RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

[Woe]

"Oh look! Chess pieces! Do any of you play chess?" says Freya as she looks more closely at the sets. She'll then add that to the party pool of stuff to carry, as well as the dice. Tiana will mark "kitchen" on her map as well as the Elvish character for "treasure" (looks like $).Tiana will take a look at the book and see if she can understand the language, or even the intent of the book. Cookbook from ancient Corin?

Are the cushions rotted? Anything inside other than bugs?

Apparently with no other ways out of the kitchen, the elves will do a sweep for secret doors. Finding none, they'll take the stairs down from balcony to (other).

[Longman]

Tiana is not sure of the book's language at this point. Some of you probably do play chess, but not the ancient version of the game you have just found. Incidentally nothing in the room is magical. Nothing in the cushions, which almost fall apart when you pick them up.

I'm cutting to the chase here because it turns out nothing is living in these rooms so you can explore the eastern half of the underground level and find the following:

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Leading off one of the rooms is a secret door which Freya sees instantly. The other two would have missed it. You have not been inside that room yet. The door is not magical, but it is locked.

The other areas are all empty, save for one large hall that contains a skeleton of a human in old robes lying on the floor, head facing east. That room is also quite ornate, with more mosaics and bench seats, and glazed pots where plants used to grow, still filled with very dusty earth. Some have fallen apart.

To the south-west of the map is an old metal portcullis, in an up position. Beyond that seems to be a much larger space, an open chasm of some kind, with a flat stone bridge leading across it. You have not seen the other side yet. You haven't really been far into the skeleton room yet.

I'm saying that currently, everyone is bunched up around the secret door with Talin and Anna keeping an eye out behind. Tell me if this is otherwise.

[Longman]

Talin recognises a few words in the old manuscript found earlier. The words are 'Game' and 'Win'. Not that many words, but enough to indicate that this text might be a very archaic version of Sader. The script is very perplexing, and that is all he can get.

Backtracking a bit - he may never have looked at the book found in the treehouse. It was also in modern Sader, plus some stuff in code. Do you still have that on you? It looks like you do from your loot list. Maybe he should check that out more carefully once you are out of the dungeon.

[Woe]

The code book: He does, but he's been so busy and books are never things he thinks about doing when Anna is around to distract him.

Hmm... maybe this was a throne or reception room. Can we tell how did the skeleton die? Freya will look at the lock, then ask Anna to come over. Maybe she should tackle this one. Kilian will admire the stonework and want to check out the bridge, but not quite yet (with the door unresolved).

And yes, the party will bunch up when evaluating a room. When walking, Freya will be outside of light range (50' from the torch, right?).

[Longman]

The lock on the secret door first:

Anna tries to pick it and...fails, although she senses she was not far off.

"It's harder than the other ones we have encountered," she says hopefully.

Freya tries it and...also fails.

Approaching the skeleton...it was wearing a kind of leather outfit with a geometric pattern design, now rotted away, and had a helmet on its head the same as the ones you have so far seen, only this one has a small disc of blue stone set into the space you saw on the other helmets. It had a curved sword, now rusted, and a scabbard for it. If you want to know how it died, you will have to take it to bits and see where the bones are broken.

No sign of a throne in that room. This looks like 'hangout' rooms in a palace. Kilian is admiring of the stone work but thinks the mosaics and other stuff is a later overlay by a different culture, with very bad taste. But overall it is very sound structurally.

The portcullis, now you near it, looks rusted beyond all use or repair. It is not magical. From what you can hear, the space on the other side is quite large, and there is water below the bridge, although not much, trickling slowly.

Kilian and Bruce are now at the skeleton. Freya and Anna are at the secret door. The others are where you say they are. Mouse girl has decided to stick close to Tiana, wherever she is.

[Woe]

Kilian will take the helmet and ask Abigall whether it's magical. "Hmpf." he says in reply to her response. He'll look at the skeleton again, then walk over to the bridge with Bruce.

Freya joins the dwarves at the bridge, then comments on the difficulty of the lock. Kilian will go back and try to decide whether the door can be bashed down quickly with the pickaxe.

Talin will be keeping guard, and Tiana will be busy scribbling notes.

[Longman]

Helmet - magical. Disc - not magical.

'Hmpf' says Kilian.

'Thanks mister,' says Abigall in Sylvan. Tiana translates the first, not the second.

Door to area now marked 'STASH' could be bashed down with a good old fashioned door opening roll (p.37.), meaning characters have a 1 in 10 chance, plus strength bonus, on a d10.

The original bridge is obviously dwarf work and Kilian nearly weeps at all the needless carvings and additions that have been added on in the same geometric style.

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It goes about 30 feet over the other side of the chasm. Beyond that it hits another portcullis which is also up.

The chasm ceiling is about 15 feet above your heads and the floor slopes down to about 20 feet below you. It looks like at some point, much more water flowed through here. Kilian thinks that water could flood in at any time. Right now, the stream below is a dirty, patchy trickle wending its way through the rocky chasm floor. The sides are not that steep. You could easily get off the bridge and walk around down there.

To the south off the map, it looks like it continues at about the same height and depth. To the north, you can't see past the map extents.

[Woe]

I cannot pass up a room that states "stash"

WIth Anna's help, Kilian will take a look at the lock mechanism. Is it possible to use the pickaxe for some finesse work? Rather than bashing down the whole door, can they disable the lock so they can push it open?

Meanwhile, Tiana and Abigall can take watch. If they have to push the door open, it might take Bruce and Talin as well.

[Longman]

I'll give Kilian a go at that...it's a dismal fail. It's also a well made door.

You'll have to bash it down. Or, use another Knock spell?

Tiana, Abigall and Fido are on watch up the back. Kilian has been striding up and down between bridge and secret door, with Bruce in tow.

When you said Kilian looked at the skeleton, did you mean he moved it to see how it died? Otherwise he just sees what I said before.

[Woe]

Bummer on the roll

Yes, Kilian would have looked closely at the dead human. He wouldn't have necessarily disturbed the bones, but definitely would have looked more closely than 10' away.

Tiana will cast knock if that's the only option left to them, but I worry that something first happens with the skeleton.

Nobody crosses the bridge, or even goes outside of the room.