Dragons of Autumn-DragonLance II

[SilentNight]

Kalrin whips his neck around as he hears the click and moves over to Tigerlilly. Attempting to peer inside the door, he activates his ring and adds it to Pearl's lantern.

[wxdruid]

Once light spills into the room, Tygerlilly's mouth opens in a ooooo and she skips into the room.

There are hundreds of rotting sacks, clay tokens spill from their split sides. Three skeletons, two holding shovels, sprawl half-buried in the clay tokens. Tygerlilly homes in on them, she pokes a bone with one foot, I wonder what they were doing with shovels? And what are these clay things? She picks up one to examine. The skeleton's faces grin hideously at the wall.

There are two alcoves in the east wall; the moss-covered inscriptions above them are difficult to make out.

Vleric isn't offering any resistance, he's just trying to get enough air to breathe.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

"Ve go now, vyrm-man," Lagri announces to his captive, "Hyu get leetle vyrm-man cage now."

The barbarian steps forward into the antechamber. He follows Pearl's beckoning into the room Tygerlilly's opened.

"I am zinking, da? Zinking ve are losink trail oof dragon. Un eef ve do find dragon, ve find in dragon cave! Most good place for dragon! For vat not ve make ruins into fort un bring dragon here?"

[Philistine]

Gneiss

Gneiss kneels next to one of the ruptured sacks and picks up one of the spilled clay tokens, flipping it idly through his fingers. "Maybe they got stuck in here, and tried to dig their way out," he offers in reply to Tygerlilly's first question. He stands again and crosses the room to the eastern wall, looking closely at the two alcoves.

Spoiler

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Search: (1d20+13)[24] (with +2 for stonework)

[SilentNight]

Kalrin moves over to the alcoves and peers at the inscriptions in the light of his ring, seeing if he can make any sense of them.

Spoiler

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Decipher Script:(1d20+4)[10]
Knowledge(Arcana):(1d20+12)[13]

[wxdruid]

Tygerlilly looks a bit doubtful, Dig their way out? There’s a door…

The tokens are made out of clay, stamped on one side with a representation of someone’s face, the other side with a building. The details are hard to make out, but you can safely assume these used to be money. Tygerlilly is busy stuffing handfuls into a pouch.

Tunka is tired of sitting, she follows and sticks her head into the room. We go? Now? She’s impatient and tired of waiting for them.

Gneiss examines the two alcoves. The stonework isn’t dwarven and Gneiss thinks there is something odd about the two alcoves, but it’s hard to determine what. ((do you take a step inside?))

Kalrin cleans off and examines the words above the alcoves. They are hard to pick out and although the letters are Kharolian, but Kalrin can’t figure out what they say. They’re not in the language of magic.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl walks back alongside Lagri. She is now sounding even more tired.

"Well, first, Lagri, we never had the trail of the dragon. We've just heard that it's down from here. Second, we don't have enough food to sustain a seige, or the materials to reinforce this area against a reasonable force of men. Not to speak of a dragon that can breathe...stuff...at any fortification we might use. Third, I have no idea how we would draw the dragon to us in a way that didn't bring down all of its minions -"

She gestures to Lagri.

"Along with it. I'm hoping that, if we can get close to it, we might be able to lure it into a smaller space where we can somehow handle her. I'd...like to think that if Mishakal lead you here, and gave such a gift to Bryce, she has not done so without some hope of succeeding."

She shrugs, walking into the area with the skeletons and clay bits.

"Where would you build the fort, Lagri?"

She looks around, taking in the activity around her.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

"I do not know," Lagri answered, "I am not zinking beeg fort. Makink traps un holes in ruins, da? If dragon is breatink all ze time bad tings zen valls un holes are good.""

The barbarian scoffs belatedly at Pearl's worry over reinforcements. He flexes his biceps currently locked around Vleric's neck.

"Meen-yons? Is vord for children or ze babies? HA! I fight all ze dragon babies."

[codexgigas]

Bryce

"I'm sure that Mishakal will be with us when we face the dragon," Bryce reassures Pearl. "I think we're better off going to the dragon, not getting it to come to us. Huma sought out the dragons, after all." He grips the staff tightly as he speaks. Obviously, the staff was an artifact of Mishakal and was filled with her power, which had to be useful against the dragon, but he couldn't help but wish that it were Huma's legendary dragonlance.

[Philistine]

Gneiss

"Maybe they couldn't open the door, lass, or were afraid to," Gneiss replies to Tygerlilly over his shoulder. He steps back to get a wider perspective on the alcoves, frowning in concentration.

"Tunka?" Gneiss calls out to the Aghar when she pokes her head into the room. "Do you know if your people have been in here before?"

[wxdruid]

Tygerlilly giggles when Lagri says babies. He has such a funny accent and it sounds hilarious when he says it.

Tunka yells back, We no go here. Not like ghosts. They not nice.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl nods a bit grimly at Tunka's summary.

