Scene: "Gimme' a Break! Gimme' a Break! Break Me Off a Piece of That... Whatever."

[Lycos]

Ok, then we'll do that. With limited torches, we move back outside to do our extended rest. Same watches as before.

Crashing
Sigurd
Greebo
Lamsi
Shiz
ES

1 hour each.

[DinbinFanfoom]

OK, it's 2pm when you come out of the ruins. What kind of rest we talking here... the sun is still up, after all.
I'm pretty sure you can "rest" without sleeping at this point.

[Lycos]

Yup, that's what we'll be doing.

[EricStratton]

"Sing us a song, bard!"

[DinbinFanfoom]

Perception rolls and describe what you are doing. You're also fairly hungry, having skipped lunch.

[Lycos]

Perception +5 for Sigurd

6

Huh?

[Shiz]

Perception +5 for Dam.

As to lunch, Crashing can forage (Nature) for us I hope, with Lamsi's help.

[Greebo]

And I never skip meals. Don't lie! It's bad when Ghod lies!

[DinbinFanfoom]

Waiting on Erik/Crashing.

[Asharad]

Perception(18)
and nature to find us something to eat (15).

Both are plus 9

[EricStratton]

Perception 9-1

Erik will kill whatever one of the natural people find for us to eat.

[DinbinFanfoom]

While KT entertains Erik and Sigurd with a spirit-lifting song, Damelon gets a fire going while Crashing and Lamsi go foraging for lunch.

Crashing:You're not psychiatrist (OK, maybe you passed for one in your tribe) but something seems to be bothering the hunter. She seems a bit preoccupied.

[Asharad]

While we are out hunting I will check in with Lamsi, make sure she is okay, and see if the scraps of paper we found mean anything to her.

[DinbinFanfoom]

While we are out hunting I will check in with Lamsi, make sure she is okay, and see if the scraps of paper we found mean anything to her.
As they forage/hunt, Crashing asks Lamsi why she seems a bit glum.

She sighs.

"More than one thing..." she says. "Darganti may be..." she searches for the word, "...a pain? but he was still a good person, I think... and needed in our village. We have moved far and done many things since he was taken and it is only now I think on it... I am sad for this. His sister will... miss him."

She pauses for a bit and then starts again.

"Also, while I am happy that the Eaters are beaten... I think on why we search for yellow iron when other danger still lives, like the Big Thunder Man. What makes them..." she guestures back towards where the rest of the party sits, out of sight, "want it so? Why risking your lives for?"

[Asharad]

"Darganti be a good warrior and I'm sure a good friend. Who knows, maybe we see him again soon.

Da city people, dey funny when it comes to da yellow stuff. You and me, we see dat da real treasure be in da water and da trees but dem dat born and raised in da city...dey good folks but different than we are.

Having said dat though, little sister, there be thinking there too. Were there be tha gold stuff there often times be items that have tha power too, and those be helpful when going against the big evils like Thunder Man.

When you go to hunt da boars, you get your best spear and your best armor. You make sure you got a good rope and a sharp knife wit you. Dat's what we be doing now. We getting our our good spear and our sharp knife so when we run into da real badness, we are ready."

[DinbinFanfoom]

Crashing's explanation seems to make sense to Lamsi, and is obviously an angle she never considered before. "I will think on that." She says, as they return to their hunt.

Before long they've scared up some small game and fruit and are heading back to the clearing. At the edge of it, both of them freeze virtually at the same time. (Perc successes)

"You see?" Lamsi whispers to Crashing, without turning her head.

Crashing DOES see. Up at the mouth of the ruined shrine, both of them see a slightly darker shadow in the lower left corner of the opening. Some sort of ape? Sloth? Prone human? Whatever it is, it is carefully watching the trio carousing below by the fountain. Two faint but gleaming eyes are evident.

"I do." Crashing says quietly.

Before both can either blink or breathe again, the creature's head snaps their way, and then the being disappears in a flash down the dark passage.

Lamsi shivers.

[Shiz]

Clarify please. What fountain are we carousing by? Was the shape inside the complex looking out or outside looking in?

[DinbinFanfoom]

Clarify please. What fountain are we carousing by? Was the shape inside the complex looking out or outside looking in?
See this (http://www.legendsofwestwood.org/forum/showpost.php?p=266129&postcount=137) post. You are in front of the structure. It is up in that opening, looking out at you.

[Lycos]

Anyone good with animals? KT?

[DinbinFanfoom]

Anyone good with animals? KT?
Nobody but Lamsi and Crashing saw it.

[Lycos]

Nobody but Lamsi and Crashing saw it.

Ok. :|

[DinbinFanfoom]

Lamsi and Crashing return to the group (I assume that's OK, Ash) and relate what they saw. Any number of creatures could look like a "low shadow with glittering eyes"; she has no idea what it was. For all she knows the eyes were only visible because of the outdoor light reflecting off of them.

"Maybe it want that?" Lamsi says, pointing to the mask Erik has set down beside him. Erik looks down and notes that the simple metal mask has something faintly shimmering at one corner of the mouth that was not evident in the dim light of the ruins.

[Shiz]

Do we need to Perception the mask?

