Badlands and Broken Souls

Brock chimes in; "I think we should try to get at her as soon as possible in case she is nearly complete with this ritual?" He looks at you hopefully...

"Or does the delay give her time to summon more twisted creatures? Unless freeing the hostages will earn us some Hobbie help, I vote to press the attack directly."

Its a good idea, but Zax will always vote for FULL FRONTAL ASSAULT!

“Okay boss. We cut the head off the snake.”

Marvin chimes in “She knows we’re coming, but she doesn’t know WHEN it from WHERE. We might still get the drop on her if we hurry”

“Can we work around northeast of here and approach from the north? We won’t have to devote as much energy to stealth and caution.”

Autobots, Transform and roll out!

ok, update will be coming sometime today/tonight. I had a very rough night last night where my body finally told me that I'm "too old for this shit" - regarding working at UPS

ok, you move out through the badlands... you find some tracks leading up into a larger mountain chain. Brock says that you are very close to the Mountain Dwarf lands of Koroth. In fact, this is right on the border.

The tracks are a mix of small ones (hobgoblin) and large ones... Formorian and Hill giant, from what you can tell, and several that are unfamiliar to Marvin and Brock.

You can see a small cave opening about 100' ahead of you.




sorry about the perspective here... the opening is 100' from where you come over the rise in the path

Marvin turns to Warhol, “Got any bats in that shell of yours?”

"Arrod is smiling in his stable now."

Warhol pretends to reach into his shell and pull out a bat as he summons a fey bat familiar.  It flys just into the mouth of the cave and clings to the ceiling using passive echolocation via ambient sounds to use blindsight quietly. Warhol will get just close enough to use its senses.

ok, how far into the cave do you send the bat?

Just inside the first shadow.

you see nothing of note... it's just a cave at this point

The bat will keep watch right there
Passive perception 11. (16 hearing).

“Nothing right at the entrance,” Warhol warns quietly. “There’s probably traps. Maybe spells.”

Zax feigns a few steps forward before crouching behind a boulder, " Full Frontal.... stealth mode."
He swaps to his new xbow to provide cover.

Marvin gulps. “Guys, I can’t really see in the dark so well…”

“Buddy, the cave is 100 feet away. Just get us over there without stepping in a pit full of snakes or a tripwire that shoots spears or something. I can take care of the darkness. “

“Uh…right. Ok Warhol.” Marvin will Stealth up and approach the cave. He will also search for traps:

Stealth:
Tue Aug 30 2022 21:41:38 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 11 to total : 17, + 11, TOTAL: 28

Find Traps/Investigation:
Tue Aug 30 2022 21:49:02 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 5 to total : 19, + 5, TOTAL: 24

Tue Aug 30 2022 21:49:00 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 5 to total : 1, + 5, TOTAL: 6

Marvin’s feelin Lucky, punk.

ok, you make your way to the mouth of the cave... you can't see any traps anywhere. But a small collection of rocks slide down the rock face (the top of which is about 80' up)

Marvin thinks he can make out the outline of something's head peering down at him from up the rock face

Perception check please

Perception:
Wed Aug 31 2022 09:40:17 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 7 to total : 14, + 7, TOTAL: 21

Warhol is following in Marvin’s footsteps about 30’ behind as quietly as he can.
Result of the throw of dice "1d20 +2" :

19 + 2 = 21

Zax on overwatch with the .50cal xbow

Ready action to shoot if anything fugly jumps out at Marvin or Warhol


Perception
Result of the throw of dice "1d20 +5" :

12 + 5 = 17

Marvin can see two hill giants peering down at the entrance to the cave. They look to be setting an ambush. Again, they are up an almost sheer rock face about 80' high

Marvin will turn back to the others and pantomime a big goofy giant chucking rocks down on the party and then point up.

DM, is the cave mouth also in the sheer face? If Marvin were to duck just inside he’d be fully obscured from the giants’ view and protected from anything they could drop on him?

yes, you would be covered from any attacks

Ok, Marvin will draw his bow and Hide in the cave mouth, covering the other’s advance:

Stealth:

Thu Sep 01 2022 17:19:07 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 11 to total : 11, + 11, TOTAL: 22

Thu Sep 01 2022 17:19:05 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 11 to total : 1, + 11, TOTAL: 12

Marvin’s double Lucky today!

