It is a miner thing...

[DM-Delfon]

You manage to clear the entire network of corridors of all of it’s websheets, dart traps and pitfalls. What remains of the pitfalls are just large well marked holes in the ground that will be of no threat to anybody that’s even the slightest bit observant. The walls that housed the dart traps are obliterated, and the web sheets are all torn down. During the process you accidently trigger three dart traps, all of which plink harmlessly off your armour.

Now that there is almost no sign that the Ettercap ever existed here, what is your plan? Note that all in all that process took basically a full day.

[Kosga]

"Whew that was a lot of hard work." shouted as I wipe the sweat from my brow. Admiring my handy work for a few minutes I head back to where I encountered the vile....(continues on in his head for 5 minutes). "This place was safe enough yesterday for me to camp at it will have to do today." I shout as I nimbly avoid a pit trap. "Tomorrow I shall finish the job here then I think I can call this place secure." I think as I make camp, and eat upon a ration.



1d20+3
14+3 = 17 athletics to get there.

[DM-Delfon]

You’re lulled to sleep by the soft flowing water noises below. You wake rested, having slept almost uninterrupted through what you assume was a full night. You were only woken up by a noisy scream echoing off the walls of the massive cavern the Ettercap lair overlooks. The echos distort the scream to make finding its origin impossible, and you have no idea what could have made such a terrible noise.

[Kosga]

Upon waking in the morning; I shutter once again at the thought of whatever let out that scream. Then even more so when my thoughts ponder to what manner of creature caused this unknown thing to let out such a terrible noise. Looking over the edge of the cliff towards the water below(not standing at the edge but back a foot or 2) (100 point font) "Good morning whatever is lurking down there." I get a soft smile to my face as I hear the echo come back to me several times. Once it has died down I gather my stuff up, arm myself with my trusty pick axe and set off to work.

Crossing back into the trapless maze, I let my trusty pick do all the talking to the nearest wall.(making a ladder to the top of the walls)
Once I have ascended the new and improved way to get to the top of the walls, I will chop, slash or stab any trace of that thing out of existence. All the while trying to figure out if it had any family. "If I find any of it's relatives I will joyfully throw them into the great big pit."




12+3 = 15 athletics.

[DM-Delfon]

Your shouted greeting is met with echos refracted off distant walls. A short time later a snarling sound finds its way to your ear, followed shortly thereafter by echoed snarling. That first snark was either really close to you, or it came from something very large indeed to make such a loud noise. The Ettercap lair doesn’t seem quite as safe with that thing lurking about.

From your previous climbing on top of the wall you would be aware that there are no signs of the creature up on top. Additionally, in all your very through exploration of this area, you have seen no sign of another Ettercap.

[Kosga]

Now that I am satisfied that there is no trace of that stupid god forsaken....Ettercap in this whole region; I shall take a minute and admire my handy work. Also lets me rest for a bit, this is exhausting work.

Once I have caught my breath again I am going to head north. Once I get to the edge of where I had previously explored to I shall start being extra careful again, shield at the ready, pick in hand. I will pay attention for any further signs of spider activity, I hate them!


1d20+3
10+3 = 13 perception.

[DM-Delfon]

Moving north of the Ettercap maze you feel more than see the area expand in all directions. No matter which way you look, including over the edge of the bridge you see nothing but darkness. Echos if distant noises can be heard, but where they originated from will remain a mystery. You can still hear the murmur of flowing water behind you when you reach the broken end of the bridge. The broken edge features absolutely massive claw marks, and the stone is pockmarked in places as if it were splashed with acid.

[Kosga]

"Now why in the hell would they break the bridge??? Idiots! Am I surrounded by god forsaken(carry's on for a few more minutes)idiots?" I say as I head back to the rhombus room.

