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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1608040" data-attributes="member: 1210">Secret Ingredient pt. 2!Federico shivers in the cold cave.  At least it’s dry.He sneezes, raising more dust- said dust being the reason he sneezed in the first place.  He glances at the small crawlway that seems to be his only exit.  Whimpering softly, tail between his legs, he squats down and tries to see what’s on the other side.  All he can make out are a few rocks and a bit of floor.  It looks like it opens up after only about six feet.  With a sigh, he starts squirming through the crawlway.  For a few seconds he’s terrified as he nears the other end.  What if there’s a guardian?  What if there’s a monster, like that ogre zombie they fought a while back?  What if there’s some sort of deadly trap?What if there’s no way out?He whimpers again, but finally drags his body out of the crawlway and into another chamber.  And something smells delicious.***“Could he have survived?” wonders Trinia.“Depends on what’s down there,” muses Sandy.  “He’s a good dog- we’ve got to at least try.”Our heroes survey the mass of stone that has collapsed inward, sealing off their kobold friend.  It looks to be tons of material.  It looks impossible.  “Let’s get to work,” says Mama.***What the hell is that?The chamber is small, almost cramped even for him alone; it seems to be a natural cave with a single elevated shelf.  On this shelf there is- something.  It smells so good...  Federico is fascinated.  Whatever the stuff is, it appears to be growing on the stone.  It’s a weird silvery color, almost iridescent; and it looks like... like... like nothing he’s ever seen before.  The closest thing that Federico can come up with is gelatin, a halfling dessert with a strange, shiny, jiggly surface and a near translucent appearance.  The temptation to eat the stuff is so strong that Federico, after a long moment’s hesitation, decides to exit the small cave.  Besides, there is no obvious exit.He crawls out, then catches his breath without.  Cocks his head, as if listening.Was that- yes!  A tapping!Elated- his clan is trying to save him!- Federico bounds up to the rubble, then raps on it with a rock, eliciting a sharp sound.  He does this again and again, as long as his pitiful strength lasts (which is, in fact, a very short time).They know I’m alive, now, he thinks.  He can definitely hear things shifting.  But if they’re at the entrance, and it’s collapsed all the way to him- he’ll starve before they can dig him out.Unless he eats that stuff.Shivering, the little kobold moans in distress.  “Arf,” he says heavily.Well, maybe there’s a secret exit- a back door.  Big villains always have secret escape routes in all the old stories.  I can at least search around.  So thinking, Federico begins tapping on the walls, feeling for hidden seams or levers, and so forth.  He doesn’t really expect to find anything; after he examines the remains of the entry tunnel- the part not collapsed and filled by the cave-in- he contemplates checking out the secret ingredient room as well, but it makes him very nervous. Listening again at the entrance, he thinks, They sound far off... it will take a long time to free me.  Unhappily, he suddenly realizes that it might not be his friends- it could be Benjy Peachtree.It seems he’s caught between a rock and a hard place, as the dwarves say.With a groan of unhappiness, Federico scrambles back into the chamber with the glistening stuff.  The aroma wafts over him, but he manages to keep focused on his task.*After a few moments of searching around, Federico is surprised to locate a secret exit- a back door, if you will.  An escape hatch.  What do you know, the bard thinks in wonder.  There is something to all those old stories after all.  Immediately, he trots out the secret back cave and, upon following it for several hundred yards, emerges beyond a rise, in a boulder-strewn defile.  Quickly he scrambles over the broken landscape and heads towards his friends.  Reaching them in only a few moments- and they are, indeed, pulling stones from the entrance of the cave; it’s truly hopeless from that approach- Federico hails them and the group rushes together happily.  Quickly he tells them what he found- “I’m not really sure,” he admits- and the group relates the sudden escalation into violence of the encounter with Benjy Peachtree.“He was attacking me,” Airhead Ed pouts, then bursts into tears. “You were stealing his garen!”  Sandy shakes his head in distress.  “That’s fine and all, but don’t do it when we’re trying not to let him know we’re here!”“What’s done is done,” Mama shrugs.  “Let’s focus on what to do next.”Sandy says, “Benjy Peachtree isn’t just going home to cry out his remaining eye.  He’s probably going to be pretty pissed off about this whole incident.”“Do you think he’s going to come after us?” Trinia asks.Sandy shrugs eloquently.“Let’s get back to the Bakeswells,” Mama decides.  “Maybe they can help smooth things over somehow.”So the party strikes out immediately, neither returning to Blackwood first nor even seeking a major road.  They head directly, across the countryside, for the Bakeswells’ camp of wagons.  Leanne is waiting there to hear the outcome of their mission; she probably isn’t expecting what they’re going to have to tell her.Next Time: On the lam!*As is often the case with 3rd Edition, an initial successful saving throw constituted immunity for 24 hours.</blockquote>

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