D&D 3.5: A Madness in Hepmonaland (IC)

[missmvicious]

Lydia watches Argi'er disable the trap giving it a minute before trying to get moving again. "Yeah we should carry on." Lydia nods."I second the vote to be more careful from here on out."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Yeah. Hey, Argier? Y'all kinda know what to look for with these, right? Could y'all go in front for a while?"

[razorback]

"Well... I'm a watchmaker by trade, like my da and his before him. I'm used to looking for small discrepancies or problems in things. There have been a couple of times that a customer brougth something in that was in a locked box that we had to... ah... help liberate it from and we have seen some of these traps. Luckily, customers were on the up and up, so they knew about the trap and what it did, so it was easier to find, but still had to figure out a way of bypassing it. So, yeah, I've seen things like this before but I'm not an expert on it by any stretch of the imagination." Argi'er says as he beams a bit.

[inexorabletruth]

With Argi'er now in the lead, your group heads left, down the stairs to a haunting sight.

Two corpses, the decaying forms of what is most likely former adventurers, are slumped on the ground. Their gear hasn't been looted, but a much of the flesh has been eaten away. A scarab skitters out of the gaping eye socket of the skull on the western wall, twitching its stumpy antennae and inspecting the unexpected light source.

Another stairwell leads downward and forward.

[razorback]

"Well, a haplessly fallen individual is fair warning to us, eh? Should we see if they have anything they no longer need but may be of help to us?" he says to the others.
Once he gets affirmation, he checks the body to make sure there any other critters that could be inconvenient or dangerous before inspecting the bodies.

Spoiler

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Spot
roll]1d20-1[/roll]

Search
roll]1d20+4[/roll]

[kjelfalconer]

Zeke had planned on waiting with the ropes to make sure there was an escape route. It was a good plan, with just one tiny flaw. Which he realised when he went to light his lantern.

The others were slightly too far away to hear his swearing.

Which meant he now had to try and not only catch up to them, but climb down two ropes that he couldn't see, or be sat in the pitch black with gods knew what for gods knew how long. Well, might as well go for the quicker path to his inevitable painful death, no sense drawing it out.

Spoiler: ooc

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(1d20-5)[-3] to climb, and oh god I'm screwed.

Edit: Yes. Yes I was indeed horribly screwed.

[inexorabletruth]

Zeke slips off the rope almost instantly, slams hard into the slanted ground and tumbles down the natural slide, skidding to a halt at the end of the first chamber as a bruised and bloodied lump.

Zeke, you take 10 damage.

[razorback]

Argi'er looks down in growing horror as he sees the insects scuttling about.
He gingerly begins to move back to the others as he turns and brings his index finger to his lips in a shushing action.

Spoiler

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Waiting on next action to see how he does

Move Silently
(1d20+7)[24]

[razorback]

Quietly, Argi'er moves the rest of the group back. "Those creatures... scarabs, looked to have eaten those fellows. Fairly fresh. I can imagine they'd do the same to us, unless we have a way to deal with them. Any ideas?" he says nervously in a low voice while keeping an eye on the vicious little bugs.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"The scarabs killed him?" Natalie echoes back to Argi'er. "Shoot, I don't think we have a good way to deal with it if they start swarming... we had to use holy water last time."

It's about at this point that she hears Zeke tumbling down the chute behind them.

"UWAH! What's that? Who's there?" She turns back around and helps the bruised nerd to his feet. "Are y'all okay? Is someone chasing you?"

[kjelfalconer]

He lay there for a while, wallowing in self pity and the fact that he'd probably broken at least one rib.
"I realised my mistake in staying to watch the ropes when I went to light my lantern. The lantern you're currently holding. I'd suggest not recommend trying to climb a rope in the dark. Please, bring your own light sources."

He finally took the chance to look around the area, seeing the scarabs.
"...Unless they're conjured, there's nothing I can do against them. Anything I try will be just as likely to send them into a berserk frenzy than clear them."

[razorback]

Argi're ponders for a few moments as he thinks on a plan. "Well, the bodies might have some clues or equipment we might find useful. How about this.
Everyone move back. I'll try to sneak past them and, if I can, I'll try to see what lies beyond. If not... well, I can run pretty quick. What do you think?"

Spoiler

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If no one disagrees, he sneaks past the scarabs
Hide
(1d20+7)[25]
MS
(1d20+7)[18]

[missmvicious]

"I suppose that's a decent enough plan. Take this though" Lydia hands him her glowing dagger, "most things rather would avoid the light anyways."

[razorback]

"Go ahead and hang on to it, I've got pretty good night vision. Besides, I might need it if I come running back in a hurry." he says with a childish grin as he moves off.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Oh, okay. Be careful!"

Natalie looks down at the corpse-eating insects and their unfortunate meal. "...I don't get it. Scarabs are nasty, but... they're still just bugs, right? They don't just kill you like that, y'all'd have to, like, sit in them for a minute."

