Part One: The End of the Road

[ybn1197]

Gebhart dashes inside the opening left by the secret door and begins to look for the mechanism that will close the door off, theoretically protecting him from whatever may be rising out of the rat tunnels on the other side.

Huxley shrugs and flexes his muscles preparing himself for the battle to come. He draws his mace and grins widely. For the glory of Torm I confront my adversaries without fear, he thinks to himself.

[MajorRoy]

Évariste says "Catch, dear!", hands the crossbow and some quarrels to Carouge and draws his rapier and dagger. He takes position next to Huxley. "Hell belongs to heroes, eh?" he says and matches Huxleys grin.

Carouge takes position next to the statue in front of the doorway, in the second rank compared to the line of Huxley and Évariste, seeking a clear line of fire to whatever emerges from rat hole. This went the expected way a bit earlier than expected she thinks and takes aim.

[coil23]

Boo, who is short enough to be very near large rats when they emerge, is in favor of running. Let's get down those stairs and close the door after!

Tun stands near the statue uncertainly. The noises from the burrow sound exciting but Boo seems alarmed. He looks to the gnome for guidance.

[Pulpatoon]

Coat of Nine-Hides maintains her position at the base of the statue, tense and alert. If the party opts to go down the stairs, she will cover their exit. She'll back down slowly, in a wary retreat.

[Griffith]

Four giant rats burst forth from the rat-hole!

As soon as the diseased, over-sized rodents appear, Carouge aims her crossbow and fires. Needed a 12, rolled a 15. Damage 4. The quarrel hits the rat right between its eyes, killing it instantly!

Coat of Nine-Hides and Tun rush to the other side of the canyon, the rats are only seconds behind them.

Gebhart and Boo fling themselves into the doorway. Gebhart scurries to locate the moon stone and presses it. The stone slab slides shut. Gebhart and Boo catch only a glimpse of the rats before the door closes leaving them in the total darkness of the stairwell.

Tun, Huxley, Brother Dumphey, Carouge, Evariste, and Coat of Nine-Hides are left to face the rats.

Coat of Nine-Hides tries to gain higher ground on the base of the statue, but there is not enough room to properly stand in a defensive stance. She sets her spear against the base of the statue and braces for the charging rats. Needed a 9, rolled a 12. Damage 6. As a crazed rat leaps for her throat, she spears it thru its guts killing it instantly!

The remaining two rats close in; one heading for Tun, the other heading for Huxley.

Tun, Huxley, Dumphey, Carouge, and Evariste have the initiative.

[MajorRoy]

Évariste attacks any rat in range with his sword.

Carouge draws her hammer and advances to attack any rat in range.

[coil23]

Tun bellows in rage at how the rats have ruined his fine wall of rocks. I made that!! He swings his polearm at the nearest rat in retribution, keeping his shield at the ready to ward off their claws and teeth.

Boo is horrified that Tun and the others are still out there. I meant for us all to escape, not for us to hide! We must get out there! His stomach turns at the thought but he will not leave that bellowing child out there to be mauled by vermin. He reaches out to press the lever again to open the door so he can join the fray.

Apologies if I missed the announcement before but I take it the DM will be making all rolls for us?

[Pulpatoon]

Brother Dumphey shrieks and puts his back against the rock embankments so that the rats can't get behind him. He swats at the filthy beasts with his mace like a housemaid swatting mice with a broom.

[ybn1197]

Seeing Évariste use the pole-arm with success, Brother Huxley positions himself as best he can to provide shield coverage for Évariste and himself. He then swings his mace with all his might at the approaching swarm, hoping to send as many of the vermin as possible back into the oblivion that spawned them.

[Griffith]

Tun, the massive ogre-kin, hammers a rat with his pole arm and smashes it to a pulp! Needed an 11, rolled an 18. Damage 4.

Huxley swings his mace with all his might and bashes in the skull of the remaining rat. Needed an 11, rolled a 17. Damage 3.

The stone slab slides open again. Boo and Gebhart rush out to a battle that is already over.

[Pulpatoon]

Coat of Nine-Hides pushes skewered rat off her spear with her foot. With preening satisfaction, she says, "I warned them there was a tiger out here!"

To Boo and Gebhart, she says, "How does it look in there? Worth exploring? It smell's like where the rat-king can't reach."