Upon my arrival at the edge of the room I start heading left around it. Searching everywhere for anything and everything. If I find a trap totally annihilate it. "Trusty Pick axe you and me are going places." I say as I start

1d20+3
12+4 = 16 perception

[DM-Delfon]

Climbing down the 40ft wall (checks required) that leads back to the rhombus shaped room, you follow the left wall. Something feels off about the floor ahead, and you crouch down to check it out. That river you were hearing in the area before flows through here too. In this room the surface is calm, and barely distinguishable from the floor with your dark vision. From your lower vantage point you look to your left where you find a hole in the wall. That hole is small enough that a cat could fit through, but a Halfling would have trouble. A similar hole is on the other side of the water, where a small triangle of land is separated from the rest of the room by the water.

[Kosga]

Moving closer to the left side I take a couple minutes to examine the hole in the wall.
"Now that is a curious way for a river to get into this room." I exclaim.

After my curiosity about that hole is satisfied I will look over the hole on the right side; and investigate the river itself how wide is it? how deep? etc etc. can I safely get to the little triangle of land?


1d20+4
9+4 = 13 perception.


1d20+3
10+3 = 13

1d20+3
10+3 = 13

1d20+3
14+3 = 17 athletics's to climb down 40 feet at 15 feet per round.

[DM-Delfon]

The five foot wide river flows under the wall so that it's almost exactly even with the floor, there is no air gap at all leading up stream. The depth of the river is difficult to say, maybe five feet? Maybe ten? The way the water mirrors the ceiling messes with your vision. One thing you can tell, is that that water is moving pretty fast. The occasional bubble floating on the surface zips by at a steady pace. The tiny tunnel that appears to go around the river smells of animal, some sort of poultry maybe? While investigating the hole in the wall, you see signs of a scuffle. There are a few blood splatters, and a couple raggedy looking feathers. You're not proficient with survival or medicine, so you have trouble gauging how long the blood spilled has been there for. The one thing you're surprised about, is that there are no bodies. You suspect that something died here, but there is no corpse at all.

[Kosga]

Getting a wicked ass grin upon my face I exclaim "Hot damm!" With that I bolt back to the wall scurry up it. once at the top I secure a rope to further assist me in my travels. I speed off back to the maze and traps; Stopping only if I trigger a trap that I didn't know about. Upon arrival at the first trap I whip out a sack and start filling it with all the dirt I can muster. There should be plenty of it there from all the mining work I did to destroy the trap. Then I shall repeat this process till I have bout 3 sac's full or I have exhausted all of my known trap locations.

"Whew this stuff is heavy!" I exclaim on my way back to the rhombus room; much slower now due to the weight of sac's of dirt. Standing at the top of the ledge, I tie the bags off the best I can(doesn't have to be very good just hand tied mostly to stop spillage), Then I tie them to my belt and climb back down. Cursing all the way.

With authority I whip out my great and mighty pick axe and head for the closest wall.(not within 10 feet of my rope) I proceed to go to work upon the wall with extremely high amounts of vigor. After bout an hour(10 feet to an hour? think is what is was for the traps, if longer oh well will take the time) I step back and pause admiring my handy work. "Man this mining stuff is hard work. Wonder if I will find anything of value in all this? I half shout as I put my pick away and start gathering all of the rocks and rubble into a pile near the river.

Walking about 15 feet from the left wall(from original vantage point) I gently drop the largest of the rocks into the edge of water watching it sink to the bottom. I continue placing stones into the river slowly working my way across it till I have made a small dam. (My intent is to cause the water to back up, and over flow it's banks. Since I know the room is sloped downward towards the right the water should flow near the wall if not along the walls towards the other side of the room, thus leaving the last of the water in the river bed that is past the dam to flow into the wall and be gone from sight and mind.)

The most trusted utensil that I have ever seen in the world comes back out. "Back to work." I yell as I start mining away at the wall on the right side(from original vantage point). Now thoroughly covered in dust dirt and grime, I once again look at my handy work. Once again I gather up all the rock and rubble at the side of the river. Then I gather the bags of dirt that I left at the base of the rope. I take them in front of the dam where all the water is flowing. I dip a empty sac into the water. I then start shoveling dirt etc into the water and stirring it well turning it into a thick pasty mud. Once complete I take my mud back to the other side of the dam where the now drained river bed exits the room and starts building a wall in the doorway. I want a wall no less than 2 feet thick the full height of the river bed, using the mud as grouting to hold the whole wall together. Once I have completed my make shaft wall I shall fill in next to it with all the rock rubble and any other debris I have about as a protection from any water washing it away.

