Vapourware [Play-by-post] Lamentations in Averoigne

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Would it be excessively meta for us to compare inventories and decide on what needs to be bought?

OOC

It's not meta. It's a question character's might ask of each other and certain things are going to be obvious -- like armor, weapons, etc. -- Ultimately, it's up to the other players if they want to do that. There may be something that they have hidden from the group and don't want to share (probably not at this point, however)? It might be easier just to ask if anyone has a particular item you are thinking of? Also bear in mind, this is as much a scouting expedition as anything else. You're going to be doing your damndest to get back to town by night, because sleeping out in that swampy hellhole seems really unappealing (even to Vandal)

Spoiler

I just thought it'd be easier to see who's got what equipment so we avoid double buys and stuff. In any case I'll get a mining pick if the smith has one

.

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

I just thought it'd be easier to see who's got what equipment so we avoid double buys and stuff. In any case I'll get a mining pick if the smith has one

.

Mining Pick

12sp

 

[Grimgravy]

OOC

The priest has rope, a shovel, and hammer, nails, and spikes. I'll leave the rope behind if someone else has some since encumbrance is such a bitch. I'd suggest we make a run to Vyones sooner rather than later to cash in the note at the bank there and hire some mooks including torch bearers, laborers, and maybe some guards.

It would probably be good if someone has a crowbar. I can't in good conscious suggest a 10' pole as the logistics of taking one into a hole has never made a lick of sense to me, but this might be one of those dungeons.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

OOC

The priest has rope, a shovel, and hammer, nails, and spikes. I'll leave the rope behind if someone else has some since encumbrance is such a bitch. I'd suggest we make a run to Vyones sooner rather than later to cash in the note at the bank there and hire some mooks including torch bearers, laborers, and maybe some guards.

It would probably be good if someone has a crowbar. I can't in good conscious suggest a 10' pole as the logistics of taking one into a hole has never made a lick of sense to me, but this might be one of those dungeons.

Spoiler

So happens that I have rope, and a crowbar and a 10' pole. As well as 4 spikes, 2 candles, 10 chalk, a lantern, a mining pick and some flaming oil.

 

[Snorkack]

Spoiler

Daphne: Ink, Pen& paper, wolvesbane (what does it do? bought it because it sounded like cool stuff to have), Soap, chalk, lantern&oil, 5 candles, tinderbox, waterskin, glass mirror, bedroll.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Daphne: Ink, Pen& paper, wolvesbane (what does it do? bought it because it sounded like cool stuff to have), Soap, chalk, lantern&oil, 5 candles, tinderbox, waterskin, bedroll.

Spoiler

Wolfsbane is poison, I think. Or was that belladonna?

 

[AdamReith]

Spoiler

At the moment Vincent has a rope, a shovel, a tinderbox and a lantern with some extra oil.

Maybe the odour or wolvesbane will stop wolves from following us into the marshes.

 

[nikolokolus]

OOC

nikolokolus How much progress can be made regarding the notebook in days passed so far?

Horatio's Notebook

Sorry, this got lost in the shuffle.

In the three days since Horatio's death, Ganelon, Daphne and Madeline collaborate to very carefully restore Horatio's notebook that was so badly covered in melted wax, before setting out into the marsh.

Most of the 50 or so pages are salvageable with heat, a knife and some patience. Only about half of them have any writing or notes in them - the facing pages that were open and had the most wax spilled on them were the last entries. From what you can decipher, Horatio was something of an amateur antiquarian, but of a very peculiar sort. He was obsessed with "death," or rather some of the various gods of the dead from religions of antiquity. Most of the book is a journal of his attempts to find and purchase relics specific to the Roman gods of the dead Dispater and Orcus and the older Etruscan god Aita. The earliest entry is over 10 years ago. One passage in particular is about three pages long in old Latin; it tells the story of a hunt for the old priests of Aita who fled somewhere across the Alps with some great relic of power that is said to hold the power of life and death. The servants of Orcus and Dispater search but do not find the priests, nor the relic.

The next page is dated to three years prior and is dominated by a rendering of a runed burial mask on the right-hand page and the translation of its Etruscan runes on the left in Latin, "The Sleeper dreams, and in dreaming is restored. The Dreamer shall rise and know life eternal." Horatio openly questions in his journal entry where the mask ould have come from and muses on the meaning of the runes to no apparent conclusion.

The last 10 pages or so are dated to the last 2 weeks. It is exlusively devoted to journal entries and speculation: Horatio finding a mask of clay similar to the rendering in his journal. His wild jubilation at discovering it is made of gold. His consultation with a scholar in Arles verifying the location of burial mounds near Les Hiboux in Averoigne, and Horatio's half-mad speculation about what other treasures might be found, and whether or not Aita's lost relic might be the key to cheating death.

