Travels amongst the Border Princes II (WFRP 2e) IC

[dojango]

OOC: Stone spikes as in stalactites/stalagmites or spikes as in man-/dwarf-made?

Stalactites/stalagmites but does Severin know what they are?

[LarsWester]

Should we continue goin' West or change direction to see what's beyond that door to the South? I think staying going the same direction is easier to avoid getting lost. Harman staring at both room exits.

[rax]

Stalactites/stalagmites but does Severin know what they are?

I doubt it. I asked mostly to find out if we as players were supposed to assume that they were some sort of man/dwarf made feature.

However, I've been in enough caves to feel that it's fair for Severin to not immediately assume that the spikes have been put there by the dwarfs. His reaction will be more along the lines of "what the h*ll are those?"

[rax]

"Marina! What in Sigmar's name are those?" Severin whispers urgently, staring at the stone spikes.

"It'd be nice if there was a clue as to how to proceed," he answers Harman.

"Hmm, if there's sand, there may be tracks. Can you see anything, Gabriele?" he asks his friend.

[Haval]

Gabriele will gratefully follow the others into the cave. 'Does that happen a lot?' She whispers about the spikes. Maybe the Dwarves had made them. She'll move around closer to the two exits to see if she could hear anything. She'll also check the ground for any sign that anyone might have come through here recently.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Will add a follow trail test to the rolls made in the ooc in case there are any tracks
Vs. Int 38
(1d100)[48]

[dojango]

Marina whispers back. "They are the teeth of dragons. When they roamed the earth. After they died, their bones turned to stone and caves. We are walking in what used to be a dragon's skull." And then, "Whichever way we go, we should mark it."

Gabriele and Harman study the mushrooms. They smell good, if nothing else. It seems familiar to Gabriele, but she can't quite remember what type of mushrooms they are. As she looks for tracks in the dim latern-light, she sees that the ground, where there's sand and dirt, has been churned up. Although she can't tell how many people have gone that way, there are tracks around both exits to the cavern. The only sound she hears in the cavern is the dripping of water, but as she gets closer to the exit to the west, she thinks she hears water flowing from that direction.

[rax]

"Right, so here's a theory. If there's running water down the western exit, we're likely to reach an impassable point sooner rather than later. So exploring the western passage could be quickest. Anyone have a problem with us going down there first?" Severin asks.

[Haval]

Gabriele just looks impressed at Marina's comment and will go to get a closer look at the 'teeth'.

"Right, so here's a theory. If there's running water down the western exit, we're likely to reach an impassable point sooner rather than later. So exploring the western passage could be quickest. Anyone have a problem with us going down there first?" Severin asks.

'So there might be a river or a lake down here? As long as we don't have to go swimming. Might as well rule out the western side first.'

[rax]

"Alright then, let's get moving. I can take the lead if someone takes care of marking our passage. And maybe Marina should come second - you're the most experienced delver among us, eh?" Severin suggests.

[dojango]

Marina nods at that and marks the passageway with her chalk. After Severin heads down the passageway she follows. Soon it gets cramped enough that she has to duck, and the other two men are nearly bent over. The rocky floor holds no tracks, and after a few moments Severin comes to a room hewn out of the rock. The room is at a crossroads of sorts, with passageways heading in all four directions, and on one side there is a stairway heading up and down into the depths. Inside the room strewn about are all sorts of sundries, pots and pans, wrecked furniture and shattered crockery. Amidst the mess are broken, splintered bones and a few smashed skulls...

[rax]

Severin stops to examine the wreckage of the room, trying to determine who might have made the furniture, pots, pans, and the like.

"How long did Sol's lot say this new area was in operation before people started disappearing?" he asks the others.

[Haval]

'Weren't these Dwarf mines at one point? Maybe all this has been here a long time.' Gabriele will get a closer look at the skulls to judge what race they came from.

Spoiler: ooc

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In case it's not obvious where the skulls came from
Common Knowledge (Empire) vs. Int 38
(1d100)[24]

[dojango]

It's a sad truth but everyone's become very familiar with the dead over the past few years. The skeletons don't have the size of humans nor the thinner bones of halflings; the skulls are solidly thick and wisps of hair cling to some of them. Dwarves. There are four skulls in the room, so four of them must have died. The bones are old and dry. Marina looks nervously at the exits to the room and fidgets, while Zdenko and Pietro rummage through the rubble. "Nothin' but junk" mutters Zdenko, while Pietro picks something up and stows it in one of his pockets.

[rax]

"Dwarves, eh? So this happened a long time ago then. Of course, whatever killed these fellows and wrecked the room could be responsible for our disappearances as well, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. Gabriele - just a thought - are the bones showing any indication that they were...chewed on?"

[Haval]

'Might not prove anything. Could be rats down here.' Gabriele will check to see if she can make out any sign that something larger might have been chewing on these remains.

Spoiler: ooc

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Outdoor Survival if it helps vs. Int 38
(1d100)[13]

[LarsWester]

Harman searches around the room for any clues that something within the area caused the deaths of these four dwarves. He is looking at the cavern walls for any scratches or runic writing.

Spoiler: ooc

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Search - (1d100)[72]
I think search is the correct skill but he also has perception and outdoor survival.

[rax]

"I figure if something bigger than a rat chewed on these poor buggers, then you'll probably notice," Severin chuckles in reply to Gabriele.

