[3.5] King of the Mountain - the Pesthole

[zimmerwald1915]

taking 10 on the three checks

10+5 = 15
10+5 = 15
10+5 = 15


and into the pest hole we go!
By carefully studying the lay of the stone above him before rushing ahead, Byllen is able to climb each of the three cliff faces that lead to the Pesthole with relative ease. He reaches his hand over the last ledge, but struggles to find a firm grip. Something slippery coats the stone. Byllen stays calm, and scrapes whatever it is away with his fingernails. It falls for a long time before he hears it splash into the water below. Finding purchase, he is able to grip the stone and hoist himself up. He can now see the slippery substance: a great mass of it pooled on the ledge. It looks to have spilled out from the Pesthole. You see that the ledge is on an incline, with the face you climbed leading to the highest part. You can see where clumps of the stuff have fallen down the other side, pushed by other masses coming out of the Pesthole.

worlok:
Make three Climb checks to follow Byllen up. You may take ten if you like.

all:
Leewei hasn't gotten the PDF for the Pesthole adventure to me yet, so I'm basically stalling/making up less than relevant stuff. I hope you don't mind too much.

[jinx1016]

Byllen starts to mumble to himself well, considering we call it the pest hole, i guess i should be less surprised at how revolting this is, and how this smell is nauseating...

[ooc:anything around here look, edible, or useful?]

[Leewei]

all:
Leewei hasn't gotten the PDF for the Pesthole adventure to me yet, so I'm basically stalling/making up less than relevant stuff. I hope you don't mind too much.

zimmerwald1915 is correct - the delay is at my end. I've subscribed to keep tabs. I'll have encounter details available to him soon.

[zimmerwald1915]

[ooc:anything around here look, edible, or useful?]
jinx:
I checked your sheet, and you don't have Knowledge: Nature trained, so your character can't determine conclusively what might be useful or edible.

However, you would like to Search for things that might be useful or edible, be my guest. Please roll a straight wisdom check as well.

[jinx1016]

Byllen starts to rummage around in the muck and sludge, hoping it's more than just offal


rolls
Search
[roll0]

Wis
[roll1]

[Leewei]

zimmerwald1915:Please check PMs. I should have enough up for you to use for a day or two now.

[zimmerwald1915]

all:
Well, I now have the first part of this adventure. Hooray.

Reminder: you are still outside the cave proper. A map of the first chamber will be posted when you enter it.

jinx:
You sift through the muck, and find a few maggots and other larvae inside. Their distribution reminds you of mineral veins you've seen in your mining: this vein seems to extend into the Pesthole. Though there are only a few that you can see, the concentration of larvae becomes greater the closer you get to the mouth of the cave.

You feel a very slight breeze from the Pesthole. With your keen senses, you can tell that the air inside is warmer and wetter than the air in the main cave.

[jinx1016]

i'm gonna have to be very hungry before i start eating this...Byllen scoffs at the thought, and shudders a little.

let's see what else is in here...at least it's warmer...


[ooc: heading deeper into the pesthole]

[zimmerwald1915]

jinx:
You enter the cave. As you enter, you feel it become more humid. The air feels denser than it did in the main cavern: the room is also much smaller. It can't be more than fifteen feet wide at its widest point.

In the center of the room, you see a tremendous pile of the muck. It towers over you, and would probably exceed the height of the tallest dwarf. It is from this pile that the much smaller pile outside came. On the pile, you see the scuttling forms of some sort of insect. Individual specimens emerge from and retreat back into holes bored in the pile. Presumably these are the adult forms of the larvae you found outside; also presumably, there will be more larvae inside the pile.

This is the room you see. The pile is the brown in the middle:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2r5q2w2.png

Here's the room, as well as part of the main cavern:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2606dd4.png

The green "B" is Byllen. The purple G is worlok's character, whose full name escapes me at the moment. The dark, medium, and light greys are levels below the main, white level.

EDIT: hey, Bugbear!

[jinx1016]

Byllen uses the Pick to push over the pile and try to sift through it, out of sheer curiosity..


search
[roll0]

[zimmerwald1915]

jinx:
The pile is massive enough that shifting a little aside achieves little practical effect. The insects near Byllen scuttle away. He reveals no larvae: they must be buried deeper. He does turn up some small crystals. As he sifts through the little he dislodged, more of the muck falls on his head. He looks up the mound: none has been dislodged from the top.

EDIT: I forgot something. It's in the spoiler.

[Worlok]

Great, I've completely lost track.

Taking ten on a Climb check would give me a 10+2(ranks)+2(Str mod)=14 - Is that even sufficient? Assuming I've made it, Gondragor will follow Billen.

"Lemmer think about it...", Gondragor looks around. "Some of this might just be edible..."