Does he see anything inside the cave that Warhol didn’t pick up with the bat’s recon?

Marvin makes it to the mouth of the cave. As he does not have darkvision, he can only see about 40' into it before it's just too dark. Nothing really stands out

Unless corrected, I am interpreting the fact that we haven’t triggered the ambush to mean we were not detected. Warhol will join Marvin in the cave.

Stealth
Result of the throw of dice "1d20 +2" :

14 + 2 = 16

Or its not an ambush in the way you are thinking. Perhaps.... They are waiting for us to enter and will then seal us inside.

"I've got a bad feeling about this...."

I was thinking the same thing…

But then again, while they may think we are trapped inside with them…the truth is they are trapped inside with US!

Rorschach !

Warhol makes it to the cave entrance.

Brock whispers to Zax "you want to go next or should I.... I think we should just run for the entrance."

Zax stows the xbow and draws his shield and warhammer. "Today is a good day to die - together!"
Zax holds the shield overhead like a rock umbrella and makes a dash for the cave with Brock.

Zax and Brock make to the entrance of the cave....

A very good guess on the tactic here... as soon as you enter, a pile of rocks comes raining down in front of the entrance. You now appear to be sealed in for the moment. Those without darkvision can barely see at all. You have dim light at best (darkvision is unaffected at the moment)

"Now we face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard, there are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world."


I think Zax is the only one with Darkvision, "Should I take point?"

“See,” commands Warhol, touching Marvin’s face. Dark vision 60’ for 8 hours.

Warhol holds a flame in his hand (produce flame) and clicks his tongue. The bat flutters to his shoulder.

“Whoa”…Marvin is again delighted at the fates bringing him into such peculiar company.

Ok DM, Marvin’s back at the point, extra stealthy like:

Fri Sep 02 2022 20:49:43 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 11 to total : 12, + 11, TOTAL: 23

And a Perception roll just in case:
Fri Sep 02 2022 20:50:54 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 7 to each : 10 + 7, TOTAL: 17

ok, the cave is more illuminated now. you see nothing for the moment but the cave. The passage seems to narrow up ahead to about 4' across by 6' high

Zax will go second but stay back with Warhol, since our backs should be fairly safe for the moment

Marvin advances to the narrowed section with bow drawn

ok, as Marvin is on point, perception check please

Look up 4 posts

ah... didn't see that. (sorry, the GM is a bit distracted by the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert today... especially when Brian May and Roger Taylor showed up...)

Ok, Marvin, something doesn't look right to you. The floor has changed into bricks and a paved path. You are very suspicious of the paving bricks in front of you.

Hmm. Marvin will poke gently at a few of the closest bricks:
Investigation/Find Traps:
Sat Sep 03 2022 14:53:14 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 5 to total : 8, + 5, TOTAL: 13

Sat Sep 03 2022 14:53:08 GMT-0600 (MDT)
Rolling line 1 : 1d20 + 5 to total : 1, + 5, TOTAL: 6

Marvin’s luck saves him again.

whit10 wrote:ah... didn't see that.

no worries, Mike is really good about anticipating and posting rolls

whit10 wrote:

A very good guess on the tactic here... as soon as you enter, a pile of rocks comes raining down in front of the entrance.  You now appear to be sealed in for the moment.  

Inspiration point?

Battlemaster observed position of opponents and terrain, correctly deduced tactics and intent

there is definitely some kind of trap in front of you. The bricks seem to trigger it. You figure that covers the width of the tunnel and extends for 20' in length
'

Warhol will approach Marvin carefully and cast guidance, patting him on the shoulder. “Okay kid, you got this.”

Marvin takes a deep breath and attempts to identify the trap mechanism and disarm it. DM, what roll would you like?

you don't see a way to disarm it as far as you can tell, it has to be bypassed or gotten over by some means. You would swear it's a pit trap of some kind