[dojango]

In the penny dreadfuls, the heroic roadwarden is always able to tell a long tale from the state of a body; but to Harman's eyes these are just old bones. Very old bones, to be sure, and a lot less water-logged then the corpses he used to see floating down the river. A quick search of the room reveals a great deal of runic graffiti and a few stone tablets with runic dwarfish writing on it, but unfortunately he can't read dwarfish, so it means nothing to him.

Gabriele, of course, has seen plenty of chewed up bones in her times wandering through the woods, including human bones. Although these bones are old, they definitely have been chewed upon, and in many cases, deliberately cracked open to get at the marrow inside. Of course, the bones are so old, anything organic and edible would have decayed long ago.

[LarsWester]

Well these dwarves may have come to their end here I believe this is just the start of our exploration. We have many choices here. Do we want to go up, down or stay on the same level? Harman looks at all the options for continuing forward and sees nothing indicating which way to go.

[Haval]

Gabriele looks suitably disgusted. 'Something's definately been at these. Rats can't ususally break a shin bone in half like that. Whatever it was hopefully it's long gone though.'

To Harman, 'I'd say explore up here before we go any lower. Seems like everything might be more unstable the further in we go.'

[rax]

"With everything smashed up in here and four dead, eaten, dwarfs, I'm thinking that this all happened at the same time...and maybe it's the reason this place was abandoned. We should tread very carefully," Severin says, worried eyes glancing at the exits from the room. "But I agree with Gabriele - let's try and cover this floor before we go up or down. I suggest we go left first."

[dojango]

It takes about an hour, but you carefully explore this level. Immediately surrounding the central room, which Marina speculates is some sort of resting room for underground workers, are two larger store-rooms. One is filled with broken barrels and boxes, the wood little more than firewood now, while the other has a lot of heavy and specialized mining equipment and other assorted tools. There is also what is obviously a latrine. Finally, there is a third room that contains a large piece of complicated machinery attached to large copper pipes that lead into the wall. Exploring the tunnels that lead away from the room, one ends abruptly in a cave in, where the timbers supporting the mine have collapsed, while another one twists and turns through the ground before eventually petering out in a dead end. While most of what you find is either too damaged and rotten to be of use, Gabriele finds a small pouch with 9 unfamiliar silver coins in it tucked away in some clutter, Severin finds a very good-quality steel dagger under a pile of rags, and Harman opens up a relatively intact box and finds 17 heavy tallow candles. Both Zdenko and Pietro occasionally pocket something, and Marina finds a copper kettle that she hangs from her backpack, next to the bird cage. After a short rest back in the central room, Marina whispers to Severin, "Should we go up, or go down? Down is likely more dangerous. Keep a close eye on the bird if we go down."

[Haval]

At the site of the machinery, 'The Dwarves made this didn't they? Not that anyone could get it out of here but it's probably worth something.' Gabriele will talk quietly just in case there was something else down here with them. To Severin, 'Might be a back exit to all this further up. Although maybe there's another way out at the foot of the mesa.'

[rax]

"Whatever's up there, it's closer to the surface, and that means the tunnels will come to a stop when we reach it. The stairs down could go on for who knows how far? So if we want to make sure there's nothing coming up behind us, it would probably be fastest to check upstairs first and clear out any trouble we find there first," Severin reasons.

OOC: Sorry for the delay in replying. I needed more time than I thought to rest up.

[LarsWester]

Harman was intrigued by the machinery and copper pipes its function a complete mystery to him. I agree with Severin. 'After all what goes up must come down.' Do we know anyone who knows dwarven technology that could fix that machine?

[dojango]

Heading up the stairway for a quick few turns finds you in a room with a metal frame set into the far wall. Below the frame is a deep shaft that disappears into the depths below, above the frame a shaft seems to go up into darkness as well. Marina says, "When this was open there was probably a lift going up to the surface and down to where the mine workings were. No such luck for us, we have to climb."

Heading back up the stairs you ascend towards the surface. After many turns of the staircase, you find yourself higher than the valley floor, so you must be within the heart of the mesa. The stairway keeps going up until you find a corridor leading off into the mesa... but it is blocked by a stone wall.

[LarsWester]

Harman cautiously peers inside the metal frame. He's looking for any type of control mechanism inside the frame that would have be used to raise of lower the frame. Marina do you think this lift would still be operable? At least just to raise it enough for us to get underneath. Do you think the air would be good down there? Since it opens up to here.

[Haval]

Harman was intrigued by the machinery and copper pipes its function a complete mystery to him. I agree with Severin. 'After all what goes up must come down.' Do we know anyone who knows dwarven technology that could fix that machine?

'Not personally, but there's probably a Dwarf around here somewhere. I'm not sure they'd be ok with us taking things though.'

After they moved upstairs. 'No idea how this thing is supposed to work but I suppose the Dwarves know their business. If the lift is still working down there maybe we can use it to come back up?' Gabriele will take a look at the blocked corridor while they were up here. 'They wouldn't just build a corridor going nowhere would they? Did they drop this big rock to cover the entrance?'

[rax]

"Stone walls here, stone walls down there. The Dwarfs didn't want anyone roaming around their old digs once they'd left," Severin mutters. "How are we for time and torches? Anyone fancy a bite to eat before we head down again?"

[Haval]

'Couldn't hurt. But I don't want to hang around too long. I'd rather get out of here before night.'