A Clash of Earth and Sea (El Jefe Judging) [See Part II]

[Steve Jung]

Charlarn of Phyrah: male human cleric 3/ranger 2

"Never you two mind yourselves about that. It's my job, if you'll pardon my saying so, and if anyone in Orussus could do it better than I, all modesty aside, you would have hired them not me, now wouldn't you've?"

"You're right. May the Searcher keep you safe from prying eyes."

"Best scout I know." says Opale, as she sees Jack dissapearing.

"For his sake, I hope you're right. Those merrow are vicious."

 

[Pbartender]

[sblock=Pbartender]From your character sheet:

Skills                      Ranks  Mod  Misc  Total
Climb                         4    +1    +2     +6

Since the mod would appear to be 0 rather than +1, the total appears to be correct.... You might want to edit this.[/sblock]

OOC: Thanks. Will do.

Soon the others have lost track of him completely. It takes about 15 minutes to climb up to the source of the smoke, and when jack gets there he finds that the smoke pours forth from below a large rock. He wrestles the rock aside, and finds a hole in the ground disapearing into darkness below, with smoke pouring out of it. The hole is small, only about 2 feet deep and 3 feet wide, and the smoke is somewhat thick as it rises out of it.

Jack will make a quick sweep of the immediate area... just to make certain there's no surprises.

Search +8: 10

A quick sweep that finds nothing at first glance, so Jack takes a few extra moments to scan the area a little more thoroughly.

Search +8 (Take 10): 18

 

[Patlin]

Searching around, Jack does find a track on the mountainside... either that of a big wolf, or possibly a bear. Nothing else unusual presents itself.

 

[Pbartender]

Searching around, Jack does find a track on the mountainside... either that of a big wolf, or possibly a bear. Nothing else unusual presents itself.

Jack replaces the stone over the hole, and slips back down the mountainside.

...minutes later...

"You're right. May the Searcher keep you safe from prying eyes."
"For his sake, I hope you're right. Those merrow are vicious."

"For my sake, I hope he's right, too," Jack agrees, as if he had been a part of the conversation all along.

"Fortunately, there wasn't much there except for some wolf -- or may bear, it was hard to tell -- tracks. The smoke is coming from a chimney that leads down into the mountain. Iggy and I could shimmy down it no problem." Jack casts an appraising eye over the others, "but you big'uns might find a bit tight. And the smoke coming up is pretty thick."

 

[Velmont]

"Wolf or Bear? Could it be a coincidence, or could the wizard have some trained animals to help them? Is anyone good a tracking, we might know a bit more. If there is no danger around that chimney, I suggest we go take a look." suggests Opale.

 

[SlagMortar]

"I can track. Maybe we'll see a bear!"

 

[Steve Jung]

Charlarn of Phyrah: male human cleric 3/ranger 2

"Fortunately, there wasn't much there except for some wolf -- or may bear, it was hard to tell -- tracks. The smoke is coming from a chimney that leads down into the mountain. Iggy and I could shimmy down it no problem." Jack casts an appraising eye over the others, "but you big'uns might find a bit tight. And the smoke coming up is pretty thick."

"You're right. There's no way I could squeeze down there. I wouldn't want to get stuck either. But who else would have a fire, except the ones we're looking for."

 

[Manzanita]

"Let's all move forward together until we get to the chimney, then we'll make a plan."

Iggy does not relish shimmying down a smoky chimney. It doesn't take the intelligence of a wizard to guess what is at the bottom of such a chute. He does have a couple ideas. Perhaps his new clairvoyance spell would work. He has another thought.

"If we plugged the chimney, the smoke would accumulate below. Very unpleasent. They'd probably assume a tree had fallen on the chimney or something. Likely something strong but dumb would come investigate. We might kill it, then Charlarn could track it to where it emerged. Of course, given recent events, they might expect foul play. Perhaps there's another entrance out of the water. Or, we could wait, and hope the smoke stops. Then we could descend."


OOC: I wonder if his clairvoyance would work. "You don’t need line of sight or line of effect, but the locale must be known—a place familiar to you or an obvious one." says the description. Would 'the bottom of the chimney' be an obvious locale?

 

[Velmont]

"Iggy, that a good idea. And we are in a mountain, there can always be an avalanche. We could set an ambush, we would have teh advantage of the terrain." Opale starts to looka around to see if there is a good way to set an ambush.

 

[Patlin]

"You're right. There's no way I could squeeze down there. I wouldn't want to get stuck either. But who else would have a fire, except the ones we're looking for."

Just to be clear, Charlarn could squeeze down through the part he can see, though he's right you cannot tell whether it gets wider, narrower, or stays the same.