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Upon falling, Oloek will expend 1 pp to negate 2 damage, taking 7 damage instead of 9
Oloek coughs out the sand from his lung, the fall had knocked the wind out of him and the resulting deep breath filled with sand had caught him by surprise. He had manage to shield himself ever so slightly before hitting the ground, however it did not stop the brunt of it.
He slowly gets up and tries to find his way to the only source of light available."As much as *cough* I hate to *cough*cough* to agree, he's probably right *cough*. They've surrendered, let them live, just take their weapons for now until we can talk it out. I SWEAR, this is the last time I go in a desert."
The guards, hearing your words, keep from charging the two remaining hobgoblins [H6 and H5] but keep their weapons drawn.
Only 5 of the human guards remaind standing [BG5, BG4, BG1, GG2 and GG1]. Two [GG2 & GG1] look like they are about to collapse.
One of the guards takes rope and ties up the two remaining hobgoblins. The one less hurt [H6] struggles a bit at first before giving up.
Once the guard tie up the two, they forage around the broken remains of the wagons. Then, the light of torches can be seen, lighting up the area.
As you look around, you seem to be standing on a large, circular disk, about 60 feet in diameter that is slightly concave. The remains of some of the bodies - human, hobgoblin, horses, and mules - litter the disc.
Nearly 30 feet up, you can see the area where the desert collapsed. From the torch light, you make out that the fingers poking out of the desert where part of a much larger statue, female from some of the facial features that can be seen. It looks like, at one time, the disc you were standing on was being held by the statue and it had collapsed at some point, wedging itself against the walls and then being covered by the ever shifting sands.
One of the guards walks to the edge and yells out "It be near fifty feet down, by my guess. There be boudies down thar, but it no look like they moving. Buildings, too, by de look of things." he says in his strange drawl from the southern part of the continent. As he inches a bit closer, the whole disc shifts slightly. The other guards yell at him to stop moving.
Karven goes around to each of the two guards that look like they're going to fall and tries to heal them. If he fails twice at doing mundane healing, he instead uses his magic.
Normal heal the first time, magic heal the second time.
He looks around and calls the guard back towards the center once that is done. "I can climb down safely and don't weigh all that much, so you guys stay here while I check how it is. I'm going to need a torch..." He looks around and waits for someone to give him one.
Maispar takes a moment to calm himself. He sheathes his falchion, places his hand to his chest and silently prays to his ancestors.
Spoiler
End rage.
Charnel Touch on Self, repeat until fully healed.
(1d8)[1] (1d8)[4] (1d8)[4]
Full health equals 15 HP
Miaspar looks up and speaks. “I shall go with you, Karven. Our travels have taken a turn for the dangerous. We should stick together in pairs until daylight comes.”
Miaspar helps move the wounded until Karven receives his torch.
Oloek sighs and curses the desert under his breath. "Might as well come along too, I'll be damned if I let you have all the fun. Now, do we have any rope? If one of us falls, the other two can hold him up... or fall along with him" Oloek shrugs.
Karven shakes his head. "I doubt either of you can climb back up as fast as you can get down, so if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go down myself to check first. If it's clear, I'll throw a baleful up and then you can come down on a rope. If not, then I won't be staying down there for long, if at all. Now, I still need a form of light, or at least for someone to shine one down." He turns to the rest of the group, with the goblins and such. "Since we'll all be heading down eventually, having the two goblins roped like that might be counterproductive. But regardless, it's your choice."
Each square is 10 feet.
You guys are on the dark gray disk. The lighter color circles look to be legs of a statue while the purple-ish rectangles look to be the feet of a statue.
The black is a composite of loose, gritty dirty with rock and sand.
Some of the guards are rummaging through the remains of the caravan. After a few moments, one yells out I found some rope. and then another yells out I found some sunrods.
Oloek then turns toward the other soldiers. "Can you tie a rope to the statue's finger or arm and lets get everyone off this thing before the whole thing comes crashing down." He then turns his attention toward the two hobgoblin and manifests his mind blind. "Now, what to do about you. The easier way to deal with you is clearly to kill you, and judging by your behaviour out there, I'm sure you would do that. However, my friend over there is absolutely right about not knowing what's down here and maybe needing strong bodies to help. But really it all boils down to trust, doesn't it? Do I trust you have our back long enough to get all of us out of here, or do I just throw you down the disk, rope optional? So tell me, can I trust you? And I'm having a REALLY bad day, so cut the crap."
Karven nods, takes the sunrod, strikes it on, and begins to head down with his ability. Every 10 or so feet, he stops, turns around, and waves the sunrod around while looking at the ground, to see if he sees anything. If he doesn't see anything until he reaches the bottom, he gets to the bottom and throws an eldritch blast up. If he does see something that could be hazardous, he stops.
The two hobgoblins looks at each other and mutter in a gutteral, harsh language. After a few moments, the one who spoke before says "Want live, want live. Trust us!"]
Spoiler
Oloek and Maispar, roll sense motive
Blast of energy lights up the collapsed cavern the group of you stand in at various levels.
Dust, rock, and sand litter the cavern floor. Here and there tile, pottery, statues and other mundane items can be seen in lying about, most damaged. At the extreme edge of Karven's vision he can make out what looks to be buildings, mostly covered by sand and stone where they are visible. Also, looking closely, the base of the statue is mostly intact. Looking up at the disc the rest of the group is on you can see that the disc is precariously perched on three points - the statue and two corners of stone & dirt. It looks like the stone and dirt points are slowly sinking and are nearly reaching a point where they will not be supported underneath.
