Chapter 3.2 - Return to the Golden Grain Inn

Round three, completed

Ember tries to riposte against the snake's strike, but in so doing, she pulls the blade free of its coils and the injured snake is able to flop out of the way of her dancing weapon.

Aanbo whirls his staff in a visually complicated pattern, moving it so fast it makes a disorienting whirling sound.

The snake's attention is drawn to the sight and sound and while its focus is on Ember's blade and Aanbo's staff, Chase lops its head off.
The mudviper takes 9 piercing damage and dies.

Aanbo, Arya, Chase, Ember, Morton, and Myrtha each gain 20 XP.

After a tense moment, Arya realizes that the danger is past. "It is a shame to kill such a creature," the young Mother Arkon opines. "But what was it doing down here?"

No one answers Arya. Everyone stands around, watching Lyrel continue her ritual in silence. At last, she completes the complicated song and dance that effectuates the spell.

Lyrel views her new companions with fresh eyes. The spear that Myrtha holds is obviously magical, as is Chase's dark black armor and something in Theran's pack. Nothing in or around the corpse of the mudviper is magical.

As Lyrel leaves, scanning the tunnel with her enhanced vision as she returns to the chamber with the statue, the others discuss what the presence of the snake means. Aanbo tries to heft the snake by himself; he hadn't realized quite how large it was when it was attacking him. Now that he tries to lift it, the monk realizes that the snake's corpse is at least eight paces long. It is too large for one person to carry, and in order to fit through the narrow spaces and not get stuck, at least two others will need to help.

Arya agrees with Chase, the graceful holy woman's flawless skin shivering with goosebumps now that the righteous fighting is over. "There are definitely paths we have not followed." Her delicate hands tighten on the handles of the torch and warhammer she bears: there might be more abominable undead to smite. She makes no move to sully her hands by handling the reptilian corpse.

Lyrel arrives back at the statue chamber by herself. While the statue is grotesquely beautiful, it bears no dweomer either.

Realizing that the others aren't joining her, Lyrel turns around, retraces her steps, and meets the rest of the group just as Myrtha is leading them out of the mudviper's chamber. With the light of Chase's torch, the people in the front can see that there is a fork, with one path leading ahead to the left (back to the door leading into the secret cellar meeting room), and the other leading to the right (which turns sharply to the right and out of view after a few paces).

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Aanbo (27/27)
Arya (10/10)
Chase (14/14)
Ember (9/9)
Lyrel (9/9)
Morton (9/9)
Myrtha (17/18)
Theran (18/18)

Myrtha chooses a direction - right - and advances slowly to the bend in the passage, Chase close behind her with torch in hand. Aanbo notes that the passage descends slightly. Myrtha and Chase whirl around the corner, weapons ready...

...and there is nothing there more threatening than a very narrow passage where the buckling earth walls are pushing the braces toward each other. But the heroes can see a wider area on the other side, so Myrtha turns sideways and squeezes herself through, getting stuck only once. The rest of the party are not quite as burly as the Valorous Maiden, and they are able to shimmy through with less chance of getting stuck.



Everyone is able to fit in the larger space; the floor has descended enough that the ceiling is now 4 paces above you. Three tunnels slope upwards out of the room: the narrow one they just entered from the north, another one heading east (which quickly turns northeast), and the one heading south. There are two other paths that appear to be places where tunnels were started and then abandoned: one to the northeast, and one to the southeast.