[IC] The Trouble at Durbenford

[michael_noah]

The party makes their way back to the caves without incident, and finds them as they left them. The tunnel to the southeast leads into darkness, whither the bugbears fled. The unstable nature of the tunnels persists here, but there is something worse to occupy the mind.

As the party ventures down the tunnel, they find a horrific scene. Rotting corpses of all manner of humanoids, mutilated and left in obscene positions, fill the tunnel. The stench and the sights are so horrible that fear creeps into the hearts of even the most stout of the party.

As the tunnel splits in two, those with darkvision note two humanoids, crouched against the wall down the eastern tunnel, huddling in what appears to be fear.



[sblock=ooc]Will saves: Gil: 1!
Konstantine 5+ fails.
Jasper 19+ succeeds.
Padraig 9+ fails.
Zagnak 15+ succeeds.
Ruathen 4+ fails.

Failures are Shaken while they remain in the tunnel. -2 attacks, saves, checks.

Treat the tunnel as a simple 5' corridor, rather than worry about half-spaces, etc.
[/sblock]

 

[Bloodcookie]

Ruathen goes pale and puts a hand over his mouth as the surroundings come to light, and grasps the hilt of his rapier in a white-knuckled deathgrip.

 

[Lazlow]

Shivering in horror, Gil's shaking hand nearly lets his arrow fly, but he manages to keep it on his bow. He pauses a moment to gather himself, re-nocks his arrow, and whispers to Konstantine, "Th-there are two people huddled together down there," nodding in their direction. "They look frightened."

 

[Dichotomy]

"Ummm..." Konstantine stammers, "that seems appropriate." The bard nearly retches and quickly pulls his shirtsleeve in front of his nose.

Konstantine starts to move forward, abruptly stops, turns around, shakes his head, and turns back. "Bring the light... Wait. I have the light." The bard stares a moment at the everburning torch in his hand. "Well, they can surely see this. Follow close, but try to not be menacing." Despite his words, Konstantine still doesn't move for a moment.

Finally, he gets momentum going and approaches those huddled in the dark. Just as he is able to make them out himself, he calls gently, "Good folk. We mean no harm."
[sblock=OOC]michael_noah mentioned to me elsewhere that Konstantine in fact could tell that the chime was a chime of opening. With that knowledge, the bard certainly would have taken it and put it in his haversack.[/sblock]

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

Padraig follows the bard, content in his fear to allow the bard to handle this situation. As he walks, he is extremely careful not to step on anything horrid.

 

[michael_noah]

"Are you the ones that drove the bugbears this way? They ran past without even harassing us..." one of the humanoids says.

As Konstantine draws a little closer, they shy away, whimpering, "No, no light! Please..."

 

[Dichotomy]

Perplexed, and still fearful, Konstantine stops moving forward. "Of... of course we did. I'll take this away." The bard turns to this companions. "One of you that can see, lead them back to the entry. Ah... yes." The normally confident-seeming bard waffles as he deals with the fear.

If there is no objection, Konstantine begins moving back to the entry, staying well ahead with the light, as he focuses to keep from simply bolting.

 

[michael_noah]

"No, no... don't make us walk through there..." they plead.

"Come to our cave this way... our leader will speak to you."

 

[TiCaudata]

Japer looks at the others, "If the rest of you would get out more," he mutters, "you might not get so shaken by a few corpses."

The cleric looks around at the people pragmatically, "Rushing into these tunnels might not be such a good idea you know."

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]Sense motive tell Konstantine anything?[/sblock]