Then I stand back and Marvel at the hell of a job that I just accomplished.


1d20+3
8+3 = 11 dex to hold onto the bag in the moving water.

1d20+3
11+3 = 14 dex for rope tying


1d20+3
9+3 = 12

1d20+3
19+3 = 22

1d20+3
10+3 = 13 athletics back up the wall.

[DM-Delfon]

You manage to get back up the wall and secure your rope without too much trouble. You did a quite through job of clearing the area of traps, and as such you're not attacked by any more darts while in the now dead Ettercap's maze-like lair. The ground throughout the entire lair is difficult terrain however, because you've covered the area with a literal ton of small rocks, stone chip, dust and gravel. You don't really find much in the way of dirt, but the gravel and smaller stones should suit your needs just fine. You find it much easier to take trips with the sacs of dirt, as each one is roughly 40lb. It's less about the actual weight of the bags, and more about how awkward they are to carry. Speaking from experience, tying 40lb to you belt is uncomfortable and really throws off your balance. Drawing up your rope, you tie off the three bags and lower them all at once. Following them back down yourself is no trouble.

You vigorously pick at the wall for what feels like forever, and after a couple minutes you stop to take a breather. Mining is hard. Taking it more slowly you spend about an hour smashing your pick into the hard stone. You find that you've only managed to make a hole that you can barely stick your thumb up to the first knuckle into. By your estimate you can make about a cubic inch of progress an hour. Up in the Ettercap lair, it was much easier going because they were columns that you could break chunks off of, and the insides of the columns were already hollowed out. So after about two hours worth of work, you've gathered around 120lb of gravel.

The rhombus room is on average flat. Not smooth by any means. The ground is rough with quite a bit of deviation, but the elevation overall on the floor here is roughly flat. Dumping a larger rock into the water, you watch it slide and roll with the current until it catches around the middle of the room somewhere. You work with this initial stone, and add more and more stone. Most of which are carried off down stream and out of sight. Almost all of the gravel material is carried off by the river, but a bit of it gets caught up with a few of the larger rocks until you've made yourself a little wall along the first foot of the bottom of the river. Now three hours into the process and you've made an approximately one foot by one foot wall. You get the feeling that blocking off this amount of flow will take much larger rocks, but those will take days to hack out of the wall.

You do remember seeing plenty of fill material outside. The labourers take the gravel, and use it to cover most of the ground around the encampment. Where there is gravel on the ground, the ground isn't as squishy as the sodden earth around the encampment. Bags of gravel and dirt are used to make sandbag walls that encircle the entire sinkhole. The Sinkhole is about a hundred feet across, and the buildings encircle that. Then there is the sandbag wall, it must have taken 'ages to fill all those sandbags. Looking around now, your progress falls quite a bit short of marvelous. A cubic inch hole in the wall, and a one by one foot pile of stone in a river. That pile will likely wash away if not constantly tended to, or supported in some fashion.

If you spend the time, you could probably create your dam in the river, but it will take a lot of time. Not to mention some other issues that Knuckles is too dumb to think of on his own.

[Kosga]

"Now I am annoyed" I say in a rather perturbed manner.

I walk towards the mushrooms and start singing at the top of my lungs.

if they move I shall investigate a bit into the corridor.
if not well the moment one becomes far enough away from the rest to be considered singled out destroy it.

1d20+5
15+5 = 20 att

1d20+5
10+5 = 15 att

1d6+3
1+3 = 4 dam

1d6+3
3+3 = 6 dam

[DM-Delfon]

Almost as soon as you begin to belt out your favourite sea shanty, the noise coming out of you is drowned out by an absolutely terrible high pitched shriek. The noise is so loud that you would easily guess that it could be heard hundreds of feet away. If you choose to follow the noise, it leads you into a dense cluster of fungus and odd plants. When you manage to follow it to it's source, you find yourself looking at a four and a half foot tall mushroom. It's stalk is comprised of fibrous tendrils, very similar to the thick ropes that are used on ships, but all stuck together to form a single stalk. The top of the mushroom bulges out, with bulbous purple nubs, and fist sized holes that look like dark splotches spread across it's surface. The noise seems to be emanating from those holes, as one hole stops creating that terrible cacophony, another picks it up so that the noise is continuous. The mushroom isn't moving, just shrieking. If you still want to attack it, I'll keep your rolls above, but I need you to roll init.