"I would tend to agree, Tunka, but Bryce and Tygerlily here seems to have scared the ghosts off. Perhaps you could join us in here for a moment."

She turns her attention back to Lagri.

"Minions are...like thralls. One of the reasons we're concerned about Vleric is that he seems to already by a, um, thrall to the dragon. And he may not give you any loyalty. Ever. Does that make sense?"

She turns back to Gneiss.

"So...how does it look? Any chance of a trapdoor leading to a safer way down than scaling a wet, moss-covered cliff?"

[Annalia]

Hector

"Now that would be good for Bryce!" Hector exclaimed with a grin, implying quite thoroughly that he would have no trouble with such a climb.

[wxdruid]

Tunka hesitates, she’d rather not come in any further, just because she can’t see the ghosts, doesn’t mean they might not still be there.

Stepping back doesn’t give Gneiss any further explanation of what might be odd about the alcoves.

Tygerlilly looks from the skeletons to the door, she’s a bit skeptical but she doesn’t say anything more. Instead she climbs over the pile of clay tokens and starts digging down into the center, curious to find out if there is anything in the middle.

[Philistine]

Gneiss

Gneiss continues to stare at the wall. "I don't know, Pearl," he finally replies. "There's something bothering me about those alcoves, but..." he trails off, shaking his head in frustration. He toys distractedly with the clay token he'd grabbed earlier and begins to turn back toward the others. "I just wish all this would start making sense," he says tiredly, then abruptly whips the token into the stone wall of the right-hand alcove with a sidearm motion, trying to shatter it.

[codexgigas]

Bryce

Bryce chuckles. "I don't think I'd be the only one who'd benefit by not having to make the climb down," he says, nudging Hector as he speaks.

The knight walks over to help Gneiss search the alcoves. "Getting angry won't help things go any faster," he states. "Still, I wish things would start making more sense, too."

Spoiler

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Search: (1d20+1)[16]

[wxdruid]

Do either of you step inside the alcoves or just search them from the outside?

The clay token shatters easily against the stone.

[Philistine]

Gneiss

Gneiss smiles with grim satisfaction as the token shatters against the wall, then turns to face Pearl. "Let's get out of here. I don't know if there's something there or not - but even if there is, I don't know if it would help us. The way this day's been going so far, I kinda doubt it," he concludes sourly.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

The knight shrugs.

"Pity. I wasn't looking forward to the climb down the cliff. How are you with climbing, Gneiss? We might need help for those of us who are a little less experienced."

[codexgigas]

Bryce

The knight steps inside the alcoves as he searches.

Spoiler

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For the record, I'm not sure if wxdruid is being a helpful DM or a sadistic DM right now. I'm just very much aware that when I give my players hints, they're very rarely helpful...

[wxdruid]

Bryce walks inside the alcoves to search them, after a few steps he disappears and ...

[codexgigas]

Bryce

Bryces stares in disbelief at the scene before him, not understanding how stepping into the alcove lead him into the chamber before him. Turning, he heads back through the archway into the alcoves. As he reemerges, he calls out to his companions, "Somehow, there's another chamber in the alcoves. I think you should take a look at it, Kalrin."

[Toliudar]

The instant that Bryce disappears, Pearl draws her blade and raises it in a guard position...and then immediately feels foolish for doing so. What was she going to do? Attack the darkness? Still, she remains on edge until Bryce reappears.

"Another chamber? What was it like? Could you see?"

[codexgigas]

Bryce

Bryce shakes his head as he responds to Pearl's questions. "It was too dark to see much," he explains. "I think there might have been a way forward."

[SilentNight]

Kalrin perks up and gazes curiously at the alcoves. "Lead the way Bryce," he says, before immediately pushing past the knight, using his ring to light the way.

[codexgigas]

Bryce

Bryce follows Kalrin back through the alcove, staff and shield in hand should they be needed.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Well, if Tunka won't enter the haunted building, we lose our aghar guide. Perhaps that's a bessing.

Shifting her sword to one hand, Pearl picks up her lantern and follows the others.

[Annalia]

Hector

Not about to be left behind, Hector tightens his grip on the ranseur and follows.

[wxdruid]

Bryce, Hector, Kalrin and Pearl all walk into the alcove and disappear.

Tygerlilly suddenly looks up and she's left with Lagri, Vleric and Gneiss? Hey! Where'd everyone go? Her pouches are bulging with clay tokens.

The four that walked through find themselves facing an arched opening, when they turn around, they see another arched opening that they just walked through. On the other side of both comes a faint light showing where they just came from. Their light illuminates the area. To one side, a fallen tower lies on its side, the top buried in the cavern wall. The two arched openings face each other inside a bigger circle and outside of the circle there is a 10ft wall.

[Annalia]

Hector

"More of the same, but in a weird way..." Hector glanced around the new area before looking back the way they came. "Why aren't they all following? This is much better than a slippery climb down."