Copperheads: Betrayal and Strange Runes and Burning Dead, oh my (short update 02/12)
- Thread starter arwink
- Start date
Lela
First Post
Durhon said:
Me? Appauled? Rarely. No, I support psycho behavior. It's part of the reason I like this group (and the rest of you). Consider it a complement.
I just don't think it ever would have crossed my group's mind(s).
[EDIT: Why does this always happen at work???? I can't even RAOTF here. Not fair! Doc just posted in his story hour and, well, the situation fits perfectly. Horacio can vouch for me, I sware!]
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arwink
Clockwork Golem
Friday, August 25th, 508 AF
Everyone gathers in the common room of the Bell and Anchor, helping themselves to the bacon, eggs, bread and coffee set out by Tokket as breakfast for his guests. No ale is served, but everyone finds themselves eying the two barrels behind the bar nervously.
"I wonder what time they start drinking," Halgo muses. "We're going to have to be arround when they start. Those potions normally cause you to fall in love with the first person you see after drinking it."
"We could spend all day in tavern?" Blarth offers hopefully. Goeffrey frowns at the half-orc.
"No," he commands. "There'll be enough people here tonight for our purposes. We still need to go find that path and follow it. There's something wrong going on here, and I don't think the locals are taking it anywhere near seriously enough."
Blarth grumbles quietly as he finishes breakfast.
Everyone was tired, but the coffee helps perk them up a little. The bad dreams had persisted during the night, and a gradually understanding on why the townsfolk were so unhappy and tense was slowly sinking in. After the meal was over, they gathered together their belongings and suited up for adventure. With grim expressions on their faces, Geoffrey led the troop into the woods to the north of town.
It took them the better half of an hour to find the overgrown path, Blarth walking past it twice without notiticing the broken flagstones beneath the grass. Once located, it proves easy to follow. They trek towards the nearby mountain, eventually finding themselves overlooking a small gully filled with rotting mining equipment.
"I think this is it," Goeffrey says. He points into the heart of the gully. "See the sheen there. It's hard to spot with the dirt covering it, but it could be a sheet of copper."
They scramble down the side of the gully and make for the gleam. Geoffrey's guess proves correct - it is a sheet of copper. A door placed over a large pit, where one edge has been pried open. The space is large enough to allow a man to fit through, and the dull roar of a waterfall can be heard. A rope runs through the gap, dangling down into the darkness.
"It's a mine," Halgo says confidently as he peers into the darkness. He pats the copper doorway with one hand. "Looks like they put this together to keep people out. It's good work, solid enough to keep most people out. No way to open it, so who-ever came here before us had to use a crowbar to make that gap."
"How far down is it?" Geoffrey asks.
"To hard to say. The bottom's father than I can see without light.
Geoffrey grunts and rummages through his pack. After a few seconds he produces a sun rod. He activates it, waiting a few seconds for the glow to reach full strength, then tosses it into the hole.
"It's long," Halgo reports after watching the sunrod fall. "There's a platform about eighty feet down, and I think there's an entrance there."
"Yip," Geoffrey orders. "Check it out."
Yip is scambling down the rope in a matter of seconds. He climbs down nearly a hundred feat without difficulty, his small paws literally flying along the rope. He pauses at a wooden platform, testing it with a tentative paw before putting his full weight on it. It holds him, but he can hear the wood groan under his slight weight.
The entryway leads into a large room, a cavernous area with walls that bare the mark of pick and shovel. A horde of beetles scuttle accross the floor, and there are patches of slime glowing softly in many patches of the floor. Scattered here and there are old peices of mining equipment, all of which has seen better days.
Once he's sure the first room is safe, the Kobold monk climbs back up the rope to report.
"The ropes it?" Geoffrey asks. "No other way to get down?"
"Ladder rungs," Yip says. "Old, rusty. May help."
"Damn," Geoffrey grunts. "This isn't going to be fun in armor. How strong is the platform? It holds you, so it'll probably take Halgo's weight as well. Do you think it'll take me or Blarth?"
Yip looks at the two armored men dubiously, then shakes his head.
"Right," Geoffrey says. "We look for another way in."
"What? Why?" Halgo demands.
Geoffrey hammers a fist against his armor, letting it jingle.