Brother Dumphey catches his breath and warily peers around, expecting rats to leap out again at any second.

[coil23]

Boo had been patting Tun reassuringly on the leg as the enormous 1/2 ogre cleaned off the blade of his polearm. Everyone is ok, I see. Though it will only get worse from here, I'm sure. We didn't have a chance to investigate downward but I'd say it is just as dangerous as any other option- though we can close the door behind us and not have to worry about the rats coming up behind us at least.

[MajorRoy]

Évariste sheaths his rapier a bit disappointed. Directed to Carouge he says:
"Nice shot dear. You should have the rest of the quarrels, so could I take the sling and the pouch with stones." He hands her the quiver with quarrels and takes the sling and stones.

Directed to the others he clears his throat and says:"The humanoid tracks continues up the ramp, to the main doorway. Prudence demands that we at least examine it before we reject it. Remember, there's rat tracks leading to the hidden door also, so one should assume there are more of this filth down that way, and our quarry has supposedly humanoid feet."

Carouge reloads the crossbow silently, then follows the humanoid tracks carefully up the ramp, trying to deduce if Nigh has been through here and at the same time trying to avoid any traps.

[Pulpatoon]

Coat of Nine-Hides recognizes the practicality of Évariste's words, and nods assent. But before turning to the main entrance, she spends an extra moment examining the secret door and its mechanism—both to cement its location in her mind, and to try to determine how or if rats could work the moon-button. "The rats may be actively allied with the caves two-legged denizens."

She then joins Carouge investigating the cave entrance before cautiously entering.

Brother Dumphey sidles up to Tun and says with quiet pride, "I helped push a button."

[Griffith]

A thin layer of snow has covered everything and continues to fall steadily. Carouge with some difficulty is still able to follow the humanoid tracks up the ramp. She sees no other tracks other than those made by the humanoids. The ramp is made of compacted earth and stone. At the top of the ramp, the path becomes solid rock --the rock from which the mines are carved. It will be nearly impossible for Carouge or Coat of Nine-Hides to follow tracks in the stone and rock hallways of the mines.

Coat of Nine-Hides spends an extra moment examining the secret door and its mechanism. She sees that the button is approximately 5' from the floor, too high for rats to activate. The button is made of stone and blends in well with the stone of the passageway, becoming indiscernible until someone sees the shape of the button.

Coat of Nine-Hides joins Carouge at the top of the ramp (A). They peer into the dark entrance. About 100' north they can see flickering light --torch light?-- at the end of the tunnel. On the floor of the passage way is a layer of sticks and leaves. This layer of debris is rather thick, covering the length of the floor entirely. To the experienced eyes of Carouge and Coat of Nine-Hides it is clear that this debris was not blown in here naturally by the wind, rather someone placed this debris here deliberately.

(B)= rat hole
(C)= secret door behind statue

[coil23]

Boo motions for Tun to stand back a moment and the gnome carefully inspects the sticks and litter layer on the ground. This could be a trap or merely a layer to create noise to alert those further in. The gnome investigates for any possible traps or likely uses for the litter on the path.

[MajorRoy]

Carouge nods in agreement and helps to carefully examine the reason for the layer of litter.

Évariste says "The idea to block the rat hole is sound, we should do that before more of them comes. They seem to be sensitive to sound though, so doing it silently is prudent." He takes guard half way upp the ramp above the rat hole with the sling at the ready. Blasted cold. This is taking to long. he thinks and shivers.

[ybn1197]

Brother Huxley thinks that the others are right but hesitates before following, his parents always warned him to confer with others before making decisions on his own. He looks to Gebhart to see what the wizard is doing and whether they should follow the others to the top of the trail.

Gebhart looks back at the tunnel, at least they knew there would be rats in the tunnels. The other way was a complete unknown, they had no idea as to what they would encounter that way. But as the others seemed intent on taking that path, he grudgingly follows; Brother Huxley follows Gebhart in turn.

[Pulpatoon]

Coat of Nine-Hides backs quietly out of the Mine entrance to confer with the others. "I suggest Carouge and I scout ahead first, see what's lit that torch. You can get to work stacking stones, if thats are your druther. Don't go anywhere until we report back." She looks to Carouge. "Do you agree?"

[ybn1197]

Brother Huxley timidly raises his hand. "Why would we stack stones? Is that needed for something? Do we need to defend this entrance?"