The Undiscovered Frontier (Finished!)

OOC: Several of the flea bags are still unconscious, but will be waking up in several rounds. If you will do a search, you will have to determine what to do about them.

"You can't rest here, we need to press on, and find a proper place to rest. And about these..." Sarpot conjures a mass of insects to devour the unconcious gnolls while the group moves on.
"Let's go, the bugs will end them good." with a sardonic grin, Sarpot turns and advances.

OOC: Swarm acts independently, and will last for long enough as to coupe de grace all the fallen gnolls methinks.

You leave the brutalized remnants of the gnoll hunting parties behind, heading towards the mist-covered Cliffs where you will find the Wailing Caves. A whistling wind blows out from the Caves and clears the unhealthy mists from the surrounding area, giving you the best visibility that you've had since your awakening. The Caves themselves look like a series of small and large tunnels patched together in a way to resemble a twisted and screaming face if you were to strain your imagination. The lowest cave is also the largest and resembles an open mouth. Two smaller caves rest over a ledge just above the lower cave and below a rock potrusion, making these two caves appear as if nostrils. The final two caves are at the same level as one another and further above the 'nostrils'. Being slightly larger they resemble eyes on a face. At times the wind blows harder and the whistling gathers in pitch until it sounds like an uncontrollable wail of sorrow that chills you to the bone.

The Wailing Caves are undefended and there seems to be no sign of danger, and a series of interlocking trails and outcroppings would make it easy to ascend into them. You will need to go through the Caves if you are to reach the lands on the other side and assault the Life Tree. But you will need better weapons and equipment. After some searching along the base of the Cliffs, you easily find the quartz boulder Tak High-Streams-Skirmish had mentioned to you. But you realize that you do not know how to open the way into hidden cache. After some examination it is Mellisande who notices a strange pattern of straight and snaking lines intersecting into the rock. As she touches the lines some remain glowing in a dull blue light, but when she touches the wrong line all glowing lines disappear. The touching of the lines act as some sort of combination lock, but she can't break the puzzle. She stands frustrated for a moment, unsure of what to do until Arkos watches over series of lines and recognizes a shape. "Congruent helices," Arkos says, the knowledge coming natural to him. He traces his finger along two parrallel snaking lines and some perpendicular straight ones. The blue glowing lines flash together for one instance and there is a clicking noise, followed by the rumbling sound of a quartz door sliding on rollers. The cache has been opened and allows the party entrance to the magically lit rooms beyond, before closing behind the last party member in order to keep the secret safe.

And quite a cache it is, with a series of four large cavernous rooms. The first room is a barracks of sort with two dozen simple bunk beds and empty chests to hold items for inhabitants. The second room is a pantry holding dried fruits and meats in packaging to keep them fresh. A flowing fountain of surprisingly clear water streams a couple of feet off the ground. The third room holds an amazing amount of weapons and defenses. You find twenty water flasks, fifteen backpacks, six bedrolls, ten healer's kits, ten fully-charged wands of cure light wounds, eight reinforced pieces of breast armor that act as masterwork breastplates, twelve masterwork studded leather vests, thirty sunrods, ten thunderstones, fifteen tanglefoot bags, ten smoke sticks, fifteen masterwork swords, twenty masterwork quaterstaffs, fourteen masterwork longbows, six masterwork shortbows, twenty masterwork daggers, 300 arrows, a dozen fully charged belts of shield, thirteen fully charged wands of magic missile (5th), seven fully charged wands of Melf's acid arrow and three staves of fireball (5th) that act as wands, but hold only twenty charges and weighs twenty-five pounds. A number of fully expended and useless wands and staves lay in a pile along the far wall.

The fourth and final room is a firing range of sorts with painted rocks blasted with fire and propped mattresses riddled with piercings from arrows. This is by far the largest and ill-kept room. No personal effects are found by anyone, except by Nerin who discovers an old music box left and forgotten behind a chest next to one of the bunk beds. He winds it up and opens the box, which causes music to start playing and a tiny toy ballerina to pop up and do a twirling circle. It's a lovely, soft melody full of affection and mirth. Behind the ballerina is a portrait of an attractive woman giving a half-smile. At the bottom of the picture is the word 'Melissa', most likely the lady's name. She has a close resemblance to Mellisande, though the woman is obviously human. Nerin looks up and sees Mellisande humming the tune from the music box in perfect synch, her eyes closed in rapture. She says automatically, "It's from Verritti's fourth and best opera. He wrote it for his daughter while spending his nights with her next to her sick bed." A moment later she can't explain where the memory came from.

"That was odd" states the hobgoblin, and snorts. "Well, I guess I'll take a bunch of that stuff; seems pretty useful to me."

I'll take 3 smokesticks, 3 tanglefoot bags, 2 thunderstones, 1 masterwork studded leather vests, 1 belt of shield, 2 wands of MM, 2 melfs acid wand, 2 wnads of cure wounds, 1 healer's kit and a staff of fireballs

OOC: With the excess equipment there along with the range, it should be enough for anyone with Use Magic Device skill to learn how to use one without having to make a skill check in the future.

Mellisande takes up residence in the bed that 'owns' the chest the box was found in. She listens to it in between practicng with wands of magic missile and acid arrow, preparing to take a few of them for her arsenal. Necessary, as her own magicks were tools of mischief and misdirection...not weapons of war. She experiments with the curative wands too...seeing the wisdom of being able to wield such devices should those the magic came to naturally fall.

The armor in the old cache is not sized for her, but since her spells can provide her with invisible, weightless armor, she's fine with that. A shortbow and a dagger that seems more like a short sword in her hands round things out, along with a quiver at her side and a pack on her back with water, food packages, a few spare shield belts, and some sun rods.

As the tiny woman lies on the bed she'd claimed, gazing at the picture in the music box as it plays its haunting tune, she muses aloud, "I think there's more to this than the dog-man told us."

"Reaaaally? Now yer a Genius little one! Of course he couldn't possible know about everything, poor Tak, trapped down there. I feel bad for not being able to save him, after all, we were supposed to be their only hope, and we DID fail him." Ponders Sarpot, examining some of the wands he stuffed his belt with.

Mellisande sighs. "Yeah...some gods we turned out to be. We had one follower, and couldn't save him. We'd better get our act together."

Lealani hangs her head. "Yes, I am ashamed I left our friend undefended. It was a reaction, I am not really meant for hand to hand combat, yet I could do nothing more to help him so quickly. I should have done more, or stayed to die beside him."