"This weighs a lot," he tells them. "I can carry it around, no problem, but there's no way I can climb with it on and there's no way we can land on that platform." He eyes the muscles bulging under Blarth's breastplate for a moment. "Okay, he's probably strong enough to do it, but I'm not. We find another way in. Something safer."
"There won't be one," Halgo says. "This is a mine, an abandoned one at that. There's the dragons cave up in the mountains, sure, but that's going to be a harder climb than this. Yip, can you angle that rope so we can slide into the tunnel rather than landing on the platform."
Yip face takes on a puzzled expression as he tries to remember the room.
"Maybe," he says eventually. "Stalegmites on ground. If rope long enough, can tie to that." He looks slightly nervous and looks at Geoffrey guiltily. "Yip's knots not good though."
"That's okay," Halgo assures him. "We can test the rope before we put to much weight on it."
"It's not going to help," Geoffrey grows. "You've just made it harder to climb."
"Then take off your armor."
Geoffrey blinks once or twice at his dwarven companion.
"What?"
You can't make the climb in armor, so take it off. We'll stuff it in a sack, send it down with Yip, and you can put it on once we're in the tunnel."
"What if we're attacked?"
"By what? The deadly beatles that swarmed over Yip when he walked into the room? It's scouted, safe. Take your armor off and lets get going."
Geoffrey considers Halgo's logic for a few seconds, probing it for holes. He can't find any.
"Fine," he says. "It'll still be slow going, but I think it's doable."
Yip and Blarth are sent down the rope with another sunrod, to keep the tunnel lit while Geoffrey climbs. Both make it down easily, Yip using his training and Blarth relying on brute strength to make good time. Blarth cracks the sunrod and illuminates the cavern, looking to the entrance expectantly.
Halgo and Geoffrey look at one another "You next," Goeffrey says,
Even without armor, I'm not the best climber."
"Me either," Halgo explains. "But you hold the rope and slide down. How much easier could it be?"
"I good set of stairs would help," Geoffrey says. "You go. If something decides to attack the last person up here, I'm better suited to holding it off than you."
Halgo shrugs and makes his way along the rope. It's slow going, but he manages it without to many complications. Geoffrey follows him, lowering himself down in an agonizingly slow hand-over-hand movement that takes nearly five minutes to reach the bottom.
"Let's not do that again," the cleric mutters as he starts strapping on his armor. Halgo grins at him.
"How do you think we'll be getting out?"
Geoffrey swears a few times as the group makes its way into the next chamber.
Everyone gathers in the common room of the Bell and Anchor, helping themselves to the bacon, eggs, bread and coffee set out by Tokket as breakfast for his guests. No ale is served, but everyone finds themselves eying the two barrels behind the bar nervously.
"I wonder what time they start drinking," Halgo muses. "We're going to have to be arround when they start. Those potions normally cause you to fall in love with the first person you see after drinking it."
"We could spend all day in tavern?" Blarth offers hopefully. Goeffrey frowns at the half-orc.
"No," he commands. "There'll be enough people here tonight for our purposes. We still need to go find that path and follow it. There's something wrong going on here, and I don't think the locals are taking it anywhere near seriously enough."
Blarth grumbles quietly as he finishes breakfast.
Everyone was tired, but the coffee helps perk them up a little. The bad dreams had persisted during the night, and a gradually understanding on why the townsfolk were so unhappy and tense was slowly sinking in. After the meal was over, they gathered together their belongings and suited up for adventure. With grim expressions on their faces, Geoffrey led the troop into the woods to the north of town.
It took them the better half of an hour to find the overgrown path, Blarth walking past it twice without notiticing the broken flagstones beneath the grass. Once located, it proves easy to follow. They trek towards the nearby mountain, eventually finding themselves overlooking a small gully filled with rotting mining equipment.
"I think this is it," Goeffrey says. He points into the heart of the gully. "See the sheen there. It's hard to spot with the dirt covering it, but it could be a sheet of copper."
They scramble down the side of the gully and make for the gleam. Geoffrey's guess proves correct - it is a sheet of copper. A door placed over a large pit, where one edge has been pried open. The space is large enough to allow a man to fit through, and the dull roar of a waterfall can be heard. A rope runs through the gap, dangling down into the darkness.
