World's Largest Dungeon

Kafkonia · Jul 15, 2006

It's been a week since the minarets and steeples of Mandala were visible, and three days since the party entered the mountain range to the East of the Kingdom, retracing the route that was to be followed by the caravan that never arrived. The horses and riding dogs Dactyl Fakim provided to his hired adventurers have held up well to the travel, picking their way along the moderately well-travelled pass, and it seems like today will be yet another uneventful day of travel.

As the party crests a particularly steep rise, however, the halfling Carolina notices something unusual -- the animals in the area all seem perturbed. Birds are taking to the skies en masse, small mammals are hurrying down the slopes of the mountain, and the insects are buzzing about her head with an alarming insistency. Before she can mention any of this to her compatriots, however, the ground is rocked by a small tremor -- and then a larger, and a larger.

Without warning, the mountainside gives way beneath their mounts, and the five men and women find themselves tumbling downward, along with their animals and a sizeable amount of the terrain around them. Everything is a chaotic jumble of stones as they fall downward, and yet when they reach the bottom they find that, while they are scratched and bruised, they seem miraculously to have escaped without injury. Unfortunately, their mounts haven't been so lucky, as all have perished in the landslide.

The shock of the fall is soon overshadowed by a larger shock, quite literally -- a man the size a galleon lies before them, partly covered by the rubble. A natural death apparently claimed him long before their arrival, and yet he seems not to have decayed in all that time. A single cave winds down into the earth beyond the fallen behemoth, seeming quite inviting as the sky begins to darken.

wmasters · Jul 15, 2006

Aswan lies still for a moment, the shock taking it's toll. "Is everyone alright?" he calls, relieved when he hears everyone's voice. Sitting up, the huge man catches his eye. "Woah! What is that? He's huge. Some kind of mountain giant I guess. Wierd. Hey, maybe we should take stock in this cave," he says, "I sure hope there's no bears in it."

Aswan has a quick look around the cave mouth, and the fallen man to see if there are any signs of someone or something passing this way recently.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Jul 15, 2006

Baeril weeps for Bluebell, his faithful pony, wiping the tears from his cheeks with the back of his hand and blowing his nose loudly into an embroidered handkerchief.

"Sweet grass and warm sunshine, Bluebell." The gnome puts his handkerchief away and dusts himself off before removing his bags from Bluebell and undoing the saddle and bridle, making the pony comfortable for his trip into the afterlife. As he does so, he keeps glancing up at the giant, growing increasingly curious. "How odd that he has not decayed!"

Baeril's thrush flies around the dead giant, tweeting in Gnomish -- "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" -- to no avail. Finally, Half-Penny comes and lands on her master's shoulder, watching with interest.

InVinoVeritas · Jul 16, 2006

Thorg gets up, silghtly dazed, and runs around to the other party members to make sure that they are unhurt. When everyone comes up fine, he looks around, missing something... then he realizes it.

"Mr. Hoof! No!!!! And little Bluebell, too! And everybody's horses!"

Thorg raises his hands to the sky in prayer. "Please, great Pelor, make sure our horses find nice sunny plains to run around in. Give them lots of sweet flowers to eat. And they should get no mountains to fall down on them. They were good horses. And... wait, who's this big guy?"

Thorg clambers over and peers into the giant's nostril. "I don't feel any breath. Maybe he's dead, too?"

"Hey, maybe we should take stock in this cave," Aswan says, "I sure hope there's no bears in it."

"Oh, I don't know, Aswan. The mountain might fall down again. We could get crushed like Mr. Hoof."

industrygothica · Jul 16, 2006

Carolina slowly crawls up through the debris. Still dazed, it takes her a moment to assess the situation and to finally realize what has happened. She looks up at the cave-in and tries to discern a path back out of the mountain but quickly gives up, deeming it impossible. She rests her hand for a moment on her fallen mount before removing any belongings it may have been carrying.

While she as curious as the others as the demise of the creature before them, she is more concerned with any equipment the thing might be carrying to aid them on their trek through this... place.

