As Luck Would Have it... (Venos)

[DM-Delfon]

If the man noticed your discomfort at the term, he didn’t show it. He simply responds with, “Quartermaster is that way, second building down.” He says gesturing down a path made of boards crossing between small piles of sandbags. Anywhere that isn’t path or building is thick mud or pooled water. It seems that the Sinkhole is the lowest point in the area as all the water seems to flow this way.

[Greyling]

Venos silently reminds himself that most people used the term out of ignorance, not meaning to insult. Giving a friendly smile, "thanks, big guy. Have a good day."

Venos heads in the gestured direction. Balancing with grace as he navigates their walkway system. Knocking on the door, then slowly openning the door.

[DM-Delfon]

The building itself is one of the larger ones on site. When you enter at the main entrance you find yourself standing in a roughly eight foot fenced in area. A two foot hole set in the fencing by a counter the only indication as to where to go. A little bell sits on the counter. The room has a half a dozen chairs set along the walls.

[Greyling]

Shrugging, Venos picks up the little bell. Giving a shake to let the quarter master, or whomever, know he was there.

He then goes and takes one of the empty seats lining the walls. Taking his dagger out he idly picks away at some of the mud coating his boots. Absentminded whistling a tune he'd learned in a tavern a few months back, and smiling at thought of the lovely bard from that night.

[DM-Delfon]

Almost immediately after you ring the bell you hear a voice call out, “Coming! Coming! Be right there!” Just as your butt hits the chair a Gnomish fellow’s face pops into the opening. “Hello? Hello? Who’s there?” He calls out scanning back and forth across the room. He wears thick spectacles, which might be why he keeps looking past you. Or maybe he’s just looking for someone taller. It’s not like that has never happened to you before.

[Greyling]

Pulled back from his memories, Venos rejoins the present day. Looking up to the gnome, "hello. Over here. I'm Venos". The Hin sheaths his dagger. Hopping down out of the chair. "I was lead to believe I could acquire some supplies here."

[DM-Delfon]

The Gnome pivots to face you, his eyes through the glasses looking bulbous and large. “Yes, yes, you’ve heard correctly. Depending on what we have in stock, I am able to provide most adventuring supplies as well as tools and equipment for mining. I also have a very limited supply of magical items that are pulled up from the tunnels below. What is it that you need?”

[Greyling]

Magical items? That could be profitable. He smiles at the Gnome, "I was hoping for 100 ft hempen rope, 20 pitons, and an empty barrel."

While the Gnome goes about gathering the items, Venos casually casing the place. It was probably more trouble than it was worth, but it didn't hurt to consider the hypothetical. Entry points. Locks. Spots to hide. Creaky boards.

[DM-Delfon]

"A hundred feet of hemp rope will be two gold phoenix. Piton's are five copper each, so twenty by five is a hundred copper or ten silver or another gold phoenix, which brings us to three gold so far. Barrel is two gold, which brings us to five gold phoenix total. Please and thank-you." Once you place the coin on the counter he scoops it up and vanishes into the back. After a few minutes he pops back into the hatch and says, "Your supplies are being brought out front for you. Thank-you, have a good day!"

The barrel weighs 70lb, pitons are 1/4lb each so 5lb, and the ropes are 10lb each so 20lb. So 95lb total weight for this transaction.

[Greyling]

Nodding his head as that sounded reasonable. He fishes into his money pouch, and places 5 gold coins onto the counter. "Thanks. Good day."

He steps outside and waits for the supplies. He stores the pitons into his backpack. Tipping the barrels onto its side, tosses the ropes inside, and starts rolling the barrel in the direction of the snake cave.

[DM-Delfon]

If you thought travel through the swamps was annoying before, traveling through the swamps with a barrel is more so. Over time the barrel starts to pick up mud and other debris, which then gets all over your hands. The barrel gets slippery so if you push to high on the barrel you slip forward, and too low you stumble. You scrape off the mud from time to time, but that is time consuming and short lived. Eventually you end up back at the cave mouth, sweaty and much dirtier than before.

[Greyling]

Taking a moments rest, Venos goes over his next steps. Rather than lose grip of the barrel if he rolled it down the tunnel in front of him, he opts to roll it behind him. The slope wasn't so steep that rolling the barrel would be too much.

Between all the travelling and the fight, it'd likely be best to leave the descent until the next day. Since he left the rope curled by the shaft, he add one more section before "making camp".

__________
To be clear:
He had left a hempen rope and makeshift rope tied together and curled by the hole.

He'll be adding so there is hempen to hempen to makeshift

[DM-Delfon]

Unwinding the ends of the two ropes and braiding them together will take longer, but will make a more solid connection. Or if you wanted to simply just tie them together it will only take a few moments. Either way, transporting the barrel and everything to the top of the shaft won't be too arduous. If you want to make camp in the room with the shaft, that will not be a problem. Whether you make camp inside or outside you get in a long rest. If you slept outside you wake up with a lot more bug bites than before.

[Greyling]

After the walk from Clifton to here, and then to the Sink Hole and back here, he slept well. Waking up, Venos stretched as he looked around the room with the shaft.

Feeling more rested, he gets to securing a piton into the top of the shaft. Then knotting the rope to that. When its tied, he drops the 100 ft of hempen with 50 ft of makeshift rope down the shaft. After gearing up, props the barrel on its side. The barrel's closed end close to the hole. Climbing inside, he pushes on the bottom to tip it down. Bracing for a quick drop.