[DinbinFanfoom]

Do we need to Perception the mask?
No. I'll assume Damelon picks it up and looks at it. Insight would be good, though.

Damelon picks up the mask and peers more closely at the faint smear of liquid on the lips of the mask. Angling it slightly he sees the shimmer... he sniffs the smear... it has a faint but bitter odour.

[EricStratton]

Erik, Insight 4+5 (assuming we've leveled, if not +4...not that it matters w/ that roll)

[Asharad]

Insight+10

[DinbinFanfoom]

Crashing looks the smear over and also sniffs it. He suspects it isn't poisonous... but it definitely seems... toxic. He's seen nothing like it, though it smells a bit like... embalming fluid maybe?

[Lycos]

Ok, where are we now? Have we rested yet? Just curious.

[DinbinFanfoom]

OOC: I was waiting to see what Crashing did with the mask/fluid, but I guess nothing. :D

The party finishes their rest without incident, and Lamsi/Crashing describe what they saw as they returned. Given the brief view they had of the creature, they have no idea what it was, only that it was watching them and disappeared back into the ruins.

After a rest the entire party hears a faint... gong sound? Simultaneously, they all feel more... competent or something... :D

It is now 8pm, and darkness has fallen. It occurs to you, however, that it really doesn't matter WHEN you continue to examine the ruins... it's so dark in there you don't know day from night anyway.

OOC: All party to full hp, full surges, regain AP's, and go to level 2.

[Shiz]

Back in we go to the hallway where we left off.

[DinbinFanfoom]

The party returns to the spot where they were previously. The west door stands closed, and the dust that was in the air has resettled, but the tracked parts still stand out, faintly going south (the way you came in) but more heavy to the west and abrubtly ending at the north wall, as previously stated.

[Shiz]

Damelon will push on the north wall.

[DinbinFanfoom]

Damelon will push on the north wall.
Trask pushes, but the wall doesn't budge. Searching around, he finds a crumbled piece of stonework missing... reaching a pair of fingers in, he finds a rusty metal latch. He pulls it and... something clicks inside. The wall swings outward and to the left, covering the west door. Beyond it is darkness... though in the dim light cast from the torches you make out what might be another stairwell about 15' distant.

[Shiz]

I even wrote Damelon and you still called me Trask!

[EricStratton]

Into the scary secret hallway we go!

[DinbinFanfoom]

I even wrote Damelon and you still called me Trask!
Bleh, character-bleed!

Damelon briefly gets a creepy feeling that some alternate-universe copy of himself actually opened the door instead. Wierd.

[Lycos]

Into the scary secret hallway we go!

Yay! Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!

[DinbinFanfoom]

The party moves into the dark passageway and sure enough, find themselves at another spiral stairwell room, similar to the one they found before. This one, however, goes down. Looking down, Damelon can see that this one goes a bit deeper... at least two stories. He sees no exits from the well besides the one at the top and bottom. The stairs themselves are crumbled through at points.

OOC: If you go down the spiral, I'll need acro checks from you all, as before.

[EricStratton]

Oh boy.

Acro 13+2

[Shiz]

Damelon acro +9 = 13

[Lycos]

Acrobatics.


I am damn lucky.

Do we have rope that we can use to help us do this well?

[Asharad]

Sorry, was really busy. I can't think of anything else to do with the mask. I'll use nature on the fluid and if that doesn't tell me anything put it away for now..

[DinbinFanfoom]

Crashing has never seen anything like the fluid... it does resemble some sort of embalming fluid, but doesn't look like anything... natural.

OOC: Just waiting on KT's acro, I think.

[Shiz]

Can we get an Arcana check on the mask? The DM's hint just hit me.

[EricStratton]

I thought we tried that. Anyway:

Arcana 11+5

[Greebo]

KT Acro +1

[DinbinFanfoom]

Erik peers at the mask over Crashing's shoulder. He shrugs.

The group moves to the stairway. Sigurd (20) and Crashing (18) skip down like gazelles. Erik (15) and Damelon (13) skitter down with a bit more difficulty, but still manage to reach the bottom. KT (8) is about halfway down when the feather in his pointed hat snags some cobwebs and flips down over his eyes, just as he puts his foot down on a particularly unstable piece of masonry. It crumbles beneath him and he falls backwards through two crumbling steps. He rushes headfirst towards the floor when something grabs his ankle and arrests his progress. Lamsi's (STR Success) bow falls past him but she keeps him from falling, although he is hanging upside down.

"Catch him!" she yells down, struggling to support the bard, but slowly sliding towards the edge.

[Lycos]

Sigurd will try and catch him. Athletics +9

15

[EricStratton]

Erik will attempt to assist (ha!). Athletics 6+0

[DinbinFanfoom]

Just as the bard's ankle slips from the hunter's grasp, Sigurd manages to get directly under KT and catches him around the waist, upside down. Erik, one finger on Sigurd's shoulder, helps. Sigurd re-orients KT who retrieves his pretty hat. Lamsi skitters down the rest of the broken steps and the whole party is now on the bottom level.

Map inc.

[EricStratton]

Make sure Lamsi gets her bow back.