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Turning his gaze south, the Ranger nods. I agree, Brother, the rats know more than we, and something sent them off.

Zafalia watches the rats go with a smile of appreciation. She makes a quick flourish of her tiny hobbit hands and proffers a gesture of thanks to the Oerth Mother before stowing her rations and gathering her weapons and gear. Once ready, the little druidess turns and assesses the others waiting patiently for her report. She nods, takes a deep breath and begins.

"I have learned a few things that I am hopeful will help us with our mission, friends...

"Firstly, about the layout of this place. It appears there are two more levels below this one. The rats have never really ventured to the lowest one, so have no helpful information about it. But they do know much about the level just below us. This is where we will likely find the dark master of this underground complex. The rats refer to him as the Mushroom.

"He is apparently an intelligent entity, perhaps part mushroom and part man. He uses magic to create things, such as the leaf-people. I believe these to be the creatures that we encountered when we first entered this place, and perhaps saw being grown in the pod room back yonder. The rats tell me the Mushroom maintains a kind of laboratory down there, where it keeps vials and papers and such, and conducts dark experiments. This, I fear, is the ultimate reason the villagers are being abducted," she explains, pausing to look about to everyone gathered.

"He keeps them in cages. If there are any still alive, that is where we will likely find them. I understand he mushes them up to feed or fertilize the leaf-men pods. Sometimes he puts one in a pod and creates a stronger, deadlier version of the leaf men. The rats were certain to warn me about those. They also mentioned a big, tall green one in one of those cages. The Mushroom apparently cuts off its arm to use in his experiments and it grows another, as a troll would. There are no other animals on that level that the rats know of, but that is also where it keeps the sad tree man imprisoned!" At this point, the little druid's eyes smolder with fury and her tiny knuckles go white on both spear and shield. "He keeps this sad tree man chained up just beyond the others, in a natural cavern area. I do not know who or what this tree man really is, but I have my suspicions. Regardless of whether they be true or not, we must seek him out. We need to know for sure!"

"Anyway, the rats tell me the only way we can access the next level is by another waterfall. They said it was that way" she explains, pointing southward. "Once below, we go down the tunnel to get to the prisoners. They should be on the right, where the river splits. The rats say not to dwell there long and to be wary of the big green one in the cage. The sad tree is chained up in the natural caverns down the other way. That is also likely where the Mushroom will be. The rats said he has many leaf-men there, so we will need to be cautious! Perhaps that would be a good place for Odo to steal forward and take a look at things? It would be well to our chances to know the layout of the chamber and exactly what we'll be up against.

"I think that covers it for the most part, friends" she concludes, taking another deep breath and looking around expectantly to the party to gauge their reactions.

The Ranger nods. This day has been short, but extremely taxing.

"I would be glad of a chance to rest and pray," agrees Wulfgard.

"Yes, we should allow the casters to rest. I can stand guard, I have no need for much sleep." Al'Zur offers.

Zafalia is raring to rush down the waterfall straight away and kill the evil mushroom. She does concede that it makes sense to meet the thing at full strength but also not to lose the element of surprise, if it can still be had.

"I cannot argue your points, nor do I necessarily disagree, but I am fearful that if there are any villagers left alive, they may meet a terrible doom whilst we tarry and regroup.

"There may still be the chance that the Mushroom is not aware of our presence here. If he does not know that we've slain his mad trees, we may yet still maintain the element of surprise! If he discovers them burned and destroyed, he'll know we were here or still are. If he sends his leaf men after us we can become surrounded or have to flee. I still have two cure light wounds spells. I vote we take the initiative and use the element of surprise while we still can!" she says shaking her hobbit spear and shield in a adrenaline rush of druidic revenge.

"I am not asking any one of you to involuntarily throw your lives away here, friends. If it looks too difficult, we fall back and set a trap while we consider other strategies. We can rest and heal further then. What say you?"

"I say we push on," Ilhalevar says, soggy staff in hand.

Odo looks at the big folks

"Aye, I am with you no matter the group decides. I am ready to go, but I like to have spells for me, and I can understand if the arcane types might need to study up, from what I understand it is a taxing profession, looking at books, reading, saying the right things at the right time with the correct flourish of the hands.

OOC: Forward ho!

The Ranger waits to hear everyone's words. I shall not cast a word against the entire party. He lowers his torch and inspects the floor area for sign.

Seeing everyone appears to want to press on Varkos moves to lead off
"Which way shall we go?" he rumbles

"Down the rabbit hole as the rats said. I for one am ready to dice a mushroom up." Al'Zur responds

Wulfgard bows his head in acquiescence to the will of the party and follows along.

.

Day 2 – 12:08 p


.

The party reforms into marching order (check below let me know if anything needs to change) and heads down the southern passageway.

This tunnel continues downward at a fairly steep slope. Stalagmites rise from the tunnel’s uneven floor, and
the party has to duck beneath stalactite growths in places. At times finding it necessary to squeeze past areas where the stalagmites and stalactites have grown together into pillars.

You follow the stream which moves swiftly down the passage. It goes south for only about 10 feet, then it pretty sharply turns left (west) and goes another 60' before twisting south again. Going almost 50' south until the passage ends in a T. The stream splits and goes east and west. Eastward it seems to bend south after only about 20' or so, westward it seems to go straight for about 25' and then take a quick turn south. The east passage seems to go off into quiet and dark. The west passage is dark as well, but you can just barely hear a familiar sound in the distance... sort of like the fish mincer, though perhaps larger?

!


HPs: Varkos - 16/22; Ilhalevar - 8/8; Al'Zur- 5/7; SoT - 19/25; Wulfgard - 10/12; Zafalia - 11/11
WIH: Varkos: long sword; Ilhalevar: quarterstaff; Al'Zur: long sword; SoT: Spear, shield; Wulfgard: staff; Zafalia: spear, shield;
MO (10’): Zafalia; Varkos; Ilhalevar; Al'Zur; SoT; Wulfgard
Consumables: Hooded lantern (Zafalia) - 4 hours left (off), 30' radius; Torch, 60 minutes (SoT) OUT, 40' radius; lamp 20 minutes (Wulfgard) 20’ radius; Torch, 60 minutes Zafalia, 40’ radius OUT.
--------Spells: Ilhalevar: 1-1/1; Al'Zur: 1-1/1; Wulfgard: 1-2/4; Zafalia: 1-4/4, 2-2/3
.

.

The Ranger silently calls halt. His head moves this way and that as if he wants to make certain of what his readings mean before he relates them to the party. The only sign I can see is that of scarecrows. No rats, spiders, nothing but scarecrows. He stares toward the T intersection, awaiting instructions.

Zafalia nods to Son of Thunder before leaning over and whispering to Odo.

"Cousin. We're looking for that waterfall going down to the next level. Perhaps you could steal forward and take a look down the westward passage?"


OOC: Ron, just confirming that our only light source is Wulfgard's lantern?

POP: Not seeing Odo marked in the lower section of the last action post. In regards to the notes for caster notated spells: Zaf cast one 1st level spell (speak with animals on rats) and one 2nd level spell (cure light wounds on SoT). Notated on character sheet.

Ilhalevar is ready to move forward whenever everyone else is...