Doom of the Savage Kings

[GlassEye]

The mouth of the sinkhole is some 20 feet across and opens into a cavern below. Swamp water trickles in streams over the lip of the sinkhole and falls an unknown distance. The dark clouds surging from the hole make it impossible to tell how far down the bottom is but from the sound of the falling water it is a ways down. Below is where you believe the Hound of Hirot lairs.

What do you do?

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Gratien put on his thinking cap. He knew something of the natural world, and this looked like a cave. If that was the case, then water had eaten its way through the rock and made the cavern, but the water was wily and would seek a way. That meant there was likely to be another means of egress that the group could hunt for and find. Gratien nodded to himself, and set about walking concentric circles around the sinkhole. He kept a respectful distance from the sinkhole's edge, and ever widened his circuit as he hunted.

Lizt walked up to the lip of the sinkhole and looked in. She tried her best to pick out a path to the lip that guaranteed the surest footing. It wouldn't do to fall in. Then again, she'd felt morose since Alois passed to the after life, and a little devil-may-care had crept into her actions of late; if she fell and hit her head, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Tender, Boral and Kurl watched Gratien work alongside Litz.

"Do you think we should help them search," Boral asked.

"Nah. Too much effort," Kurl responded. "Besides, I find their flailing attempts almost hypnotic."

Tender sighed and said, "We can at least take a look around and see if there is a natural structure that might be another entrance before we go in."

Boral and Kurl shrugged, but took the hint as they looked further around. Tender held his sword at the ready and stood near Litz in case something jumped out from the opening.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Lizt offered Tender a small smile when he joined her at the lip of the sinkhole. "See anything?" She peered down into the darkness.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"A lot of nothin'," Tender replied. "I'm actually kind of pleased and will be disappointed to see a week of fair peace and quiet end."

 

[GlassEye]

Searching the area turns up nothing of a way into the sinkhole. If it exists, it is filled with earth and mud and water. It looks like the only way in is through the sinkhole itself. Hopefully someone has a rope... The edge feels solid enough to Lizt but peering over the edge reveals no new information: the billowing smoke is too thick to see far.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Homer steps before every one, "Ahem, I , uh, am light and can climb pretty well. We had tree climbing races when I was young. I can climb down and if there is trouble, I can call out, climb up And you can pull me up at the same time. I do not like force who destabilize a healthy economy. It is hard on money lending, You see."

It seems the formerly timid money lender is getting a it of a spine as of late.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Lizt dug in her pack and pulled out 100' of coiled rope. "Here. This ought to do." She'd been a ropemaker back in Hirot, so not only did she know the value of the length of rope she carried, but she was proficient in knot-tying as well. She began looping the rope around Homer's midsection and thighs, making a harness for him, then held the opposite end as belay. "I'll serve as belay. Homer can climb down. We need someone strong to hold this bit of rope here and help lower him down. Tender?"

 

[Scott DeWar]

"If I start screaming there is a grue, Well, Pull me up if you please."

 

[CanadienneBacon]

"What's a grue?" Lizt asked for the second time a week.