Chapter 2 - Getting to the bottom of it?

[Chris1234]

Woody scuttles back behind Jim, taking his Mage Hand and staff with him.
Jim stands guard.
Sue throws a dagger into the central mass of filaments (off to the the party's left). There is no overt response.
The screeching noise continues from somewhere ahead.

What next?

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Where has Woody moved the Mage Hand (and staff) to?
Another 1d12 roll, please

[counterkid]

Woody moved it back to his hand and turned off the light spell.

[counterkid]

[1d12] = 3 for the d12

[Nocturno]

"Excuse me gentlemen." Sue will move towards the barrier. He will pick out his Glaive as he moves. If nothing changes or stops him he will start trying to cut a space in the fungus the size of the pathway.

[Chris1234]

Sue moves steadily, passing Woody and then Jim, pulling out his glaive as he does so to close most of the fifty feet to the gray biomass. The screeching persists. The general debris on the three foot wide path and generous coating of slime makes the terrain difficult.
Sue raises his polearm ready to strike at the fungal barrier some ten feet in front of him.

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50' of difficult terrain = 3 rounds of careful movement.
(Dash requires an easy Acrobatics skill check).
3 wanderer checks [1d12] = 1, [1d12] = 2, [1d12] = 2

***
Anyone want to do anything else while Sue advances?

[counterkid]

Woody will move into 20 feet of Sue expecting Jim to be in front of him.
Woody will fire a ray of frost is things go wrong for Sue.

[Chris1234]

Sewer 12' wide.png (15.62 KiB) Viewed 9319 times

Key: 2.5' squares. Blue = sewer liquids, dark brown = 3' wide walkway, light brown = curved sewer pipe walls, dark gray = biomass

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Is Jim doing anything other than standing guard?

***
Is the map intelligible?

[Nocturno]

Yes, Sue will see what trying to clear a 1ft wide path 2 ft deep takes.

[Chris1234]

After about twenty steady heartbeats Sue has cut a one foot wide swathe two or three feet into the gray filament-enveloped fungus. The screeching is unrelenting.
He steps a few feet closer to be able to attack and clear a similar area.
From his closer vantage point the paladin can see that after the nearest five feet of barrier the general height of the organic barrier drops from about five feet to hour feet in height.

***
Anyone doing anything different to this? Or just repeating until something changes?

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Is Woody at the rear of the party? Or is that Jim?
3 wanderer checks [1d12] = 7, [1d12] = 9, [1d12] = 4

[Squirrellord]

Jim is standing guard keeping an eye out for trouble. When Sue's intentions became apparent, Jim would have advised "Along the eastern wall. Might be easier going there."

[counterkid]

Jim is in front of Woody at this point. Woody is consistently looking behind him.

[Nocturno]

"That may be true, but, I'm not looking forward to walking through the slop." Sue continues to hack.

[Chris1234]

With Woody as rear-guard, Jim keeps an eye out for trouble approaching from the north.
Little can be heard over the persistent screeching.

Sue hacks another few feet into the grey mass , treading on the resultant slop as he advanced a few feet to be able to reach a similar area.
With Jim's urging, Sue looks for, and sees, a less dense route* hard against the east wall, almost a game trail, although for what kind of game is a mystery.
As he does so, the half-orc looks up at exactly the right time and sees, about forty feet to the north, some swarms of rats running lightly over the gray barrier towards him.
Jim also sees the approaching menace.

Sewer 12' wide.png (18.88 KiB) Viewed 9264 times

Key: 2.5' squares. Blue = sewer liquids, dark brown = 3' wide walkway, light brown = curved sewer pipe walls, dark gray = 5' high biomass, light gray = 4' high biomass,

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*Progress with hacking out a path would be 50% faster.

Initiative time, please.
Jim and Sue gain advantage on initiative.
Jim and Sue also gain advantage on their first round action.

[counterkid]

Initiative:

[1d20+2] = 18+2 = 20

[Chris1234]

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And what are the intentions (and any rolls) for round 1 ?