Knowledge (nature) check:

[roll0]

Natural 20 - I assume he will get at least a rough idea as to what they look for?

[zimmerwald1915]

Taking ten on a Climb check would give me a 10+2(ranks)+2(Str mod)=14 - Is that even sufficient? Assuming I've made it, Gondragor will follow Billen.
It's not, but given Byllen's head start and the amount he's increased his lead, I'm just going to assume you've taken twenty and gotten up.


Knowledge (nature) check:

[roll0]

Natural 20 - I assume he will get at least a rough idea as to what they look for?
You identify the muck as bat guano. You see some of the larvae that Byllen unearthed start to pupate before your eyes. The insects must reproduce incredibly quickly. Make a Survival check.

[Worlok]

"Why, Er'll be-"

Survival check:

[roll0]

[zimmerwald1915]

worlok:
You realize that the insects are both edible and nutritious. You know enough about insect lifecycles to estimate how fast these will reproduce. Given the number of insects and the rate they reproduce, you estimate that you can gather enough each day to feed one dwarf, and the population will maintain itself at its current level.

[Worlok]

Gondragor grabs a pupa and chews down noisily. "Yer do look out fer 's, Silent Keeper." he ponders silently, eyeing the bat guano. "Wasn't there a wizard 'mong the folks? Er reckon he might use that... until then, Er figure we could eat bats, too..."

Spot check to look for eventually present bat colonies:

[roll0]

[zimmerwald1915]

worlock:
You spot a solitary bat fall from the ceiling and start to fly. You track it with your eyes, and see it disappear up a vertical shaft in the ceiling. The shaft looks large enough to climb through.

EDIT: included more information in the spoiler.

[Worlok]

"Er should 'member this," Gondragor decides, finishing off his pupa. "Byllen sh'd prolly know it, tha'." Grabbing another currently pupating grub out of momentary appetite, he follows Byllen's way towards the cave with the pile of muck (OOC: That's all bat guano, right?), hoping that there won't be any trouble with bat swarms or what might be the adults to his grubs, but not rushing there, either; instead, he takes his time looking for other sources of what might be edible on the way there.

Some checks:

[roll0] - Survival check
[roll1] - Search check
[roll2] - Spot check
[roll3] - Listen check

All made in order to discern herbal, fungal or animal life, traces of or signs for such life or unusual spots in the stone that might betray ores on the way to the cave.

[roll4] - Knowledge (nature) check

In order to correctly analyse the edibility, worth and reproduction rate of his findings where applicable.

[zimmerwald1915]

worlok
After Gondragor enters the cave, he is able to confirm his initial estimate: this population of insects could sustain one dwarf per day, and the population would stay constant despite the harvest. Gondragor spots a few mushrooms growing in the guano (yes, it's all guano). On the far side of the pile from where Byllen was digging, he can see the adult insects bite off pieces of mushroom cap and start to carry them back into their nest. He remembers eating mushrooms like these and suffering no ill effects, but only on hunting trips. He knows nothing of the cultivation of these mushrooms, or how many dwarves they could feed. Perhaps a dedicated farmer would know more.

Gondragor looks up, into the shaft where he saw the bat disappear. He can make out the entrance to the shaft. It's about four to five feet wide and circular. He cannot see anything on the other side: the light that seeps into the Pesthole from the cavern doesn't seem to make it up the shaft. He can hear the high-pitched squeaking of bats. How many, he cannot be sure.

[Worlok]

Gondragor nods briefly, more to himself than anything, and gets up to what is a veritable speech by his standards: "Byllen, them grubbers are 'dible, sh'd suff'ce fer one er' us 'v'ry day, 'n those 'shrooms up there make g'd eatin' in a pinch, too. We're off tae a g'd start." Having tactfully avoided alerting the other dwarf to the fact that he's been mining bat feces, he then approaches the shaft. "Th'nk Er'm go'n' tae take a look at t'at bats up there. Perh'ps yer sh'd try 'n' get some er' that stuff to the others?" he suggests immediately before setting about the climb.

Climb check:

[roll0]

[jinx1016]

I found some crystals in the muck pile. someone might be able to use them for....well, something. Byllen sees Gondragor start to climb. Hey, i don't think we should split up just yet. help me with these crystals and then ill go with you to...wherever you were just headed.

Byllen stops to think for a second. Wait, did you suggest eating these things? Byllen shudders for a second.

[Worlok]

"S'ms reasona'le." Gondragor agrees before he stops climbing and more or less slides down the wall to the point he had previously been standing. "Sure. No duh-lick-acy, ber' 'dible. 'f they're the ones Er think they are, 't least." He shrugs, before looking up again: "Crystals, you said? Wha' kind of crystals?" With that, he walks over to Byllen.

[zimmerwald1915]

Climb check:
OOC: no point wasting rolls, so I'll just use this result for Gondragor if you guys decide you want to climb.

