[LANAI] The Rod of Seven Parts: Into the Crucible

Phud : Male Half-Orc Sorcerer 1 / Barbarian 1

Phud nods and starts walking toward the indicated passage. As he starts walking Bird looks around as he rides on the half-orc's left shoulder. "Phud and Bird ready to go."

Arden grips her crossbow, loads it and falls in behind the group, watching the back and the ceiling as they go.

This southern passage heads steadily down. With Phud out front and Rhys bearing the lantern in the middle, the companions traverse perhaps 700 feet through a narrow twisting passage that plunges downward into the earth. Phud suddenly stops short, confronted by three choices for where to go. The passage to his immediate right (A)slopes further downward. The passage dead ahead and to his left (C) is smooth and level. The passage dead ahead and to his right (B) is level but rocky and full of cobwebs.

Rowan glances about at the different passages. "I don't like the look of those cobwebs..."

"I'd guess giant venemous man-eating spiders. And that other path leads downwards, which is invariably trouble. Lets stay on the straight and narrow eh?" says Wyleck, as he continues onward.

Phud : Male Half-Orc Sorcerer 1 / Barbarian 1

Phud giggles to himself. "Do web burn?"

CanadienneBacon said:

Just to be clear, is it passage C, then?

Click to expand...

Yes.

With Phud out front, followed by Yssal, Wyleck, then Rhys with the lantern, and finally Rowan, then Arden bringing up the rear, the group treks down the level tunnel to their left. An hour into the march, the passageway begins to exhibit queer behavior. Rowan, walking in the rear of the group, begins to notice a pattern to the passage after the second hour.

[sblock=Rowan]Relying on his years of study of arcane lore, Rowan keeps a sharp look out at the passageway and comes to the realization that this is no natural passageway, it's a tunnel, and it's been hollowed out by an umberhulk. The intermittant larger caverns dotting the length of the tunnel are evidence of where the creature stopped to burrow for a rest. [/sblock]

After two hours of picking their way down the passageway, the floor remains smooth as ever, the dirt packed and the rocks less treacherous than the other caverns previously encountered. No piercers have accosted the group, and no side tunnels have breached the passageway. Whatever this course leads to, it seems to take a fairly unerring journey to get there. Just up ahead, the passageway widens out to a larger cavern with a 15 foot ceiling. Yssal sits down behind Phud for a rest, and Wyleck, reaching to rub Yssal behind the ears, hears a soft flapping sound coming from a crook in the cavern ahead.

Map.