"It's a mine," Halgo says confidently as he peers into the darkness. He pats the copper doorway with one hand. "Looks like they put this together to keep people out. It's good work, solid enough to keep most people out. No way to open it, so who-ever came here before us had to use a crowbar to make that gap."
"How far down is it?" Geoffrey asks.
"To hard to say. The bottom's father than I can see without light.
Geoffrey grunts and rummages through his pack. After a few seconds he produces a sun rod. He activates it, waiting a few seconds for the glow to reach full strength, then tosses it into the hole.
"It's long," Halgo reports after watching the sunrod fall. "There's a platform about eighty feet down, and I think there's an entrance there."
"Yip," Geoffrey orders. "Check it out."
Yip is scambling down the rope in a matter of seconds. He climbs down nearly a hundred feat without difficulty, his small paws literally flying along the rope. He pauses at a wooden platform, testing it with a tentative paw before putting his full weight on it. It holds him, but he can hear the wood groan under his slight weight.
The entryway leads into a large room, a cavernous area with walls that bare the mark of pick and shovel. A horde of beetles scuttle accross the floor, and there are patches of slime glowing softly in many patches of the floor. Scattered here and there are old peices of mining equipment, all of which has seen better days.
Once he's sure the first room is safe, the Kobold monk climbs back up the rope to report.
"The ropes it?" Geoffrey asks. "No other way to get down?"
"Ladder rungs," Yip says. "Old, rusty. May help."
"Damn," Geoffrey grunts. "This isn't going to be fun in armor. How strong is the platform? It holds you, so it'll probably take Halgo's weight as well. Do you think it'll take me or Blarth?"
Yip looks at the two armored men dubiously, then shakes his head.
"Right," Geoffrey says. "We look for another way in."
"What? Why?" Halgo demands.
Geoffrey hammers a fist against his armor, letting it jingle.
"This weighs a lot," he tells them. "I can carry it around, no problem, but there's no way I can climb with it on and there's no way we can land on that platform." He eyes the muscles bulging under Blarth's breastplate for a moment. "Okay, he's probably strong enough to do it, but I'm not. We find another way in. Something safer."
"There won't be one," Halgo says. "This is a mine, an abandoned one at that. There's the dragons cave up in the mountains, sure, but that's going to be a harder climb than this. Yip, can you angle that rope so we can slide into the tunnel rather than landing on the platform."
Yip face takes on a puzzled expression as he tries to remember the room.
"Maybe," he says eventually. "Stalegmites on ground. If rope long enough, can tie to that." He looks slightly nervous and looks at Geoffrey guiltily. "Yip's knots not good though."
"That's okay," Halgo assures him. "We can test the rope before we put to much weight on it."
"It's not going to help," Geoffrey grows. "You've just made it harder to climb."
"Then take off your armor."
Geoffrey blinks once or twice at his dwarven companion.
"What?"
You can't make the climb in armor, so take it off. We'll stuff it in a sack, send it down with Yip, and you can put it on once we're in the tunnel."
"What if we're attacked?"
"By what? The deadly beatles that swarmed over Yip when he walked into the room? It's scouted, safe. Take your armor off and lets get going."
Geoffrey considers Halgo's logic for a few seconds, probing it for holes. He can't find any.
"Fine," he says. "It'll still be slow going, but I think it's doable."
Yip and Blarth are sent down the rope with another sunrod, to keep the tunnel lit while Geoffrey climbs. Both make it down easily, Yip using his training and Blarth relying on brute strength to make good time. Blarth cracks the sunrod and illuminates the cavern, looking to the entrance expectantly.
Halgo and Geoffrey look at one another "You next," Goeffrey says,
Even without armor, I'm not the best climber."
"Me either," Halgo explains. "But you hold the rope and slide down. How much easier could it be?"
"I good set of stairs would help," Geoffrey says. "You go. If something decides to attack the last person up here, I'm better suited to holding it off than you."
Halgo shrugs and makes his way along the rope. It's slow going, but he manages it without to many complications. Geoffrey follows him, lowering himself down in an agonizingly slow hand-over-hand movement that takes nearly five minutes to reach the bottom.
"Let's not do that again," the cleric mutters as he starts strapping on his armor. Halgo grins at him.
"How do you think we'll be getting out?"
Geoffrey swears a few times as the group makes its way into the next chamber.
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