Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Moathouse: Planting 8, Late Evening

Megiddo slides the panel open. He finds the room on the other side lit by an everburning torch and a couple of lanterns carried by militia men.

The startled men raise their weapons towards the door for a moment before recognizing the other group.

"Gods! Ya tryin' to get yourselves killed startling us like that?" Haunor exclaims.

[Skjaldbakka]

Megiddo will raise a questioning eyebrow at the militiamen's comment.

"I see that you are here as well. How do you plan to proceed?"

[Lycar]

Grigor Human cleric

Grigor keeps his hand on the hatch on his helmet-lamp as Megiddo goes about to open the door, half hoping to come up behind a group of foes buisy setting an ambush for the militia men.

When the coast is clear, he just opens up the lamp to shine forth.

"Hrm yeah, right. So our cultists have decided to dig in, eh..."

Lycar

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Moathouse: Planting 8, Late Evening

"Well, we were taking a look for the secret panels Elmo mentioned might be around here, but you've already got a handle on that. It's totally empty back there." Haunor nods behind him.

[Another_Poet]

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So they came down the normal stairs and through the jail area with no encounters. Does anyone remember if there were secret passages in that area? I worry that an ambush is waiting in a secret room behind them to sneak up on us.

Tell frowns. "No.... they might've all pulled out. Dammit!"

[Shhalahr Windrider]

(( You didn't encounter any secret passages behind the militia, but there is the other passage behind you—the one that goes past the portcullis and into the makeshift bunkroom. ))

[Skjaldbakka]

"Completely empty? Very well then, I will return shortly."

Megiddo pulls out a wand of detect evil, activates it, and begins examining the area - including a quick pass over the militia members.

[Another_Poet]

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This makes me very happy. I never thought wands of Detect spells would be so useful.

[Lycar]

Grigor Human cleric

Tell frowns. "No.... they might've all pulled out. Dammit!"

Grigor spits and remarks "We should be so lucky... but maybe they just didn't bother with guards 'cause they set some traps instead. Better keep our eyes open."

Lycar

[Frosty]

Xaod's Cave: Planting 8, Evening

"It'll be too dark to be wandering the forest by the time we get there tonight. Let's leave it for the morning."

Forest: Planting 9, Late Morning
After breakfast, Xaod helps Pyro "check the bonds and wrists" of the complaining prisoners. The group quickly heads out afterwards.

While the trees are not too thick, the underbrush is, so the search for a campsite is relatively slow, especially for Xaod's horse, which has twice as many legs to get caught up. in those spots where it is not strong enough to just break through. Eventually, though, Pyro spots a small clearing at the base of a hill. The hill has a small cleft in the slope with a slight overhang that could serve as minimal shelter.

"I'd say that's about an hour and a half's walk to our watch site," Xaod observes.

Pyro points out the clearing excitedly. "Look look! We can use that for like, a day or two. As long as it's not raining we should be fine right? An hour and a half walk isn't that bad...it's a lot shorter than what we had to do before. Alright. So here's what I propose we do. One person goes back andlight some fires and smokes. The other two prepare to scout the temple as soon as most of the guards have gone. Sounds good?"

[Another_Poet]

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Still here, just waiting to see if Skjald's detect spells reveal any magic traps in the area.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Clearing: Planting 9, Late Morning

"I'd rather we stick together right now," Xaod counters, "We don't quite know what progress our prisoners made in escaping and how many hobgoblins will remain in the Temple. They're gonna be playing this cautiously. Espescially if they get too many hints that something's up."

[hr]
Moathouse: Planting 8, Late Evening

Megiddo's search reveals no evil auras.

"So anything back there?" Haunor asks Tell.

[Another_Poet]

((Assuming Megiddo reports this:))

"What about magic auras? The cleric thinks they left traps."

To Haunor:

"Yeah, quite a bit. More than we got through before they sounded the alarum. Sleeping quarters, storage, all kinds of rooms."

[Entertainer13]

Lor agrees with Xaod.

"Xaod is right. However, I suggest we provide a subtler clue, of some sort. Perhaps temporarily splitting up to create a "path taken" if they get a little too track happy? We could do that now, quickly, and then head towards the temple."

[Skjaldbakka]

"It would appear that they have left the area. Which would strongly imply that they somewhere to leave to. Perhaps they have a base of operations elsewhere, or have set up a base camp in the wilderness somewhere. It might be prudent to search the area for tracks, there was a good number of them, which should not be over-hard to follow."

[Another_Poet]

((Shhalahr: is the weather outside clear, or does it look likely to rain?))

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Moathouse: Planting 8, Late Evening

(( Meg: Did you mean to check the area in the back with the beds and stuff, too? I assumed you didn't want to get too far ahead of the group in case there was trouble and were just double-checking the area the militia had already been in. ))

The weather is pretty clear, though there's a little bit of cloud cover, and it's already fairly dark.