[DM-Delfon]

It teeters on the edge for a second, then pitches forward. At the last moment meant you throw your weight back. This plan will kill you. Barrel hits the water, and you hit the barrel. If the impact doesn’t kill you, you will definitely break something, and then you won’t be able to swim let alone get out of the chute. You could toss the barrel over and use it as a boat of sorts when you reach the bottom yourself.

[Greyling]

Reconsidering his plan, Venos climbs out of the barrel. Then props it right side up. He pulls the rope back up and ties the makeshift end around the barrel.

"Alright. Take 2." He pushes the empty barrel down the shaft before climbing down the rope.

[DM-Delfon]

The barrel plummets down the chute into the darkness below. After a few seconds you hear the expected loud splash. Scaling down the rope today brings back that familiar burn. You reach the bottom without incident. The barrel is floating in the water, but is half full of water, and is not fully round anymore. With the help of the rope you manage to get the barrel tipped over to dump the water out.

With your barrel boat you finally manage to take a better look at your surroundings. The chute opens up about ten feet above the water, and the room extends about thirty feet in every direction before ending in a wall. The above water corners are rounded toward the chute opening. In each of the cardinal directions there is a ten foot wide tunnel extending off into darkness, including straight down.

[Greyling]

Lighting up a torch, Venos then untied the barrel. He tries to use the cooking pot from his mess kit as a makeshift paddle. Randomly picking one of the side tunnels as there was no way for him to know which the Humans took.

For a direction: 1d4=1

[DM-Delfon]

You row your barrel down a thirty foot long, ten foot wide ovular corridor until you see that it opens up into another chamber ahead. The ground must angle up along the corridor, because about four feet from where the water stops your barrel bumps into the ground almost spilling you into the water. From here it looks like the room is circular, roughly twenty feet in diameter. There seems to be a large bed set against the far wall, with a footlocker set against the base of the bed. You can't really see the sides of the room from your current vantage point.

[Greyling]

"Well, no Humans. I'll have to try...", he doesn't finish his thought about trying another tunnel. His grey eyes keep being drawn back to the footlocker. With his spare rope, he ties it around the barrel and then around himself. He didn't want to lose his boat. Climbing out the top, and aims to jump/drop onto the slope shore.

[DM-Delfon]

You leap from the beached barrel and land nimbly inside the room. The moment you land you become aware of somebody standing in the room. A blonde Human woman with a slender frame. She is wearing a simple but fashionable dress. She carries an empty dagger sheath at her side. As you land she turns around, and you can see that all of her exposed flesh is black and curled like meat left on the fire too long. Your attention is drawn to her left hand where she wears a signet ring bearing the flaming sun of Pelor on their middle finger. This is one of the adventurers you were sent to look for, though she is clearly dead and still moving around.

Roll Initiative.

[Greyling]

When he sees the sudden appearance of the woman, he smiles. "Oh, hello. I didn't se-," he stops mid sentence when he notices the burnt flesh. "Ma'am, the guild sent me to find you."

__________
Mechanics:
Initiative 15[=11+4]

[DM-Delfon]

She opens her mouth to speak, and a chunk of flesh that could have once been her tongue falls out. The thing that stands before you is no longer the woman you were sent to find. You’ve heard that necromancers can infuse fresh corpses with their foul magic to animate them into zombies. This creature begins to stagger toward you, but your far more nimble and react first.

[Greyling]

Grasping his dagger, Venos quickly unsheathed his blade. He swinging for the zombie. Hoping to not have to do too much damage (ie. parts cut off) in case the guild wants her body retrieved later to be raised to life.

__________
Mechanics
Dagger, melee
9 [=3+6]

Damage
8 [=4+4]

[DM-Delfon]

You dart forward and plunge your blade into the corpse’s stomach. It unnerves your that it doesn’t respond to the pain of the wound at all, just swings it’s arms at you. You duck under the clumsy strike, but it just keeps moving toward you mindlessly.

Zombie HP: 14/22
Zombie attack: 10+3=13 (Miss)

[Greyling]

Trying to settle his nerves, he mentally compares it to a practice dummy. Keeping his movements loose, he continues his assault on the zombified adventurer.

__________
Mechanics
Dagger, melee
25 [=19+6]

Damage
8 [=4+4]

[DM-Delfon]

You refocus your mind back to your training, but those dummies never hit back. You duck under another clumsy overhand swing, stabbing your dagger into the corpses ribs. The creature spins to follow your movement, smacking you with it’s extended arm.


Zombie HP: 6/22
Zombie attack: 12+3=15
Zombie Damage: 2+1=3

[Greyling]

He bites back a groan as the charred arm smacks into him puts a ringing in his ear. His footing faulting a step. Determined Venos shifts his grip slightly before swinging his dagger again.

__________
Mechanics (hp 6/9)
Dagger, melee
8 [=2+6]

Damage
7 [=3+4]

[DM-Delfon]

You bury your dagger to the hilt into the abomination's eye socket. It's eyeball audibly pops, spraying your face with a foul smelling clear liquid. That was a killing blow, but it doesn't seem to care. It punches you in the gut with it's wrist, the flesh from it's hand sloughing off with the impact.

Undead Fortitude (DC12): 10+3=13
Zombie HP: 1/22
Zombie Attack: 18+3=21
Zombie Damage: 2+1=3

[Greyling]

He'd hope to keep her relatively intact, but that was shot as lurched over dropping her head inline with attack. Closing his mouth quickly as soon as the dagger sinks into the socket.

He exhales sharply as the dead woman's hand breaks off gut punching him. Pulling his blade back, he jams it back into her a bit more frustration than usual.

__________
Mechanics (hp 3/9)
Dagger, melee
11 [=5+6]

Damage
8 [=4+4]