She is this close to making a connection regarding what kind of danger we might be in.

[PeacefulOak]

Gabriel slips from Ahna's back, clucking at the leopard and gesturing after Argi'er to send the silent stalker as backup for their scout.

The scarabs catch zir attention, and Gabriel turns and steps closer, crooning softly in an attempt to sooth the scarabs and allow the bodies to be examined.

Spoiler: OoC

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Wild Empathy! (1d20+6)[20] (Who uses this ability, anyways?)

Stealth for Ahna:
(1d20+8)[14] Hide
(1d20+8)[22] Move Silently

[inexorabletruth]

Argi'er slips past the corpse and stalks silently down the tunnel, towards the edge of the range of Natalie's light source.

[razorback]

Silent like death itself, Argi'er moves past the bodies and through the tunnel, into the adjoining chamber. He sees a large pool stretches to the limits of what he can see as he scouts just a couple of hairs before realizing the danger he might be putting himself, and the others by extension, into. Stealthily moving back to the others, he skirts the carnivorous beetles as he slides back into view.
"Well, there's a chamber down that tunnel." he says quietly as he points. "There is some kinds of river or waterfall beyond. Might be more beyond or might not be. I say we check it out, if we can keep away from them bugs. What say you all?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"An underground river? Cool! Let me see!"

Since there's apparently no additional danger between her and the landmark, Natalie scoots quietly past the buggy obstacle to bring the light over Argi'er's way.

[PeacefulOak]

Ahna paces a few steps to the side of their scout, with Gabriel coming along with the balance of the group. In the dim of the underground, ze ponders the difference in nature between what exists above in the light and down here in the darkness.

[razorback]

Argi'er looks blankly at the cavern wall for a moment as Natalie walks off. Blinking twice in quick succession, his eyes follow her before his head turns, obvious in disbelief at her actions. Mouth open, he turns back to Ahna and mumbles something incoherent.
Shaking his head, he says just above a whisper "I think we should follow, if for nothing else to keep her out of trouble." as he disappears into the darkness after her.

[inexorabletruth]

With Natalie and Ahna taking the lead, they enter the whirlpool chamber, glistening with dripping droplets of mineral water, and sparkling with what appear to be beautiful precious stones. Blanched white spiders and salamanders crawl amongst the fungus and moss, and buzzing, flying insects fill the sticky, moist chamber.

To your left, you see a bridge that has collapsed into the whirlpool.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Whoooah."

Natalie stares into the abyss and at the translucent cave lizardies. The light from her lantern glints off of the rushing water over the gems. Just seeing this was totally worth climbing down here.

"Looks like the bridge is out... I hope no one's stuck on the other side." She squints at the crumbled remains of a natural bridge. "I might be able to jump it, but the stone looks kinda slippery. Maybe we can come back with some boards or something?"

[missmvicious]

Still a bit worse for the wear from the trap Lydia lags behind a bit entering the new chamber. But when she enters she's thrilled, there are bound to be many useful things in here. She studies the things on the walls, moving and not to see if she could recognize any of them.

Spoiler

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Knowledge time
Firstly arcana (d20+13)[31]
Additionally craft alchemy check to see if anything could be used alchmically. (d20+11)[28]

[

[razorback]

Looking past the broken bridge, Argi'er looks back at the others. "I have a means of getting myself across but I can't take anyone with me. Does anyone else or are you going to jump?
Or, if you have a rope, I can tie it off once on the other side. This is assuming everyone wants to keep exploring what is beyond."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Yeah okay! How much lantern do we have left?"

[inexorabletruth]

A rough estimate suggests, even with the oil spill, you've still got a good 4 hours left of burn, provided it doesn't get doused by the water.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Cool. So, we can go grab one of the ropes, and tie it to whoever's jumping in case they fall in?"

[razorback]

"Well, I don't have to worry about that, I hope." he futzes around a bit as he takes the rope and makes a spectacle of wrapping around his waist.
"Alright, here we go." he says as he cautiously moves to the end of the broken bridge, cognizant of the dampness of the area. Taking a leap, he activates his magic anklet, to appear on the otherside mid jump. He looks around to make sure everything is safe and to find a place to tie off the rope. Once secured, he tests the strength to make sure it will hold before moving back to the bridge. "Ok, ready to go." as he pulls out is sword and makes sure the landing is clear for the others.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"I'll go get the rope! Uh..." Natalie is about to run off when she realizes she's about to leave everyone else in the dark. "...I'll trade you for the glowy dagger?"

Once she has the alternate light source, she cautiously scoots past the corpses ("Hi bugs, bye bugs") climbs up, detaches the rope on the left, pets Panda, climbs back down and cautiously makes her way back with the coil of goopy rope.