a ventilation source exists within the pit itself causing a vacuum effect of the smoke strong enough to not only vent it out but also pull in down instead of allowing it to naturally rise.

he stops taping and allows his arms to fall by his and is silent for several seconds and remains unblinking, he then blinks and shakes his head.

I can set the snakes on fire now

Tlachtga

"Perhaps the snakes are guarding something. An exit maybe?"

Once Gramble looks into the pit again, he sees that the snakes are all gone.

Sticking his face in for a closer look, the fighter can indeed feel a slight pull of air being drawn into the pit and can now see the remnants of the smoke escaping through the tiny holes that line the bottom of the pit walls.

It would appear that the snakes must have an egress to somewhere outside the passageways that leads to open air.

Andronichishche frowns in consternation when repositioning the errant kobold statue produced no visible effect. "Their poses bear no resemblance to the dancing minotaur statues, either", he says with a sigh, gesturing to the other three statues. "I must say this is quite vexing ... ", he suddenly raises an index finger with an expression of revelation, "... unless, these are more than just statues." He points to the last statue, "Perhaps that one moved on its own volition, but why? We have also yet to find Alordan's missing net. Something took it somewhere."

Andron steps into the other chamber as Gramble recites his unusually eloquent theory of the ventilation. Sir Crestbrook hearing voices, then Maag's ambiguous scruples, now Gramble's sudden intellectual epiphany. Is the island itself now affecting our minds? He keeps this slighly paranoid thought to himself as he joins Gramble next to the pit. "These tunnels gradually slope down, there may be another passage to the surface or an underground stream we've yet to discover. As for now, I would like to investigate the unmapped central area. The tunnel to the north and west of these rooms, specifically."

Thanks for the feedback! I actually made the map in Microsoft Excel. Just resize the cells to a grid, color the background and lines blue, then it's just removing the color to create rooms and passages. The icons are Excel shapes which takes a bit of creativity and manipulation, but not too hard.

Tlachtga

"Agreed on saving the pit for latter, the snakes could come back when we are down there and at least from here the holes look to small to crawl into."

Saracen maintains his watch as the smarter members of the company decide what to do.

Perhaps we should continue onwards, and discover what else lives in this place!

Andronichishche nods to Tlachtga and Saracen, "Agreed on both counts. There may be a secret passage in the pit, but we have no idea if any of those snakes are poisonous, and if they'll return. I recall it was mentioned that "Cora", on the first visit here, said there was another who lived in these caves ... Brutus, I believe was the name?" He steps over to stand by Alordan, clasping him by the shoulder, "I think we may also need to employ the skills of our ranger friend. If that statue did indeed move of its own accord, I expect it wouldn't be too difficult to identity three toed footprints?", he says with a wry grin. "If no objections or other ideas, I suggest north to the center is our next objective.

Sir Crestbrook the Mighty

North it is then! He put away his shield and replaces that hand with the 10 ft pole. He then places his sword in his right hand.

Same marching order as before?


Lerrick

Lerrick moves towards the front with the torch, but prefers to be behind the fighter with the huge cleaving weapon, like it was before in the previous marching order.

Alordan will continue to keep an eye out for any tracks that may indicate some clue as to what has passed through the caves. As they head north he bids Cora a quiet farewell - one more likely innocent to fall to the island's mysteries.

Maag

Maag spits on the floor to clear his throat of the greasy, smoky taste in there. Then, mirror in one hand, sword in the other, he takes up the rearguard.

Back In The Cave
Moonday, 15th of Goodmonth
Mid Morning, Damp, Dim, Humid

Once Cora's shriveled, hollow body is no more than a small pile of ash and bone lying on the floor of the cave, and it is discovered that the holes in the pit are too small to navigate, the adventurers decide to head north next. Tlachtga and her dog move up behind Gramble in the order, pushing Lerrick back one place. This arrangement still leaves both of the party's torches bunched together in the front/middle of the order, making it difficult for those at the rear of the group to see, and leaving them in near complete darkness when the front ranks moves ahead too far.

Alordan finds no tracks at all on the still clean floors in this area. Starting out from the dirty southern tunnels this time, it is a nice treat for the group to travel into the clean passages here again. Though, the upkeep seems to have stopped recently, leading the group to believe that undead Cora wasn't as concerned with cleanliness in her unfortunate afterlife. Andron, who has been studying the tunnels closely, reminds the group that the passages all seem to slope slightly downward from the central entrance chamber. He also brings up the mysterious name drop of a certain Brutus, and that Alordan's net is still missing. Can I get a hard Int check from Andron in your next action post, please?

Crestbrook leads the party into the next chamber to the north, seeing a familiar passage that continues on, and another as of yet unsearched passage that leads off to the west. There is no sound or light detected from either direction.

Actions?

map: Sir Crestbrook 10/11 LoH
Gramble 13/16
Tlachtga 8/8 0/4 1st (torch: 40'r/3.9T)
Cu AC:3 13/13
Lerrick 11/11 2/4 1st (torch: 40'r/3.1T)
Saracen 28/33 3/5 1st 2/2 2nd
Alordan 15/18
Andron 6/6 0/3 1st CL, DM, RM / 1/1 1st
Maag 12/12

Tlachtga

Holds her spot, trying to be as alert as possible. She will inspect the statues and search for secret doors and what not in the area around the statues.

Saracen will mark/score the wall leading into the unexplored tunnel again as he did when the group first entered the caves, an arrow pointing towards the exit at the top of the wall just below the ceiling.

He will then take a peek around the tunnel as yet searched, and sniff the air within, and try and listen if he can. If someone shines a light within he will peer down the passageway and gingerly check the area for traps.

Andronichishche grimaces at the slimy, smoke tainted expectorate ejected from Maag's mouth, suddenly not quite so hungry. Following Sir Crestbrook he attempts to continue surveying the tunnels, but the recent smoke he inhaled combined with the lack of light in the rear of the column makes it rather difficult. "We could use a torch back here, it's a bit dim. I can hold one." In the next intersection he notes the pleasant expression on the minotaur statues.

"Strange expressions if these were petrified by a medusa ... ".

Andronichishche points to the western tunnel. "According to my map, this direction is unexplored and should lead into the central area."

Hard Intelligence Check: [4d6] = 19

Maag

When Maag sees Saracen marking the wall, he takes out a piece of charcoal. He then proceeds to mark the passageway with one of the special signs of his profession.

Once Saracen starts poking around for traps, Maag calls out "Use der big stick. Dat's what we brung it for!"

Sir Crestbrook the Mighty

The paladin taps away with the 10 ft pole to the passage to the left.


Lerrick

The cleric follows behind Gramble with her mace in her right hand and the torch in her left hand, shifting the torch in such a way that it can provide as much light as possible to the paladin taking the lead in this journey.