Karven moves forward cautiously, waving the sunrod in front of him. He approaches the buildings and, if nothing else draws his attention, he looks inside one of them.
Spoiler
Spot:(1d20+5)[25] Listen:(1d20+5)[23] Move Silently:(1d20+3)[12] Hide:(1d20+7)[24]
(Most likely negated by the lit sunrod, but rolling hide anyway.)
Oloek sighs as he hears the hobgoblin speak in a language he doesn't understand and then slaps the first one that talked hard. He does his best to look not quite as mentally stable as he should be. "What's the last thing I said? What was it? I SAID CUT THE CRAP! What was that? That was crap, pure utter crap. See, now I have no clue if I should trust you, didn't I say it all comes down to trust? Lets see how much scheming you can do when you hit the ground." Oloek then raises his mind blade and points it at the other hobgoblin. "What did he say huh? WHAT DID HE SAY? You're friend's already dead, see if you can save yourself, what did he say?" Oloek makes sure the hobgoblin doesn't have time to think and make up a story.
Oloek stares at him for a second before letting his mind blade vanish into thin air and he starts to untie their ropes "Go help the soldiers with the rope, lets get everyone down before this thing crashes." Oloek brings the ropes that were used to tie the hobgoblin to the soliders and see what he can do to help them.
As Karven moves as stealthily as he can towards the building, he sees at least a dozen pairs eyes reflecting in back at him from the glow of the sunrod he is holding, low to the ground. He can here a click-click-click sound, like small, clawed feet on tile or stone, coming from multiple directions. As he turns to see the eyes, they disappear as he can hear many bodies scampering away from him and the hair on the back his neck rises.
Karven calls upon his power and casts a spell before calling out, "Hold on! Don't be scared. Can you help us?" He maintains his position and is ready to cast another spell if need be, but he tries to demonstrate a friendly demeanor.
Spoiler
Casting Speak with Animals, 1 minute duration. Diplomacy:(1d20+6)[7]
As the two unbound hobgoblins begin to grudglingly help, Itzel the cook (GG1) comes up to Oloek and says in a low voice "I speak a bit of goblin and what they said was true... except he left out 'run at first chance' or something, for what it's worth." As the whole disc begins to tilt towards the opening, Itzel and the other guards shift back towards the statue to keep the weight balanced.
Karven, trying to figure out what is scurrying in the darkness, calls out but is met with nothing but silence. As he looks around, he sees on the ground many tracks. Some looks to be the size of mice or rats... and in a couple of spots it looks like he can see some kind of hooved track.
Oloek nods at Itzel and thank him for the information, wondering in his head if it's even worth stoping them from running as ressources are now limited. When disc shift Oloek quickly grabs a rope and ties it to some heavy wooden plank. He then throw is over the arm of the statue and lowers the piece of wood until it's at his level again, untying it and tying the rope instead. He quickly pulls the slack from the rope, and once it's taut he puts all his weight on it to make sure it'll hold. He then throws the other down the disk, still holding it and hands it to one of the guard. "I don't think we have much longer, lets hurry, run when you get on the ground so the disc doesn't fall on you."
Karven looks around but can't see what happened to the eyes. The only sound he hears is the men on the disc until he hears a small rippling in the air and turns to look up in time to see Maispar glide gracefully down and land about 10 feet from him.
Oloek and the others begin to climb down, near the back side closest to the statue, where it seems the disc is most stable.
As everyone makes it down, the survivors make their way towards Karven and Maispar with whatever supplier they were able to salvage.
Rendal walks up and points out I think that's Teven's body over there, next to some of the broken wagon. We should try to find anything else we can salvage, I think.
As the others begin to salvage what they can, Karven looks at the tracks.
Most look to be mice and rats, some snake tracks that looks to be a cobra... and the tracks of a minotaur, if what he remembers of them is correct.
Itzel asks as is collecting what he can "Do we bury Teven and the other or just leave them like this?"
"Lets figure out how deep in we are first. Lets insure the survivors will survive first, then, if we can spare the energy and time, we'll bury the dead. I know it's cruel, but we might end up dead ourselves if we waste valuable energy and find out we have no water and die here... Beside, from the look of things, we might actually be in a giant sand tomb, rending the burying quite moot."
Oloek keeps searching for food and water that might be recoverable.
Oloek and the others gather the rest of the material. While the others agree that they need to take care of their immediate needs, Itzel and a couple of others do not look happy at not burying Teven and the others.
Spoiler
You guys find -
100 days worth of rations for 1 person
10 waterskins that are full and undamaged (the barrels are all broken)
a locked 30"x30"x20" box(from jingling it around, it sounds like it has coins in it)
400ft hempen rope
630 arrows
249 crossbow bolts
6 longswords
7 longspears
12 daggers
40 sunrods (excluding the ones you are currently using)
Most of the other goods were broking during the fall.
Karven approaches the building, sunrod held before him. As he walks up to the arched entry, he sees that the door has long since rotted away. Peeking in, he sees broken furniture scattered about with broken pottery and other debris littering the area. He can also see what looks like droppings from small rodents littering the area. What looks to be a skeleton, broken apart, seems to be lying towards the middle of the front room, maybe humanoid, but you can't be sure from that distance.
Maispar, creeping along at a distance from the glow of the sunrod, keeps hidden while looking for trouble. As he moves along, he sees tracks criss-crossing the ground.
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Re: A Shadow Over Arvinon IC
