2. The First Delve

Old Animal Pen
"So .. errr … you gonna tell the Ghost Beggars about this?" asks Johann, gesturing at the slaughtered goblins. "Looks like you’ve pretty much done what they asked."

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Day 3, 11:10 pm
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7
Horath, Cleric 1: 4/4
Luther, Cleric 2: 6/9 (Torch)
Pickles, Halfling 2: 10/10
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14
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Johann, Gnome 1: 3/5

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Ricard shrugs,

"I suppose we should, we can take ears back to prove it's done. I hate doing anything for the beggars but if it gets us closer to what they're looking for then so much the better. You all want to deal with the supplies now or explore some more and take them back to the Korners later?"

Turning away from the secret door, Gabbro hears this question. "If we don't take the supplies now, someone else will before we come back for them." He thinks for a moment. "The thing is, I can't see a way that we keep the supplies for ourselves. The kobolds will recognize their goods when we return with them. But maybe we make a show of returning them to the kobolds, and earn their good will? That's worth something, isn't it? A little something, at any rate." He looks more closely at the goods. Then another thought occurs to him. "This is a LOT of stuff. If we bring it back to Kobold Korners, the Ghost Beggars will see that we have it, too, and they might take it from us before we could get the credit for returning it to the kobolds. I hate the idea of giving those robbers any more resources. But what do you think? Should we earn their trust even more by bringing the Beggars loot, or should we let the kobolds know that we have stuff to return to them first?"

Luther after praying over their fallen comrade will speak up "I believe we are in deep enough with these Beggar crooks. We should return these supplies to the Kobolds. They are the rightful owners. We must keep some sense of right and wrong in this. I also still think we should intern Jessica's body in the secret sanctuary and not just leave her here to be fed on by vermin."

Ricard listens to Gabbro thoughtfully as the elf lays out the situation. Some very strong points made indeed, he thought.

"Personally, I don't think the kobolds will show us any significant favors, they are cunning little opportunists and our interest in them starts and stops with the Korners. If we give a big win to the Beggars, the cred will go much farther towards our infiltration of their group. I certainly don't think any of us really want to take the Open Sores side against the Beggars, do we?"

Horath considers the purloined goods and listens to the conversation.

Three of the goblins had crossbows. Johann picked up one of them during the fight, but he'll happily relinquish it if anyone else wants it.

Pickles listens to the group while chewing on some of the loot. After Ricard has spoken the Halfling speaks up, "I still feel we keep some of this for us, and happy to give some of it to whomever in order to gain some favor. And Luther make the best point about Jessica." He nods to Luther. "We hide what we can, then one or two of us can run off and get whichever side we want to inform and then we carry off Jessica."

Luther thinking a bit"We could stash stuff in the sanctuary when we put Jessica down there."

Gabbro claims a crossbow and some bolts, nodding at the others' points. "Agreed about Jessica. Come along with me, then." Gabbro respectfully arranges Jessica's limbs in repose and then hefts her body under the shoulders. "One of you take her legs and we'll carry her, while the others move as much as we can of the loot. We'll stash the first load in the sanctuary. The faster we do this, the less likely we'll be discovered."

Luther will take up Jessica's legs"Let's go then."

Pickles picks up a crate or two (depending on what he is able to), and follows his companions.

Horath grabs as much as he can carry, then follows the others.

A crossbow and bolts collectively take up 2 encumbrance slots. But that's because a crossbow is a two-handed weapon - you effectively get the bolts for "free".

@Pickles - your short bow (and arrows) should also take 2 encumbrance slots (at the moment it’s only taking 1). Please update your character sheet.

Whilst Gabbro and Luther carry Jessica, the rest of you have a couple of options regarding how you wish to transport the kobolds' provisions …

- You can either load up individually and adjust your encumbrance/movement accordingly (7 days’ rations = 3 slots; 1 wine cask = 2 slots). I’ll assume Gabbro and Johann have taken 20 crossbow bolts each, so those are already accounted for.

- Or you can leave the goods on the two litters, and drag the litters. Each litter requires two people to pull it. One of the litters contains 14 weeks’ rations; the other 10 weeks’ rations + 6 casks of black wine. You will move at 30’ when dragging a litter.

Assuming your first destination is the Sanctuary, which route will you take? Via the Chamber of the Sea or the Chamber of the Jungles? Or some other route?

@Gabbro, I made a mistake in a previous post regarding the location of the secret door - it’s in the western section of the northern wall, not the north-east corner. Apologies. You should update your map accordingly.

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Day 3, 11:10 pm
Gabbro, Elf 1: 4/7, 90’, Sleep
Horath, Cleric 1: 4/4, 90’
Luther, Cleric 2: 6/9; 90’, Cure Light Wounds, (Torch)
Pickles, Halfling 2: 10/10, 90’
Ricard, Fighter 2: 12/14, 90’
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Johann, Gnome 1: 3/5, 90’

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Ricard takes a position alongside one of the liters...

Horath takes a position to grab a litter.

"Someone's gonna need to open the portcullises for us," Gabbro says as they arrive at the west side of the Maritime Room.

"Let's get it open then some can shuttle the stuff through then we can let it back down."

Some behind the screen rolling ...