[Worlok]

OOC: Thanks, I had stupidly rushed that one a little. :smallsigh:

[jinx1016]

not sure what kind of crystal, but they could be useful. Byllen picks one up and shows Gondragor. there could be more in here.


search
take 10+5= 15

spot
take 10+4 =14

[zimmerwald1915]

Gondragor watches as Byllen digs in the guano mound. As the gouge he is making in the side of the mount grows, the mound as a whole becomes more unstable. Clumps start dislodging themselves from higher up and sliding down onto the cave floor. However, neither the wet sound nor the heavy smell could deter dwarven industry!

After about ten minutes, Byllen uncovers something. The crystals he had found before had been small, scattered about. This one was different. It was like hundreds of crystals had tried to grow in the same place at the same time. The result looked like a glass hedgehog. Byllen lifted it out of the hole and carried it some distance away from the pile. It felt like it weighed about a pound.

[jinx1016]

well I'll be dammed....look at that.Byllen rotates the "hedgehog" carefully in his hands.

I wonder what it is?

[Worlok]

Gondragor looks uneasily at the unstable mound of guano, taking the crystal Byllen had shown him. "Wha' kind er' crystal 'd be found in a pile er' bat shat?" he silently asks himself, training his glance, which gains a scrutinising quality as he does so, on the crystal in his hands, not yet having realised Byllen's find. He tries to exert pressure on the crystal in order to test it's consistency while racking his brain about the types of gems he's familiar with. As a servant of the Silent Keeper, who's symbol is a gem in a mountain, he would not suffer to be dumbfounded by a crystal in a pile of dung.

Some checks:

[roll0] - Knowledge (dungeoneering) check
[roll1] - Appraise check (Assuming it's some - debatably - common mineral, factor on the dwarven +2 on this check)
[roll2] - Intelligence check
[roll3] - Strength check

All made in order to try and deduct type, quality, origin and structural stability (Strength against break DC?) of the crystal under reference to type and consistency of the rock that surrounds them, the earth layers those may be found in and whether or not they are indicative of any ores in the vicinity, assuming it is, in fact, a mineral of some kind.

If he learns anything, Gondragor will briefly inform Byllen as to his own findings before actually looking at the 'hedgehog'.

[zimmerwald1915]

worlok
You deduce it's some kind of mineral salt. Its possibe uses and values are beyond you at this time.

[Worlok]

"Huh. Some sort er' salt, Er reck-" He looks up and sees the 'hedgehog'. In dumbstruck amazement, his eyes widen as he bends forward to take a closer look. "'t's k'nd er' a big rock." he manages to mumble. "C'd 't be our Silent Keeper's s'nt 's a sign?"

[jinx1016]

well that's possi....Byllen's face drops...DID YOU SAY BAT SHAT?! Is that what I was digging around in? Burn my beard that explains the smell.he lets out a long exasperated sigh, Well, perhaps we can use this to fuel some decent fire. Should we head back with this discovery, or plunge forward where you were trying to climb?

[Worlok]

"Yer heard tha' thing ab't th' bat-shat?" Gondragor asks, not having wanted to say that out loud, and in doing so, has officially spoken more on this day than in the fifteen years before. "Why, one er' 's sh'd prolly 'nform the others first, then w' can look 't the bats up there."

[jinx1016]

we should both go, i don't think it wise to split up, not in here. Byllen looks around at their surroundings. there could be any manner of creature lurking thereabouts. best to stick together., c'mon let's go tell them what we found.

Byllen heads out of the pest hole.

[Worlok]

Gondragor agrees: "Th't's true. Grubs, 'shrooms, bat-shat, cu'ious 'nerals. 'te a find we've made here." And with that, he proceeds to gather up one of the mushrooms before following Byllen once again.

[zimmerwald1915]

all:
Please make three climb checks in order to reach Hammerfall without falling.

[jinx1016]

checks
take 10+5 = 15
take 10+5 = 15
take 10+5 = 15

[Worlok]

(Can Gondragor do that taking-twenty thing from earlier again due to Byllen's work? Otherwise, see check results in spoiler:)

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Oy. :smallsigh:

[zimmerwald1915]

Gondragor attempts to climb down after Byllen, but slips and falls down hard on a ledge next to Byllen. Through a combination of taking it slow and Byllen's assistence, he is able to make it down the rest of the way without incident.

The above in Rules-Speak:
Gondragor falls ten feet, and takes [roll0] falling damage. He manages to make it down the rest of the way by taking ten, and by Byllen taking ten to aid another.

The trip around the cavern, back down the Handle, and into Hammerfall is without incident.

all:
Until you decide to come back this way, please post in the Hammerfall thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176370). You can interact with various NPCs, and maybe pick up another PC or two if there are any available.