[Kosga]

"Ahh shut up ya noisy fungus" I scream at it, still being drowned out by the shrieking.

With that I turn upon rock and head out of the room to the west. I shall continue west until I pass the point to which I puked.
"That is still gross!" I exclaim, and try to avoid touching it at all costs.

I will continue west word but much more cautiously, rapier and shield at the ready, eyes peeled for any form of hostile(rant here) trap(rant here) etc.

1d20+4
11+4 = 15 perception

1d20+3
8+3 = 11 athletics to go up the wall.

[DM-Delfon]

Beyond your now dry and crusty pile of puke the path angles slightly to the right and continues for about forty feet. You enter into a sixty foot wide square room from the eastern corner, perhaps diamond would be a better way to describe it based on it's geometry. A chasm spans the center of the room some forty feet across, and roughly shaped like the room itself. Hanging from the ceiling near above the center of the chasm is a harpoon, a hempen rope sways slightly back and forth trailing down from the harpoon into the darkness below. Walking up to the edge of the chasm and looking down, the pit descends as far as your darkvision will allow.

[Kosga]

After checking over the room and not finding anything looking to get killed today, I leap over to the rope grabbing it securely. "Whew"(only if he made it, if he falls its) (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH(swearing here))
"Whatever is down this whole be prepared for Knuckles arrival! For I am your doom and greatest nightmare all at once."
With that I start down the rope, keeping a close eye out for everything especially the end of the rope!

1d20+3
18+3 = 21 athletics for descending

1d20-1
8-1 = 7 intimidation

[DM-Delfon]

You scrape your boots on the hard stone floor to clear them of anything that might make you slip. A few quick stretches later, you sprint toward the gaping chasm before you and leap. Your powerful muscles carry you as high and as far as you could muster. Your eyes fixed on the dangling rope. The thought crosses your mind that that rope might not support your weight as you sail through the air toward it. Your upward momentum reaches it's zenith, and gravity does what it does best, pulling you down into the chasm. You manage to catch hold of the rope some ten feet below the surface that you just made the leap from. Your weight sets the rope to swinging and you almost reach the far wall before you start to swing backward toward the center of the room again. You descend the rope carefully in this way, swinging back and forth like a pendulum the entire way. After climbing for about sixty or seventy feet you see that the sides of the tunnel below open up into a chamber of some sort, but the walls and floor of that chamber are still too far away for you to make out. Descending yet father down the rope, you reach the point where the chamber opens up and you see the floor some forty feet below. If you hadn't caught that rope, or if it hadn't held you would have dropped about 160ft to your death. Unfortunately the rope stops after about 120ft, leaving you stranded about 40ft above the ground. Looking around the room you see dozens of stone pillars scattered all around the room, the nearest of which is about 20ft away. They range in size from 10ft tall to 30ft tall, with that closest one being about 20ft tall. There are figures ducked as if hiding near the pillars. They look like they're hiding from something else, as none of them are looking up at you or taking cover from your vantage point.

[Kosga]

From my lofty vantage point I quickly take a look about the room trying to find what those beings are hiding from. I am also looking at the walls. Can I reach one with the current amount of rope that I have? If so I would like to swing myself to the wall kinda gently I don't want to bounce off of it. Looks down and thinks if I screw this up now I am nothing more the the splatter mark of a kobold picking a wart upon it's ass. If I can make the wall I would like to descend it as quickly as possible.

Failing to get a hold of the wall after a couple of tries I will whip out my trusty rope, attach it to the end of the current rope and continue down to the 20 foot tall statue. If I need to use my rope I would like the knot to be just strong enough to get me to bout 5 feet from the pillar then give way(looking to not lose my rope).

1d20+3
5+3 = 8 use rope

1d20+3
12+3 = 15 to swing to a wall.

