Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3252694" data-attributes="member: 11760">"OK, listen up, there's something big up there, in a tunnel out of the room," Tosh says, recounting his findings. "I figure it's a big animal of sorts. If it's a meat eater, I don't particularly like the idea of having something like that roaming around these parts free. On the other hand, we have two more stairways to check out. So, what's your pleasure, folks?""We cain't look for more busted-up helmets if'n we're cowering over some bear," Emus drawls. "Plus, there might be other critters like these skeletons about. We should see if this bear's riled up or not before we take on anythin' else.""Judging by the animal carcasses in this room, I'd say it's a meat-eater," Hazel says, "But that doesn't necessarily make it a threat to us. The bear's not 'riled up' right now. It hasn't shown any inclination to come after us, and we did just make a fair bit of noise dispatching these skeletons. Could be in hibernation. And I think we'd all be mighty riled if someone came along and tossed us outta our warm beds in midwinter."We best check the other staircases first. I have no issue with killing skeletons that attack us, but if you folks wanna go about killing a dumb animal that hasn't posed any threat to us, I'm gonna have to part company here. You show me it's evil and a threat to the town, that's one thing, but I'm not about to kill an animal just for it maybe being in the way of our profit.""I'm with the lass," Bufer says. "Judging by the mess it left in the other room, it's been here awhile. If it was apt to make a nuisance of itself, I reckon it woulda done so long before now. Heck, it didn't even come far enough out of its den to eat those poor kob--"Bufer breaks off suddenly, frowns, and looks thoughtfully over his shoulder as he remembers the odd cysts growing in the torsos of the kobold corpses."On second thought," he amends after a moment, "It might not be such a bad idea to take a peek at the beastie, after all.""Now jes' hold on a second, girly!" Emus says, shouldering past Bufer to face Hazel. "I ain't saying that we should kill it! I'm jes' saying that we should check it out! I don't aim to go killin' somethin' jes because it snuffled at Tosh, here."Hell, I like a lot of them animals. They don't judge a dwarf or tell him where ta go, or what's right and what's wrong. They's got the same basic needs as the rest of us. Huntin'. Screwin'. Sleepin'. And a lot of 'em are furry and fuzzy and, well, jus' plain cute. Heh. The way they look at ya with big, brown eyes, why, it jes' makes ya wanna ... Ahem. That's all I'm sayin'."Emus picks up his club and goes to wait for the others at the bottom of the stairway. He intently studies the path ahead, the stairs, the walls, his fingernails, anything but his fellow adventurers.Renraw scrunches up his face in deep contemplation. After a long, overly-theatrical sigh, he speaks."Our path is clear to me, gentlemen. There is possibly a very large bear in that direction." He points to the stairs Tosh just descended."In this direction," he turns and gestures towards the other staircases, "There is possibly no bear."He pauses for a moment and clears his throat."I generally try to choose whichever path affords me the least bear interaction possible."Ragglus snorts and spits to the side."No profit in bear killin', if it is what that is.""We know there is a bear there," Emmerson points. "That is, if there is only one bear. And we have no idea what is beyond those two stairways. I say we let the sleeping bear lie and go inspect the other places.""Did anything look valuable in there with the beastie?" Tock asks. "Otherwise, I say we move to somewhere that might have something valuable. On the other hand, the bear might not be so big. Big to a gnome's eyes is often small to a real person's.""You may want to retract that slur lest you find yourself with a steel enema, 'big man,'" Tosh says quietly. Everyone always agreed that the Bergins were a little creepy, and Tosh was no exception. "Accidents do occasionally happen in the dark. Besides, your mother wasn't complaining about any lack of 'reality' last night."Tosh pointedly turns his back on the brash bard."So, I figure we go for one of the remaining stairs, aye?"He eyes the two stairwells thoughtfully, and rather than go for the center one, he decides to go a bit further right and check out the northeast stairwell. Once again, the quiet gnome slips up into the darkness, just far enough to get a floor's level view of the area.The staircase rises 20 feet before emptying out in a long, straight corridor, extending beyond the 60 feet Tosh's darkvision allows him to see.There is a dampness on the walls, floor and ceiling of this corridor -- not enough to actually make the corridor slippery, but it reflects slightly in the torchlight glimmering up the staircase from below. A soft watery echo periodically pings from the northeast.Moving at a safe quiet quarter speed, the gnome slips up into the corridor and moves forward. Tosh only has to move a few feet further before he can see that the tunnel opens into a room. From his distant vantage point, he can see something low laying across the middle of the room, perhaps a dias, perhaps a large basin. From this angle, nothing else is visible.Not seeing any light, nor hearing any sound but an occasional drip, Tosh slips up to the mouth of the next room, peering around with darkvision.It is a strangely shaped room, with the tunnel entrance being on the right side of the longest wall, of which there are five. The walls to the left and right are the shortest, and then two long walls on the north and east sides complete the sloppy pentagon.In the center of the room is a raised stone rim. A pool of liquid is held within the large pentagonal basin, still rippling slightly from the last drip to hit its surface. The liquid is dark and a little fetid, but it is an almost perfect reflective surface, like a grimy liquid mirror.Water drips from above here, from a carved bas-relief of storm clouds above. It appears that, once, the drips would come at a steady rate of flow, but now, whatever mechanism powered this reverse fountain have all but worn down, and drops only come fitfully from one or two nozzles.There are no signs of life and the room appears to be empty of anything else.</blockquote>

Verification