GREYFORGE: ARCHIVE

[Longman]

You have to be in the place to get a read. She tries to have a vision but fails. No points lost.

Thann and Cholum split from the rest of the party and move forward about 1/4 mile Tracking rolls indicate not much around other than animals (not dangerous ones).

When you get close you can see an old dwarven path leading up there and clear evidence it used to be a dwarf residence of some kind. The cave opening is about 20 yards across, a big natural cave, but the floor has been altered and the approach has been improved. Inside, there are probably some rooms built off the side of the cave.

No sign of any inhabitants.

[Grendelthebrave]

Cholum will stay and watch, but send Thann back to get Milly and Chevo. Once the party is together they will approach the cave, slowly and carefully, to try and see what the story is.
Marching order is Cholum and Chevo up front, once they get within ~30' of the cave, Cholum will stow his bow and switch to his mace.
Milly in the centre, and Thann holding up the rear with his shortbow.

Once they enter the cave, Milly will try a Place Read again.

[Longman]

Just changing things a bit - I've realised that you would have been aware of this place previously, but no one has been up here in many years - it's too far away from Greyforge.

But you did already know that there was a meeting place in a cave, for dwarf and Aleut people, back before the goblins invaded the area. You have now found that cave.

Still, you approach in the manner that you have described.

Tracking rolls reveal that humans (almost certainly Aleut) have been here recently, but no recent sign of monsters or goblins.

When you get to the cave, you see that it extends back into the hill about 120', narrowing and losing height as it goes, and that a dwarf-made stair goes up inside. There is one large tunnel off to the left after about 60'.

It's not a bad place to camp and there is the remains of a small fire near the entrance.

Milly eventually gets a place read on the cave - lose a SP - and she sees some Aleut traders holed up here around the fire, including the one you already spoke with. Very much as expected.

However, there is a 5th member of the group who did not seem to be present in Greyforge. That extra member is a younger Aleut man, slightly built, but still wearing the same clothes as the rest. He was sitting on a rock by the fire, and Milly sees another Aleut human giving him a plate of food.

Looks like the Aleut traders wanted to keep his presence a secret, for some reason. They said very clearly there was only 4 of them who made the trip.

You still haven't explored the back of the cave yet, or the dwarf-made tunnel.

[Grendelthebrave]

Suspicious about the 'secret' fifth Aleut, Milly will inform the others about the details of her vision.(Gotsta stay useful right?) The next move will be to explore the back of the cave, followed by the Dwarven made tunnel. The expedition into the tunnel will follow the 'standard' marching order with Cholum in Melee mode with his mace.

[Longman]

The back of the cave has nothing at all - - track rolls reveal that goblins have been back here, years ago, and used the place as a toilet - but apart from that, nothing.

The tunnel only goes down about 10' before you see the place where a dwarf-made wooden door has been ripped off its hinges and now lies on the floor. Beyond that lies a 25' long corridor with two decent sized living areas (20x20) off to either side. These have stone shelves, stone central tables, and carved ledges for beds, and even small airholes leading to the surface. But apart from that, they are empty and have obviously been stripped bare at some point, probably by goblins, or by the dwarves who abandoned them.

It does not look like the Aleut have been coming in here. It is dwarf sized. A good fit for 3 of you but Milly has to stoop a bit.

Good place to hole up if you need it.

[Grendelthebrave]

Well, we're at least 2.5 EP in today, so this would probably be a wise place to hole up.

The party will rest. Milly will insist on first watch, and that they do three hour watches so that she can get her beauty sleep. Humans, the others grumble, but agree. Watch order: Milly, Cholum, Chevo, Thann.

While Milly is on watch, she'll settle herself, dig deep, and meditate (despite how she should be watching for threats), hoping to receive some vision of the caves...

[Longman]

The rules for Milly's spellcasting are that she can do it automatically if she has five minutes, but in combat shee has to roll each round. In this case she can get a place read.

She sees a large humanoid sitting in this very cave, at some unknown time. It looks like this:



That's fine chain mail for a humanoid. Even Milly knows that.

Later, she also has a VERY vivid dream. One of her best ever. She, Cholum and Chevo are climbing up a mountain path. She wonders where Thann is and looks over to see that he is riding above them on the back of a giant owl.

Then, out of nowhere, a wicked looking flying blue humanoid creature appears and begins firing blasts of ice at the owl. It is about 3' tall and appears to be made of ice. She keeps the dream going and looks around her, trying to establish where she is, and realises she is on the north face of the mountain of Awen, trying to go onto the temples by a back road.

Then the dream ends (no spell points).

Meanwhile...there are no encounters overnight.

It's the 13th. And it is still raining, but nothing you can't handle.

[Grendelthebrave]

Wow, that sounds fun

Milly will tell the Dwarves about her vision and dream, Thann will probably pale slightly at the thought of riding around on the back of the owl.

The party will move on, keeping an eye out for any well equipped huge humanoids around.

The party will continue along the side road to J01. Here the group will try to find the spot they camped at earlier when they encountered the Morulchabhan on their previous expedition.
The group will search the southern part of the hex pretty thoroughly, 3EP.
That's 3.5EP, they'll continue slowly into K02 next for 2EP and a campsite.

[Longman]

You get to J01 and explore the hex thoroughly. You have already done quite a bit of exploring here - the additional 3EP now means you know this hex extremey well.

You find an old pit trap rigged up along a false path leading from the main road. The real path has been obscured and milestones removed - you already knew that before. The false path leads to a 20x20 wide pit, that is about 15'deep and had wooden spikes at the bottom. This looks like goblin work. There are rocks nearby from which they could have launched an ambush. But the whole thing hasn't been used in years.

Moving on into K02 - another hex you now know pretty well - you find a large dismembered deer, in the woods some distance from the road. Much of the meat has been eaten. Cholum's tracking roll indicate that this was probably the work of the behir - but unfortunately, he can't follow the tracks from this spot.

You have .5 EP remaining. Remember, you can spend additional EP at the end of the day provided you spend less the next day - or you run the risk of getting exhausted.

Do you camp around here or move on?

[Grendelthebrave]

We'll power through for a little extra distance today. For another EP, the party will move into L02, and spend the an 0.5 EP trying to find a decent camp spot, and hopefully Cholum will stumble onto some useful tracks.