Tests and Trials

[Rodgeir]

The party moves out from Pelor's temple and quickly finds the old road. Travel on the road is even quicker now that they know what to expect and in short order they find where they came on to it and head off into the forest and brush to the south. By the time the group takes a break to eat lunch the clear sky begins to be filled with a few grey clouds and a steady wind begins to whistle through the trees. Progress is good, now that Ves can correct for her going too far to the east on the way north and can aim more directly where they want to go. Progress is so good that Ves is fairly confident they can hit the Cut today before dinner.

What would be a few miles north and west from where they encountered the hobgoblins Jaq spots several heavy boot prints that look very similar to the style used by the hobs. They all look to have been made around two days ago. The prints he can see appear to have been moving north and east, loosely trailing what would have been the group's path.

[NotStickFigures]

Jaq points the bootprints out to the others, "About two days old I'd guess." he states just a bit worriedly.

[Rodgeir]

Jolly absently rubs where he was run through by the hobs as he looks at the tracks.

"Wadda we gonna do?"

[spiderwrangler]

"If they are putting together an army, we ought to tell folks. Be the sort of thing my mentor will want to know."

[thinkslogically]

"And if they're gathering reinforcements to repay us for the other day I don't want to be found. I say we press on to the Cut as quick as we can and try and cover our tracks on the rocky ground. Anyone got any magic that might help?"

[spiderwrangler]

"Yeah... repayment doesn't sound good."

[Arch Lich Burns]

”Ah have spid’rclimb prepared.”

[Dlover]

"My techniques are good for disguise, but not espionage, unfortunately... Still, if they were here two days ago they will have been reaching the ruins only today, right? They'd be a couple of days behind us, long enough to make it through the Cut, where there won't be a trail. Right?"

[Rodgeir]

Hearing no dissenting voices to her plan, as well as Joe's magical plan of not falling to her death this time, Ves presses the group hard towards the massive ravine. Behind them, only visible from time to time through the trees, roiling dark clouds rapidly engulf the mountaintops before rolling further south and creating a wall of rain beneath them. The steady south wind rapidly becomes colder as powerful gusts slice down through the trees. Pausing just long enough to check her bearings on the goblin map Ves gauges they are under an hour from reaching the Cut.

((The group is now moving at the fast pace as opposed to the normal pace. A survival roll from any character if they would like to guess how long before they end up in the rain.

Lurn would guess that trails in the Cut would be harder to follow for the reason Ves notes, it is mostly bedrock carved out by water.

Also who is carrying the magical stick now that Ruby is 'resting'? Remember it needs skin contact to move .))

[Dlover]

"I don't suppose we're going to try climbing into the lowground funnel when there's heavy rain coming? Sounds like a bad idea."

[thinkslogically]

Survival: Survival: 1D20+5 = [17]+5 = 22


"We beat the rain there and we're good. If we don't... Come on. Let's move!"

[Dlover]

"You mean beat the rain there, climb down, cross it, and climb up."

[NotStickFigures]

"Yep, the goblins told us that being in the cut was death, and I think they might have meant if rain came. We need to not go down there until the rain is done or unless we know we are beating the rainwater. If we get stuck down there, we'll probably be drowned." Jaq sighs. "So, do we wait nearby, for the rain to pass so we can cross the cut in the area we know, or do we continue walking along the cut? Either decision might cause us to run into the hobgoblins. Or take the chance with beating the rain?"

(I don't know who has the stick....Joe?)

[Rodgeir]

Ves is confident they can beat the storm to the ravine. She would put it at least an hour behind them. She also determines it is going to be a sporking wet night as they start to move Lurn and Jaq express their misgivings.

Jogging on the party the party reaches the wall of the Cut, huffing and puffing, forty minutes later. Looking over the edge they see it isn't as high as where they first climbed in, only 45', and the wall is more crumbly with roots jutting out. What is more concerning, however, is that the middle of the ravine has already has a thin streams of water running to the southwest. To the north of the group thunder is now coming regularly along with flashes of lightning at most a half hour behind them.

Jolly steps up to the edge and cocks his head to the side and says,

"Is that thunder? Ya hear it?"

((Perception from everyone please))

Jolly perception: 1D20 = [20] = 20

[Dlover]

Perception: 1D20+7 = [20]+7 = 27

LURN IS ALL-SEEING

[spiderwrangler]

Perception: 1D20+1 = [12]+1 = 13

[Rodgeir]

Lurn steps up beside Jolly and listens carefully. It sounds more like the distant roar of the waterfall in the cave than thunder. It also is coming from up the ravine. As he listens he also notices that the streams of water in the ravine have increased in number and size.

Kroshav joins the rest and listens but hears only the wind and thunder along with the pounding of blood in his ears.

((Crit from Lurn and Jolly!))

[spiderwrangler]

"Let's hurry!", Kroshav begins uncoiling rope.

[NotStickFigures]

"Water moves fast....Really fast." Jaq says worriedly. But he will do this if everyone else wants to take the chance.

[thinkslogically]

Perception: 1D20+3 = [15]+3 = 18


((Can we cross on a rope here, above the ravine? Like tie rope to two trees and haul ourselves over that way? Flash floods are no fun...))

[Rodgeir]

((The ravine here is wider than where you climbed as you are further north but the walls are also lower, down south it is between 45 and 60ft wide and here it is closer to 120 ft. It isn't so wide you wouldn't be able to manage the crossing with some athletics rolls.))

[Dlover]

"Too late. Put that away, Kroshav. I can hear water rushing like cavalry charging down the ravine. We'd not half be up the other side before the water catches us, and it would crush us just as soundly as cavalry."

[Rodgeir]

((Oh and Ves also hears the distant rumble, Lurn with his crit would placed its source no more than a few miles up the ravine.))

[NotStickFigures]

"Well, if we aren't going to cross the Cut today, let's make it into an adventure instead. Lets move a bit off from the Cut maybe and then head south (I think that's the way we need to be heading). That way we'd at least be exploring and maybe find something interesting, yet we would not be right by the cut and maybe won't run into hobgoblins and such, as I'm assuming traveling right alongside the cut is what a lot of people and animals and creatures do, especially during the rains. What do you all think?"

[thinkslogically]

"I think I want to get across before we're trapped by the floodwater... Which is coming. It's days to go around, and you, Jaq, have a cursed hand. I say we make a run for it. Jolly, you'll be with me and Kroshav. No time for rope. Joe, you have your spell. Do you all agree?"