"Unfortunately," she says, "Answan is right. Looks like there's no way out here; we're gonna have to go down in the cave."
She looks up again at the gaping hole, and the ominous darkening sky beyond, "We may be wanting some cover anyway."

OOC: Carolina will take 20 and thoroughly search the dead man for any useful equipment or perhaps even a clue as to the cause his peculiar death.

Boddynock · Jul 16, 2006

Jerolan lies for a moment where the impetus of the fall threw him, then springs to his feet, dusting himself off and looking around. "Lady's Grace, cutters, that was unexpected. Does the ground open up often on this plane?" He checks on his mount, then pats it on the shoulder saying, "Poor old beast. Still, it was quick."

He retrieves his pack from the riding dog's saddle, and checks its contents before drawing a small brush from his pocket and proceeding to remove the worst ravages of his fall. Only when he is satisfied that he presents a fair face to the world does he stroll over to the giant corpse. Puzzled, like the others, he contents himself with a raised eyebrow and a quiet "Hmm."

In response to Aswan's suggestion and Thorg's caution, and with an eye to the darkening sky, he replies, "Well, having survived a fall from great height, I certainly don't fancy being drenched in a downpour. Besides, all that mud would ruin these trews. Still, it might be wise to stay close to the entrance - at least for a while. That way, if we absolutely had to, we could duck out of the way of any falling rock."

He then turns back to examine the giant more carefully, assisting Carolina in her search for anything which could be of value or interest, or shed light on what happened here.

Kafkonia · Jul 16, 2006

Searching the body, Carolina finds he had little in the way of possessions aside from the well-crafted chain shirt he wore. Lying a few dozen feet away, partially buried by rocks, is a halberd that was obviously sized for the deceased. Large sheets of paper, covered with notes in a script she does not recognize, have been torn apart and litter the scene. Upon investigation, Jerolan thinks that the script vaguely resembles Celestial; from what he can make out, the papers were part of a journal.

The cave mouth appears to have been dug out by hand -- hands much smaller than those possessed by the body in front of them. There are footprints and tracks in the dirt, and at the back of the cave a poorly lit tunnel, perhaps big enough for two humans to walk abreast, leads further into the mountain.

Aswan notes that the footprints all lead into the tunnel; none lead out.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Jul 16, 2006

Baeril watches Aswan walk back and forth, examing the footsteps, gearwheels turning in his brain.

"Unless he shrank himself down and walked out backwards, and then died and returned to normal size ... How intriguing! Things like this never happened back in Greenfields. Well, that's not true. My great-uncle Raeril once walked backwards 22 miles to settle a bet, but he walked smack under a plow being pulled by a pair of rams. He always lost his head over a bet, his wife always used to say, and she sure ended up being right, Sheyanna preserve him.

"I don't suppose this was a bet, though. He still has his head, after all."

InVinoVeritas · Jul 16, 2006

Thorg laughs. "I like rams. They're funny."

He looks around, thinking about the dead horses and the dead giant. "Do we need a big shovel? How do we bury a bunch of horses? Poor horses. Sometimes we eat horses when we don't have enough food, but I'm not hungry. And, uh, we don't eat giants."

Thorg picks around the rubble, picking up the rest of his belongings. He looks at the sky, at all the horses, and at the cave. "If it rains, we need to go inside. This mountain feels bad, but the cave is inside. I will pray to Pelor to keep us safe in the cave." He heads over to Aswan and Baeril by the cave.

Kafkonia · Jul 16, 2006

Almost as if in response to Thorg's comments, the sky seems to crack open for an instant as lightning strikes higher up on the mountain and a peel of thunder echoes off the landscape. The first drops of rain start to strike the adventurers, and small pebbles begin to tumble down the steep incline towards them as the wind picks up.

The sky has become almost as black as night, with only a faint hint of the hidden sun providing light. A small, foot-long creature, its features obscured by shadows, scurries from the rubble and into the cave mouth, where it disappears into the darkness.