Through Sword and Pen [IC]

[theterran]

Jarvis


"I bet they're hungry, and I bet we taste better than orc..." Jarvis half chuckles, an obvious attempt at some dark humor on the edge of battle.

Spying the wolf on the far left (furthest north) Jarvis takes aim and lets two arrows fly.

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Attack1 - (1d20+3)[21]
Damage1 - (1d8+2)[4]
Attack2 - (1d20+3)[21]
Damage2 - (1d8+2)[8]

Not wanting to risk losing Thor he instructs Thor to stay close by and be a lookout.

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Jarvis Spot - (1d20+6)[23]
Jarvis Listen - (1d20+5)[10]
Thor Spot - (1d20+16)[34]
Thor Listen - (1d20+4)[12]

[BooNL]

Dieter

"Keep those arrows coming Jarvis, I'll cover you." Dieter unsheathes his picks and moves in between the wolf and Jarvis. He's out of the way enough for his ranger friend to get a clear shot, but the wolf will have to go through Dieter first.

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Move 5ft forward in a direct line between Jarvis and the wolf (Jarvis can still fire right?), readies an attack as a standard action (dang double movement... ).

Attack 1 - (1d20+8)[21]
Damage 1 - (1d4+6)[9]

[XiaoTie]

The winds were so strong for Thor that the eagle got unstable for the first few seconds when he gained the skies; he quickly regained his airborne balance and remained steady, even with the strong winds constantly pummeling his wings.

Jarvis’s arrows struck true on the creature’s body, penetrating their thick fur and hanging in there as he begins to run eastward. The creature is soon followed by the other two, and as quickly as they came they disappeared through the snow curtain. After that the road was clear, and Bron, with Gimil at his side, led the group safely to the cave he had seen on the small hill.

Combat over

As soon as the group arrived on the cave a foul stench made its way through Isami’s Finest nostrils, but it was no orc stench. The cave floor and walls were uneven, while the walls were also covered by a very thin layer of ice. Every breath taken inside the cave would be transformed in a gaseous form. “I recon this cave is not entirely natural laddies. Hammers an’ mine-picks were used to enlarge the place”, Gimil mutters to the group.

A couple large bones can be seen on the ground on the end of the lantern’s light.

Area Map

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[Diarmuid]

Bron

The older ranger cursed his slow reactions as he watched the attack on the wolves commence.

His voice loud enough to be heard over the winds, but low enough to not travel far,

"Well, I would've preferred maybe trying to get them to scoot along their own way without having to attack 'em. Fer all we know, we're intruding on their huntin grounds. But...what's done is done."

Standing in the entrance to the cave, Bron tries to identify the stench from his time in the wilderness.

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Knowledge Nature - (1d20+6)[8]
Knowledge Dungeoneering - (1d20+2)[21]
Survival - (1d20+12)[20]

Use whichever you think is most appropriate.

Staring into the lantern light, he looks around to his companions,

"So...who's first into the stinky, frozen cave?"

[BooNL]

Dieter

Unsheathing his picks once again, Dieter proudly walks past Bron. "The faster we get through here, the faster I can wash the stench out of my clothes, let's go.

Gimil, feel like joining me on the front with those wonderful eyes of yours?"

Dieter will lead the party as long as someone else keeps a lantern lit.

[XiaoTie]

Gimil follows Dieter closely, while Bron carries the lantern just behind them, with Jarvis and Barbarosa following.

The first corridor is narrow and short as it could be seen before thanks to the light. It ends on an obviously manufactured and improvised fence-gate made out of rope and wood. Upon reaching the end of the corridor the group sees themselves on an empty and fairly large room.

Area Map

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Note: approximately 45’ x 60’, or 12m x 20m

A couple pale points can e seen on the ground; they come from the ghostly white glow that emanates from the bones when the reddish light of the lantern touches them, bringing them back to the present, to the eyes of the living. The bones were heavily damaged which would make even harder to tell what they were before their death. The eerie aura emanated by the bones is only increased by a couple small puddles of frozen blood around the room.

The following room is actually part of a larger corridor that goes northward. Silence is only broken by the very steps of the group, not a single sound can be heard, at least not for now.