1d20+3
13+3 = 16 hold onto the wall

1d20+3
12+3 = 15 climb down said wall

[DM-Delfon]

Try as you might, you can't seem to get your rope attached to the one you're hanging from. When you try to hold the rope with your legs, you slowly slide down until you're forced to stop tying the rope, or fall off the end of the hanging one. Giving up on that idea, you set yourself to swinging, steadily building up enough momentum that you think you might make that pillar of stone if you just let go. Doing one more big swing just to make sure, you let go and sail through the air. You slam into the top edge of the pillar, knocking a bit of the breath out of yourself in the process. (Take 1d6 damage) You climb down the pillar to the floor without too much trouble. Glancing up to the still swinging rope, you have no idea how the hell you're going to get back out of here. Regardless of your vantage point on the rope, pillar or floor, you haven't seen anything worth hiding from. Looking across the way, you can see a figure still ducked as if hiding from something. The figure is about 30ft away.

[Kosga]

Pulls out one of the ettercap ckaw. OWWWWW(3 damage) god forsaken stupid backstabbing creature! Somehow this is all your fault! I'm glad you're dead!" Puts the claw away and gingerly rubs his ribs before making my way down the pillar.

Upon the ground in the dark can I tell what manner of prey is 30 feet in front of me? I draw my great sword, stowing my shield. using every ounce of stealth that I can muster to sneak up on this unsuspecting victim. I would also like to keep my eyes open for whatever the source of the unknown victim's fear is, unless it is me...<I must have him scared out of his trousers> I think.



1d20+4
16+4 = 20 stealth(oops forgot)

[DM-Delfon]

It's hard to tell who or what you're seeing hiding up ahead. Your Dwarven eyes can only see in black and white, which makes distinguishing details difficult. None the less you creep across the floor like a stalking hulking bearded cat, the humanoid that you're sneaking up on doesn't move a muscle. When you finally get close enough, you realize that you've been sneaking up on a statue. The art piece would probably be worth a fair bit of coin given the detail of it. Assuming of course that you could get it out of here. A Half-Elf, with the look of an adventurer. His or her head is craned forward with a little bit of a squint about the eyes. Peering into darkness maybe? WHo knows, art really isn't your thing. No sign that there is anything else around in the cavern at all, though with all the stone pillars anything could be hiding around here.

[Kosga]

With a heavy sigh I put my sword away.
"I was just about to dismember a painting..." said with a slight chuckle in his voice.
"Well then lets get some light down here." as I light up a torch.

I will move the art piece to a location that hopefully will be better for me to get it out of here. His eyes looking like gold coins the whole time.
Once the pile of gold(painting) has been moved, I set out exploring the room a lot more leaving no nook or cranny left un peered upon.

1d20+4
9+4 = 13 perception

[DM-Delfon]

Your torch flickers to life, and you can see even more details about this finely wrought statue. Made entirely out of stone, the adventurer is a Half-Elf as you suspected. Shoulder length shaggy hair, and a goatee. You can see individual stray hair sticking out from his head. The sculpture must have be sculpted here because it fits perfectly. Your Dwarven blood sings at the craftsmanship, even the fingers pressed into the rock look to have the flesh spread out as if supporting weight. The fellow wears studded leather armour, and he appears to have been wounded. Some sort of puncture wound in his side. One of the statues hands is putting pressure on the wound, while the other braces against the stone pillar. You attempt to move the statue, but it's quite heavy. You can use brute force to move it, but some of the finer details could be damaged in the process.

Leaving that statue for a moment, you walk around the room toward the next hunched figure. It doesn't take you long to realize that this must be some sort of underground art gallery or something. A sculpture garden? Whatever it is, they did a better entrance for their patrons. After looking at your tenth life-like statue you hear a small sound off to one side of the chamber. A snort? Snoring maybe? The sound cuts off abruptly, and you hear the sound of metal scraping on stone...

[Kosga]

With my most usual cautiousness(charge) attitude, I attempt to sneak up on whatever or whomever is making the noise. As I move towards the sounds I think to myself about how glad I will be when whatever it is can no longer make that irritating noise. I take a quick look about and stick the torch into one of the hands on a statue that looks like could hold it.

