RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

[Longman]

Bruce drinks half a healing potion. That's a dose. You found these on August 13th. They still look OK - not like the last ones you had, that went off. It still tastes pretty bad though.

"Tastes like nettles!" he says. "And sprouts! And I hate nettles! And sprouts!"

Bruce doesn't feel much better straight away. You might have to wait for a full rest period - i.e. - all day.

Fido doesn't know what Talin is on about because there would not have been room for him to get into melee, and he is more of a decoy dog anyway.

Freya and Abigall go scouting. They get to the first set of alcoves and find them empty - it looks like each alcove could hold two of the robots so you have effectively cleared this area. You think there are only 2 left.

Freya peeks her head round the corridor leading northward from the intersection, just ling enough to see that the last alcove (on the left of the corridor) is empty. Then, one of the robots attempts to shoot her from the doorway of the room to the right hand side.

She is surprised! It was faster than expected. Nonetheless, she had good cover and it misses her. She ducks back around the corner again.

So now you know they're in the room. You are holed up in the portcullis area, off the bridge.

[Woe]

Dang it! I'm now pinned and can't get back to the relative safety of the bridge. Thinking back though, nobody was shot while on the creek. It might be safe to climb down, bolt across using the bridge as cover, and then climb back up. If I were to attempt that, would the golems have a good angle on the climbers?

I'm not sure which option yet.

Option A:
They're best off holed up here until they recover. The party will camp here for a bit (an hour or two?) and tend to their wounds, mainly rest until Bruce gets better. The rest will make two barricades, one on each side, as best they can. Freya and Abigall can watch one side while Anna and Tiana watch the other. Kilian and Talin can do the heavy lifting. Fido watches everything, and Bruce rests.

Option B:
Can Tiana raise those deflector shields again? If she did, could the entire party safely cross within the spell duration (three rounds)?

[Longman]

Switch all power to front deflector shields...

You could all get back across in 2 round, easy. One spell point. They never fired at you while the shield device was up.

Option 2 - your best guess is about 8 hours for max effect on the healing potion. It will be going on dark by the time you are rested - not that it matters down here. Your light helmets are still going strong.

Option 3 - climb down and go back across that way. Perfectly feasible.

Up to you. You don't know what the robots are programmed to do if you hang about over the west side for that long. Or, whether the wormies will come back either.

[Woe]

Ok then, since the immediate danger is gone, you called it... full power to the deflector shields!

I'm assuming Bruce is capable of walking and running on his own (> 1hp). If not, there's an option below.

Tiana will raise the deflectors. The same round, everyone will cross to the other barricade. Tiana will be last. If Bruce needs a hand, Kilian and Talin will take him across (favorite option but only if they can also cross before the deflectors fall) or Tiana will spend another spell point to cast her floating disc (want to avoid that if possible). But the goal is for everyone to cross safely before the deflectors fall.

Once safely safe on the other side of the barricade, the party will:
- be careful to not disturb the skeleton
- Bruce will camp out in the secret room. Does the door open/close inward?
- Kilian and Talin will strengthen the barricade, careful to not be in the shooting arc.
- Freya will help the boys with their wall.
- Tiana will study the map a bit, see if she can figure out how the various maps are connected.
- Fido, Anna, and Abigall can stand watch while the wall goes up.

Once the barricade is reinforced, the guards will stay in the front room (with the skeleton, which creeps out Kilian and Freya a bit).

I hope Fido doesn't get hungry and go for a bone!

Watch order (extra watches, but they have a lot of time to kill today):
Tiana, Anna, Kilian
Talin, Freya, Abigall, Fido
Kilian, Freya, Tiana
Anna, Talin, Abigall, Fido

Speaking of killing time, Tiana will spend a lot of time with the staff, goggles, and inscription tools. She'll ask Abigall for help if she has any suggestions. Talin will do what he can with the Sadar text. He'll borrow the goggles to see if they help. He'll spend some time with Anna, make sure her morale is still high. Kilian will look around the place a bit more to see if he can make anything like a gallery (mobile barricade/siege tower). If Abigall wants to try scouting back across the passage and up to the other room, great!

[Longman]

Everyone runs back across the bridge under cover while Tiana raises the wooden shield object once again. Yep, Bruce can run. He's got a hit point, he could climb Everest.

And it works fine. You are all back across. The untouched skeleton lies there mysteriously.

The secret door opens inwards. Barricade was already as good as you could make it.

Tiana is increasingly sure this map is not connected to the others. But, she thinks the others are all connected to each other. Maybe, this is a different place?

No further info on the magic items. Kilian has totally run out of stuff to make stuff with - you have used up all the furniture that was already in the dungeon.

Talin + Sader text - no joy either. This is still the best you have...

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1579&p=45623&hilit=sader#p45623

One thing though...between Talin and Tiana you do manage to work out that modern Sader and the older language of the diary you have just found in this dungeon are related.

Tiana thinks that Sader = the modern version of Salenish. Salen was one of the main human kingdoms, from before the goblin invasions. The language of the diary is Salenish.

Any more language stuff will have to done either by spending skill points, or hiring a sage. If you went down to Sader (the southern kingdom) you might be able to find someone to help you.

You have no encounters for 8 hours. Bruce gets back 6 hp. Everyone else gets back 2 hp. It is evening time.

PS - no, Abigall does not want to go across the bridge without you...

[Woe]

More rest. Did Kilian learn anything while tinkering with the constructs?

[Longman]

Kilian investigates the constructs and finds a lot of stuff that is very much beyond his comprehension. According to him, their joints should not be able to move, but they do anyway. They are entirely made of metal - some kind of allow - except for a reservoir of magical liquid in the arms which serve as some kind of supply for the magic weapon. Of the 4 you have killed, 2 had completely run out of this, and 2 only had a small amount remaining. They also have runes carved in them of the old human magic variety, that we can now call Salenish Magic.

In the nighttime, you all retreat to the secret room, and that's just as well because another one of the giant worms comes into the dungeon and crawls around like last time.

You are going to fight it or wait it out?

Incidentally, you will have to wait until the afternoon of tomorrow - Friday Aug 29 - before you gain another 2 hp each. You won't get back any tonight - I already gave them to you.

[Woe]

I'm going to wait it out because I don't think I can get potshots off and keep the door shut both. Could I? If "everyone but Talin" was holding the door "mostly shut" and it was stakes down with the iron spikes, would the door be secure from worm battering?

[Longman]

It would be the same as last time - if you open the door, it will get to attack you. You can't arrange things so that you get to take pot shots, and then close the door when it's time for the the worm to have its go.

You can certainly keep the door closed against it - it will have no chance of getting in. But the problem is, it might do what the last one did and just curl up near where it thinks the food is at.

[Woe]

It would be the same as last time - if you open the door, it will get to attack you. You can't arrange things so that you get to take pot shots, and then close the door when it's time for the the worm to have its go.

That wasn't quite what I had in mind. Close, but not quite. If I open the door an inch, Talin would be able to fire arrows outside, but with a limited firing angle. The worm would be able to have an action, but if the door doesn't move, it'd need to use an attack vector that was one inch wide. It could be a tongue, a gaze, poisonous spit. But if the door held fast (big if, but part of my original question), the one thing it shouldn't be able to do is get a full attack. Right?

PS I'm pretty sure I have no choice but to attack it or use the pickaxes to tunnel to another area. I'm just working out the tactic I want to try opposed to "open door, attack!"