 

[nikolokolus]

With all of your last minute preparations complete, the group follows after Jacques the hunter and his trusty wolfhound Herculé and set off across the spongy, hummocky ground just south of the village. The path that he leads you on is circuitous, and passes through high thickets of thorns, circumvents dozens of stagnant pools buzzing with mosquitos and gnats. Around noon, after four long hours of marching through mud up to your knees, you emerge from a wall of brambles onto a wide open space pockmarked with small stagnant pools. You can just make out a low plateau to the southeast in the middle distance; barely visible through the thick mist that seems to hang over this place perpetually. When you get to it, you realize that it's a "shield" of black basalt rising a few feet above the surrounding muck and mire. You scramble up out of the knee-deep water at its edge and take in what you can see.

Map

The line isn't a trail, it's the bottom of a shallow swale between mounds. Also the blackened area is shrouded by mist

Ahead of you, there are what appears to be at least a half-a-dozen (and possibly more) mounds visible through the dense mist, and scattered across several hectares on top of this rolling plateau. The rocky ground her is blanketed with mosses and lichens and punctuated by an occasional stunted oak or hornbeam. There are no tracks or trails, but there are some weathered rock cairns. Some of the stones are engraved with runes that have been obliterated by time and others are adorned with the barest suggestion of skulls carved into them. The shallow swale that these cairns lay in, more or less ascend along a low grade to the souteast, passing between four or five smaller mounds about 100 paces to either side. After walking about fifty paces you glimpse where the cairns lead; a taller and much wider mound, ringed with stones jutting up out of the earth. Jacques points ahead and says, "Is that what you're looking for?"

 

[AdamReith]

Vincent surveys the impressive and foreboding burial mounds.

"If there is wealth to be found here, it's because the folk here have the sense to leave it be."

Contrary to his own words however, he steels himself to enter. Preparing his lamp and checking that all his equipment is in good order.

 

[L'ennui]

To Jacques: "I'm not sure exactly, but seems like it."

To the others: "Shall we? Day's not going to last forever."

Guillemin clumsily tries to swat a large flying insect hovering in front of his face, nearly losing his footing in the damp, uneven ground.

Spoiler

Guillemin is strapping a spear and shield on his back. He also has a favored "toolkit" (read: lockpicks and such), a trusty crowbar, an unwieldy 10' pole and a rope, as well as some torches

 

[nikolokolus]

Jacques and Herculé lead the way to the higher mound. When the party catches up, the hunter is sitting on a fallen stone block about 30 feet from a dark opening in the side of the moss covered mound. He casually drinks from his waterskin and carves an apple with his hunting knife and gives bits of it to his hound, who has curled up at his feet. He looks up at the sky and remarks, "Nice day for it I suppose. I think I'll leave you lot to it, I think I saw some ducks fly overhead while we approached, and it'd be nice to have something to show for this little excursion besides some wet boots and a fouled cloak." He pulls a bowstring from out of an oiled pouch and fits it to his longbow, then casually pulls out a broadhead arrow and straightens out its fletching.

 

[AdamReith]

"We wish you luck in your hunt."

As Vincent delivered the platitude he finished fastening his illuminated lantern to his belt and approached the dark opening of the burial mound.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Vandal readies his greatsword and moves astride Vincent.

 

[L'ennui]

Guillemin lights a torch. He crosses himself, mutters the silly children's prayer he somehow has never forgotten, and follows them.

 

[AdamReith]

Guillemin lights a torch. He crosses himself, mutters the silly children's prayer he somehow has never forgotten, and follows them.

Vincent crosses himself clumsily as he steadies his fauchard in his other hand.

"May your prayer protect us all."

 

[Madeline]

Madeline shows surprising grit and resolve wading through the marches. The fact that most of her possessions are carried by Sancho probably helped, but even taking that into account, she shrugs off the mud and dirt and mosquitos with surprisingly little whining for a dainty young woman. Perhaps she's spurred on by the responsibility of leadership, perhaps by greed, or actually solving the mystery of Horatio's friends, but whatever the reason, she manages not to show the strain of travel. Once they finally arrive, she quickly finds a solid spot of ground to sit on and take a breather as she looks around.

In a way, the foggy, mysterious and foreboding place seems beautiful to her, and she's lost in her thoughts for a moment, before they melt away in Jacques' interruption..

"That should be it. It looks even more... significant than I expected from the Innkeeper's descriptions."

She fastens the leather loop that keeps her rapier on Madeline's hip so that it is tighter and easier to withdraw the weapon should the need arise, withdraws and lights her lantern, which Sancho gently takes from her hands. Turning to the young man, she has him turn around and rummages through his (very quite filled to the brim) and rummages through, finding the bottle of fairly decent, well-aged wine from previous adventures. With a bite and pull into the cork, she opens it and takes a few hearty gulps straight from the bottle, before offering it out for the party members to indulge as well, if they want. It's buttery, fruit-forward, but unrefined and earthy on the aftertaste.