(due to torch in hand now great sword went away and rapier came out.)
If it is actually a living being and I have actually snuck up on it I would like to take the moment of glee and destroy that irritating god forsaken(rant in head here)

1d20+5
12+5 = 17 attack
1d8+3
6+3 = 9 dam



1d20+4
16+4 = 20 stealth(wow he was quiet for once???)

[DM-Delfon]

You check a couple statues, one holding a stone long sword and wearing a shield, another with a bow in one hand and a fist full of arrows in the other. Finally, you manage to find a statue holding it’s hands up with a look of sheer terror on it’s face. One of the hands looks like it was once holding an actual torch, a long burnt out torch lays behind it on the ground. Sticking your torch into it gives you a little bubble of light to work from. As you circle away from the light, and around the stone spire that is between you and the noise you hear repeated metal on stone impacts. They sound off in a pattern similar to horses hooves, perhaps whatever this thing is it has hooves?

The frequency of the noise accelerates, ting ting ting ting as it moves away from you. Abruptly you hear a metallic smashing noise followed by a rain of pebbles and the light flickers out. You sneak around the pillar further as the noise recedes toward where the rope hangs down some a hundred feet away at this point.

You creep up along the edge of the pillar, looking much like the statues you’ve been admiring with coins in your eyes yourself. As you’re rounding the side you catch sight of the statue you had holding your torch. It lays scattered across the cavern floor in chunks and pieces. Your smothered torch laying just a few feet away.

Just at the very cusp of your dark vision you catch sight of the massive head of a bull poking out of the darkness, it’s body covered in ashen metallic scales. Who puts barding on a bull? How the hell did that thing end up down here? So many questions for smarter men to answer... just based on the span of it’s horns you would say that thing is at least twice your size, four times if you include width. (It’s large in game terms) if it can smash a solid stone statue, you suspect that it can do quite the number on you as well.

It doesn’t seem to have seen you yet, but is too far to charge from here. What’s your plan?

[Kosga]

I am going to continue keeping out of this foul beasts sight range. Sneaking about I am trying to find it's lair, specifically where it makes it's home directly. All the while keeping both eyes extra sharp for the beast and anything valuable. While skulking about I will also try to figure out how I can get back up the rope.



1d20+4
13+4 = 17 stealth

1d20+4
11+4 = 15 perception

1d20-1
10-1 = 9 investigation

[DM-Delfon]

You skulk through the shadows, trying to always make sure there is a tower of stone between you and the creature. An odd coincidence occurs to you, that while you crouch and skulk about you look exactly like all the statues you've encountered here so far. You put that out of your mind as you circle around behind the pillar where you first heard the beast. You find a fairly sizable pile of broken stone. Some of the stone is ground down to a fine powder, while others are well rounded like one would find at the beach. You quickly sift your hands through the nest, but find nothing of any value hidden there before you're forced to move on by the approach of the creature. While you were sifting, you did notice a large tunnel sloped down and away behind where the creature made it's nest. The tunnel continues almost perfectly straight for as far as your darkvision will allow. The question now becomes: Do you risk this unknown path into darkness or try to circle around to get back to the known relative safety above?

[Kosga]

What in the world is happening to me? I have been reduced to cowering behind statues? I think as I sneak my way back to where the rope is to possible retaliative safety. Looking up at the rope that hangs about 40 feet above the ground. Now this is going to present some difficulty I continue to think.

"AHA" I whisper in the quietest voice that I have EVER used. I quietly climb to the top of the nearest pillar then get out my rope and a javelin, tie the rope to the weapon and launch it into the wall just above the end of the current rope is.

Gives it a small tug hoping it will hold. I acquire the torch that he smashed and put out.
You wanna smash, here's something for you to smash upon you stupid beast. I think as I relight the torch and place it upon the ground close enough to the rope that it will illuminate the rope. then I sneak off to relative safety and watch.



1d20+4
11+4 = 15 stealth

1d20+3
17+5 = 22 attack

1d20+3
14+3 = 17 use rope.