Doom of the Savage Kings

[CanadienneBacon]

Gratien starts walking through the pond toward the mound. He looks carefully at the pond's bottom as he treads. If he finds a hide-wrapped bundle like his compatriots did, he'll examine it, but mostly he's searching for an underwater entrance to the mound. He moves medium-sized rocks he comes across, and disturbs any plant life, too.

Alois and Lizt search the mound in tandem. They move away from the stone and start walking the spiral, hunting for an entrance, another rock, anything that seems out of the ordinary.

 

[GlassEye]

Tender, Boral and Kurl find nothing else around the circular, etched stone but Gratien does find a fourth bundle in the pool, almost identical to the other three with broken skull, tin coins, and pitted bronze short sword.

The magic might work but Lizt and Alois have continued upstream along the eastern side of the mound. Nearly 120 feet from the round stone and a third of the way around the head of the serpent mound the group can see the tail continues to wind off to the north for hundreds of yards still. It isn't necessary to travel farther; the stream has undercut the earthwork here and collapsed underlying stonework.

Massive slabs of stone are exposed and where they have collapsed and broken they have left a jagged-edged hole leading into darkness.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Boral says, "Perhaps the bundles are gifts that allow entry. We could throw in something similar and see what happens."

Tender answers, "Or instead of feeding this evil, we could try breaking through the opening Litz and Alois just found."

 

[CanadienneBacon]

While Lizt bent over to more closely examine the yawning hole in the earth, Alois straightened. He hollered for the others to join them. "Over here! Hey! Over here!" The big man pointed down, where Lizt was bent.

Gratien grasped hold of the bundle he found and finished making his way across the pond. When he reached the mound, he clambered up the slope and joined Lizt and Alois. Seeing the hole, Gratien stowed his bow and unsheathed his sword. "Better for close quarters," the Elf said.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Hank and homer start to head over to the found entrence, the Homer calls at Hank and points at Franko.

Franko is jumping and splashing in the pool gleefully enjoying himself.

"FRANKO! ! !"​

*Huh?* He stops playing and runs to join the others, a child like grin on his face. "Ooo, a hole" He has wonderment then fear, followed by curiosity then mischief on his face.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Alois nodded appreciatively at Franko. "And mud," the big man grinned.

 

[GlassEye]

Lizt studies the area surrounding the hole. Snagged on a sharp projection of rock that lines the hole is a piece of homespun cloth. The cloth is just a fragment but by its position it couldn't have been there for very long; days at the most.

Blocking out a bit of the light and letting her eyes adjust to the darkness Lizt is eventually able to see a little of the space beyond the hole. The stream where Lizt stands has undercut the hard-packed earth floor of the barrow causing the room to partially collapse. Thick stone slabs that make up the walls and ceiling have shifted and fallen and one is broken and angled in a precarious way forming the hole. Entering this way will entail crawling through debris to the clearer (and hopefully more stable) space beyond.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Tender grunts and looks towards the others. "I don't mind dark tunnels, but if I try to crawl through there with all this armor on I could get stuck and become vulnerable. Is anyone able to scout it out and make sure the area is clear first?"

 

[Scott DeWar]

"I can, but I prefer to not be alone." offers Homer.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Lizt shuffled forward. "I'm the obvious choice. I'm smaller than the rest of you. And I can be quiet when I want to be."

OOC: I don't know that it is relevant because the hole is probably a tight squeeze and I'm not at all sure that it is possible to sneak through a tight area, but Lizt has Sneak Silently -1 / 2 and Hide in Shadows -1 / 0. If it matters. I couldn't for the life of me tell you what the "-1 / 2" or "-1 / 0" mean, though. They were on her character sheet. Perhaps they reflect some sort of armor check penalty for the studded leather armor Lizt wears? I kind of doubt it, though, since ACP for studded leather is supposed to be -2 and Lizt has Agility 13.

Alois looked uncomfortable. He eyed the hole, then Lizt. And then he eyed Homer.

Gratien said nothing. He watched the fringe of the wood encircling the mound and stream, looking for interlopers.