"Alarm? I didn't hear anything? What's Going on?"

[Another_Poet]

((I was under the impression he was just sweeping the immediate area.

Can we get a new map?))

Tell ponders Megiddo's words. "Well, in this weather the tracks should still be there tomorrow, and there's no use trying to follow them in the dark. As long as we have a few minutes lefton your wands we may as well poke around the areas we haven't seen yet."

He turns to the milita. "Alright, so each door we come to could've been left trapped. We'll draw lots to see who opens each one, unless you've got a better plan. That person will use a spear to push it open if possible, and the rest of us will hang back a bit. Let's do this quickly."

Unless anyone objects...

((There are 4 militiamen right? So 7 of us total. Tell is 5, Meg 6, Grigor 7.))

(1d7)[6]

((So we move deeper into the moathouse and whoever's number just got rolled [edit: Megiddo] opens the first door we come to. Again, if anyone objects - PC or NPC - let me know. Otherwise I think it's pretty straightforward.))

[Skjaldbakka]

(I was under the impression that I was moving on ahead of the group, having been informed by NPCs that the place was clear)

[Another_Poet]

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The NPCs have been through the rooms to the west and they appear clear. hey have not been E of where were are now, so I assumed we would want to move room by room as a group for security.

There are rooms over there we've never even seen, too.

[Lycar]

Grigor Human cleric

"And what if they are still here, just deeper inside? Besides, even if they did bug out, we might find a clue about what they were doing here to begin with we bother to look. I say we go in and find out."

Lycar

[Another_Poet]

Tell

"Agreed, let's be on high alert. But let's move quickly to make the best use of Megiddo's wands."[/B]

((So can we start going room to room? Meg drew the short straw to open the first door, if we're okay with using that system.))

[Skjaldbakka]

OOC: OK by me.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

(( As you suggested, now is a good time to get the map back up. Past couple of days, I've been trying to get an update to the software going, hence the delay.

At the moment, we'll probably stick with the same thing we've been using until I get some kinks worked out. I'll try to get a full update to this thread a little later today. ))

[Another_Poet]

((If we just need a visual reminder of the layout, we could look at the map from the first time we were here right? Just assume the bodies have been removed?))

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Clearing: Planting 9, Late morning

"M'alright," Xaod nods in response to Lor's suggestion, "Probably can't be too careful. But one of us should at least watch the temple so we know when they leave. My horse makes the biggest trail, so I can help create the diversion."

[hr]
Moathouse: Planting 8, Late Evening

Megiddo opens the panel. The worry over traps on this first door seems misplaced, as there is no special effect. Just an empty hallway.

Unfortunately, the group finds the portcullis on the other side of the hallway down, blocking their progress.

(( Map #117
Have characters with light sources labeled ))

[Another_Poet]

Tell

Tell whispers, "Looks like someone's still in there. Or they have a back way out. Give me a hand."

((Let's try a Str check. Taking 10, Tell rolls a 13. Taking 20 (if you'll allow it) Tell rolls a 23. Since two other people can "aid another" and they can take 10 also, that gets us up to 17 or 27.

If one of the militiamen has an 18 Str, we'd put him in front and have 18/28.

Does the gate open?))

[Entertainer13]

Lor is all "I can like, totally watch a temple," but I'm not going to write it out. Why? Because you understand it.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Temple of Elemental Evil: Planting 9, Early Afternoon

Lor takes up her watch, and after about an hour or so, she sees two figures approach the Temple. It looks like it's the "escaped" prisoners. They appear to have taken the bait.

After another hour and a half, Xaod and Pyro arrive at the watch point, having made their decoy trail.

"Anything to report? Have they arrived yet?"

[hr]
Moathouse: Planting 8, Late Evening

(( Nothing going on preventing a Take 20. Unfortunately, "You can’t take 10 on a skill check to aid another," and ability checks work the same as skill checks.

Of course, you're also out of combat, so you don't need full combat spacing, so a few other characters could squeeze in and help. ))

"Alright. Mair! Eckhard! Get over here!"

Haunor, the man that drew his sword at the meeting earlier in the morning, and another man carrying a flail and shield make their way to the front of the group.

"On three."

Tell and the others put all their effort into pushing up on the gate. Slowly, they are able to force it up.

"Alright! Alright! Get through! Move it!"

After the other men work their way under the gate, Tell, Haunor, Mair, and Eckhard slip under and let the portcullis drop back down.

(( Map #118

Feel free to adjust your positions. Trade your spot with one or two militia members if you'd rather have another spot. Ricar, who is not wearing any regular armor, will attempt to stay near the middle of the group. The other members are a bit more flexible. ))

[Another_Poet]

Tell moves to the winch that Megiddo once struggled with and puts in his own turn of toil to get the portcullis raised behind them.

((I moved Bellamin mostly to indicate that I hope we'll check the E rooms first. But even if not I'll at least ask him to be lookout while I winch.))