This corridor is wider than the first and goes deeper inside the cave, but other than that it is just like the previous, having its walls somewhat frozen and a partially uneven floor. It led to the end of the cave. The final room, to the left of the large corridor, made clear that some sort of beast, or beasts, lived inside the cave at some time. Gimil skipped the trip to the last room, and upon the return of the group he had a wide smile and a silence, deep, laughter. “Haha, I knew this wall had something strange about it lads”, he uses the haft of his weapon to hit the wall a couple times, revealing a wooden door covered with a thin layer of rocks and ice.
A very log and narrow corridor that goes westward is revealed.

Area Map

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Note: the Rough Map represents the areas already visited by the group

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OOC: Feel free to ask me any questions of the previous areas of the cave, or to roll checks on them, it would be assumed that you did that while on said room. Also, pardon me if it seemed too much of a "fast-foward"/"fiat" on my part, it was not my intention, I only wanted to help the things get on the moving. Let me know if it was too much and I'll avoid it on future posts.

[Diarmuid]

Bron

Bron unconsciously crouched a bit as they passed into the cavern. The crude fence made some amount of sense taking the animals outside into account. He made sure that any steps necessary to pass by the fence were undone such that the barrier would still keep whatever it was intended to, out (hopefully).

As the moved past each opening to the sides, Bron aimed his lantern over the dwarf's head to provide visibility for the rest of the group. No corner or crevice escaped the illuminating beam of his beacon lantern.

When the hidden door was pointed out, he patted Gimil on the back appreciatively.

"Well, if they went to the trouble of hiding this passageway, they might have gone a step further and set up some kind of trap. One of you has some skills with sniffing that kinda thing out, right?"

[theterran]

Jarvis

Shrugging, Jarvis looks to the others.

"If no one does, we can always take plan B...run really fast!"

[XiaoTie]

Gimil steps forward and makes a sign so that everyone follows his exact steps to the best of their ability, which was a well known maneuver of Isami’s Finest in similar situations previously faced. The dwarven warrior proceeded carefully inspecting the ground and the walls with his eyes, and whenever his eyes were not enough he used his flail to check an unusual or suspicious spot.

The walls on the hidden corridor are rather worked, way more than on most of the areas of the cave explored so far. They are only just a tad larger and taller than what would be needed to fit an above average strong man. One thing these walls had in common with the others was the thin layer of ice on them. The ground, likewise, had a degree of work a bit higher when compared to the previous areas within the cave. Silence was constant everywhere on the last few days; the corridor was no exception to that.

At first the corridor was a straight path westward, but that changed. After a hundred feet or so it began to go upwards rather abruptly, ending on a set of hempen rope with the shape of a ladder carefully attached to the wall. The rope ladder would go up for around sixty feet or so. Seconds listening and Gimil’s eyesight were enough to make sure that there was no trouble up ahead.

On the end of the tunnel a small wooden door was there to be found on the ceiling. The door gave way to what seemed to be a rather organized small storage room, which contained a couple barrels and two small chests. The walls were even more worked than the ones on the underground corridor, but the thin layer of ice was nowhere to be found, and a apparently thin and rough metallic and wooden door had its place on one of the walls.

Much like the layer of ice on the walls, the silence reign was over. Guttural voices could be heard from beyond, muffled by the metallic door. Gimil took off the flail from his belt and whispered with a rather angry tone of voice, “Orcs”.

Area Map

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[Diarmuid]

Bron

At the bottom of the chute, Bron hooded his lantern so only the tiniest slivers of light could be seen and used to climb by. At the top, he completely shuttered the light so as to not give their position away.

Gingerly, he stepped away from the door so he would have more room to ply his bow. Kneeling, he put the lantern on the ground near his feet and whispered,

[ooc] Diagonal up/left 2 squares [/ooc]

"Gimil, when you're ready...open that door and unleash hell. I'll lay down as much cover fire as I can. Jarvis, you'll probably want to use your bow also, might not be enough room for that giant sword of yours. Plus, we dont know how much room we're really going to have."

Drawing an arrow from his quiver, he knocks it to his bow and draws it back slowly, the muscles in his forearm and bicep straining to keep it steady as he waits for the dwarf to open the door.

[Kyroswolf]

Gimil

Nodding at Bron's plan Gimil checked the door to see if it opened inward or outward.

If it opens inward Gimil will move to the side of the door it opens to and open it, moving with it so the door does not cover him up. Once the door is open Gimil prepares to intercept any thing attacking his comrads..

If it opens outward Gimil will move to the side with the handle and swiftly throw the door open, staying out of the archers line of fire and again prepare to intercept any thing attacking his comrads.

Once his comrads have signaled they are ready Gimil will open the door.