Once that's done, she pops the cork back in if anything is left, and returns the bottle into Sancho's backpack. Madeline then reasserts himself and ventures forth in her position behind the majority of the party.

 

[nikolokolus]

General orders

Who is carrying a light source and what sort? A torch will burn for an hour and a lantern for 6 hours on 1 flask. Unless you tell me otherwise I will default to the assumption that both people in the front rank carry a light source and one in the rearguard (probably poor Sancho) I will also default to the assumption that you prefer a lantern to a torch.

Vandal and Vincent take the lead and approach the darkened stone-framed entrance. There is an old slab of granite, cloven in two in the tall weeds at the mouth of the doorway -- most likely the old seal -- and there are numerous small bones and animal skulls littered around the threshold and down the first few steps that descend into utter darkness. A moldy, foul odor emits from the interior of the mound.

 

[Grimgravy]

"It seems the people of this area were inspired to some greatness in ages past. I do hope we find some traces of goodness in their relics. Given the scale, there will be much evil to wade through otherwise." Ganelon accepts Madeline's offered wine wine with a nod and a smile. He says a brief prayer before following the first rank into the darkness.

OOC

Given the time, 3 hours going in, 3 hours coming out and we'll have some daylight to help get us back to town. 2 Lanterns, 2 oil flasks seems pretty efficient. Seems like a good first scouting foray to me. Any thoughts?

 

[nikolokolus]

"It seems the people of this area were inspired to some greatness in ages past. I do hope we find some traces of goodness in their relics. Given the scale, there will be much evil to wade through otherwise." Ganelon accepts Madeline's offered wine wine with a nod and a smile. He says a brief prayer before following the first rank into the darkness.

OOC

Given the time, 3 hours going in, 3 hours coming out and we'll have some daylight to help get us back to town. 2 Lanterns, 2 oil flasks seems pretty efficient. Seems like a good first scouting foray to me. Any thoughts?

Movement and Time in the Dungeon

Bear in mind that exploration time is more tedious than moving through previously mapped territory; i.e. 90' per turn while mapping, but combat speed (with light) while exiting.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

General orders

Who is carrying a light source and what sort? A torch will burn for an hour and a lantern for 6 hours on 1 flask. Unless you tell me otherwise I will default to the assumption that both people in the front rank carry a light source and one in the rearguard (probably poor Sancho) I will also default to the assumption that you prefer a lantern to a torch.

Vandal and Vincent take the lead and approach the darkened stone-framed entrance. There is an old slab of granite, cloven in two in the tall weeds at the mouth of the doorway -- most likely the old seal -- and there are numerous small bones and animal skulls littered around the threshold and down the first few steps that descend into utter darkness. A moldy, foul odor emits from the interior of the mound.

Spoiler

One lantern front and back oughta do

 

[L'ennui]

The aftertaste of Maddie's sweet wine did not mix well with the rising stench of this place. Surely that, and not the oppressive atmosphere of descending below the surface of the world, was the only reason Guillemin felt his stomach turn.

Spoiler

Well, Guillemin already lit a superfluous torch it seems. Maybe he just likes being able to shine his own light around, makes him feel safer or something.

 

[AdamReith]

The aftertaste of Maddie's sweet wine did not mix well with the rising stench of this place. Surely that, and not the oppressive atmosphere of descending below the surface of the world, was the only reason Guillemin felt his stomach turn.

Spoiler

Well, Guillemin already lit a superfluous torch it seems. Maybe he just likes being able to shine his own light around, makes him feel safer or something.

The smell of burning pitch is a very welcome olfactory distraction, I am sure!

 

[nikolokolus]

Bracing themselves against the stench, Vandal takes the lead and one-by-one the troupe descends into the depths. The stairs are slick with moisture and mold and drop at least 20 feet below the surface into a wide circular chamber, 60 feet in diameter, with a high vaulted ceiling. 4 great pillars of rough stone brace the vaulted buttresses. As you walk forward across the stone tiles, you look around and see hundreds of animal bones scattered around your feet in various states of decay. It is just as the innkeeper Jean-Baptiste described save for one slightly alarming difference. There is no stone slab in the center of the chamber. Instead you see a hole nearly 5' wide in the floor with an old rusty tripod with a block and tackle and a badly frayed length of rope threaded through it. the rope dangles down into the darkness below.

 

[AdamReith]

Vincent picks up a random piece of bone and drops it into the hole, holding a finger to his lips as he listens for its landing.

OOC

Get some basic idea of how deep this shaft is?