The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (Game Thread VII)

[Breila]

"Let's stay on this side of the small river, turning west" Babushka suggests. "Ulster, how much light do you have left?"

[JadedDM]

"Plenty for now," Ulster says, looking at the torch.

Assuming there are no objections, the party heads west. The tunnel slowly curves northward for about forty feet before branching off into two directions. There is a path north and another path to the west that seems to curve to the south.

"Kiri-Jolith's axe, this place just goes on forever, doesn't it?" Ulster mutters.

[Breila]

"Yes, it seems so" Babushka answers, bending down to check if there are any traces to guide them in either direction.

1d20=4, success

(ooc: hey, invisible castle is running again!)

[JadedDM]

Searching very, very carefully, Babushka finds scant evidence to suggest that someone--or something--in the past 24 hours has exited from the northern passage and entered the western passage.

=============================

(OOC: Oh, good. I was worried it might be down for good, which would have been difficult, to say the least.)

[Jenara]

"What do you see?" Locky asks looking in to the river, wondering what fish might be in there..

[Breila]

"Someone might have come from the north and gone west during the last 24 hours" Babushka tells the others.
"I can't be sure, but that's all the indication we have. The northern passage may well connect to the vat room or the passages we already know, so the shroom may have passed here and not through where we went now.

So, do we go west?"

[Jerrard]

"West, I trust your tracking skills far better than my own judgement down here my dear." Jerrad smiles, patting her shoulder fondly, grinning.

"Locky" He motions to the west.

[Jenara]

"Of course!" Locky bounces to the west, hoopak in hand, she couldnt wait to see the Shroom, to see you had seen a talking Mushroom!! She was a little concerned over the fact they might die, but you couldn't have everything.

She heads onwards to the west, moving as quietly as she can

(Move silently: 1d100=32 Pass)

[JadedDM]

Locky sneaks ahead of everyone else, her infravision allowing her to see even in the darkness.

The cavern to the west makes a sharp turn to the south for about forty feet, then curves west ten feet, before turning north and opening up into a larger tunnel. This cavern is not more than twenty feet wide, with many clusters of stalactites hanging from the low ceiling. There is a pool about twenty feet into the cavern, surrounded by tall stalagmites.

At the very end of the tunnel, about fifty feet in, is a dead-end. But it is not empty. The Shroom is there, muttering to itself, while cultivating two pods hanging from the ceiling (each holding a full grown podman). Two additional podmen stand at guard while he works.

[Breila]

Babushka, having followed Locky closely as usual, turns back to the men and murmurs: "There's a dead end ahead. The shroom is there, with two podmen standing guard and two pods that seem ready to open. How many ranged weapons do we have?"

[Jenara]

"We have my Hoopak." Locky announces, "The number of Podmen were a little bit of a worry, I am not scared, us Kender never get scared, but.. The Shroom is rather funny isn't he?"

[JadedDM]

"Also, this bow," Ulster says, taking out Jerrard's bow. The string is broken, so he attempts to tie it back together.

[Breila]

"And my sling... that might just give us the advantage we need to beat them" Babushka adds. "Let's see if we can get the bow repaired before we attack, then."

(ooc: do the podmen look like those Babushka has encountered before, or are they the "elite" kind she didn't meet yet?)

[JadedDM]

(OOC: The regular kind. Elite podmen take too long to grow. I've been adding to this little group every time the party took a rest after Jerrard fought him the first time.)

[Breila]

Babushka thinks for a moment while the men attempt to repair the bow. Last time she used her sling, she had put away the staff in a place where she couldn't reach it as melee began... and she doesn't like to make the same mistake twice. She goes back to look at the situation more closely, to make a plan.

Do they need to cross the pool to get within shooting range, or is there a way around it?