The Northern Mountains

The two ettin glower at all of you as you retreat back into the passage. Though not long the passage is barely large enough for the etting and twists and turns but still has faint traces of daylight allowing those who have not been this way before to realize it leads out of this place.

As you exit the tunnel, which appears to have been a natural cleft in the stone of the cliff that has been expanded to allow the ettins passage, you step out onto a set of carved stone stairs. The stairs are ascending the side of a deep ravine with sheer cliff walls. The stairs are well crafted but not uniform. In fact you believe that they would be quite hard to notice if you were not expecting to find them.

Down in the ravine you spot a faint path leading along the ravine length. At the base of the cliff you spot the body of what you assume to be another ettin. A few plants are scattered around the ravine floor with occasional brush and even a couple trees where the soil is deep enough to support them.

By the light in the sky above the lip of the ravine it is now mid afternoon.
Date&Time(Beta): 1@16:00

As you consider where to go next you begin to swap some information.
Elyse, Blornvid, and Sylvandur rode to these mountains on griffons that will return for them later after they have searched the area for mineral deposits. They found the ravine and stairs that led to an abandoned village set within a cavern near the base of the ravine. The village held little of interest save a building that is occupied by some form of ooze.
Wemmick was separated from his caravan after a monster attack, found the stairs, and soon met up with the others near the cavern village.
Gutelos was escorting a scholar mage to the recently rediscovered city Paphos that should be somewhere nearby and was sucked into a watery whirlpool where he met Glidbem who had a similar experience. Together they crawled through the caves to reach the ettin's cavern.
Poppy was simply exploring and gathering plants for her profession and was driven into the caves by some dark fey.

It is apparent that the cavern that are in these mountains are quite extensive and that was one of the reasons that Blornvid and the others came to this region.

Based on the note in the Tiny Chat channel by Psybermage focusing on new players and daryen not listing The Northern Mountains as a supported thread, I'll say goodbye. It was fun while it lasted. Hope to run into you in another game.

That's a bummer. I was curious to see where this was headed.

Upon re-reading @daryen post, I think he might be willing to merge this one into the Underdark thread. I'll have to ask him.

@ForeverDED if he says yes, let us know. This is likely my favorite character I have ever played and I've been playing since 1979!

I asked him in the TinyChat, so keep an eye there. But since it's American Thanksgiving this week, he might not get around to replying right away.

To answer here, I didn't mention this thread because I honestly thought Psybermagi would finish it off. If he doesn't want to, then I would be happy to finish it off (even though it is guaranteed to be different than what he likely intended). I was in no way ignoring this group!

My overall intent is to get everyone back to New Paphos and regroup from there.

I am happy either way and @daryen, never, for a moment, did I assume you were ignoring our group.

Wemmik explains that he descended the way Blornvid and his companions did. Though the ettins seemed reluctant to attack the large party you doubt they will be pleased when they discover their fallen brother. Deciding that moving on is a good idea you continue up the stairs and make several notes of the area should you wish to return and investigate the ruins at a later date.

The stairs take you to the lip of the ravine on the far side from where many of you began your journey. Knowing it will be several days still before transport is expected to return to the region to take Blornvid and his initial companions back there is little that you can do to speed anyones return to civilization at this time. So you quickly move to get some distance from the ravine. Stopping only for lunch at a mountain stream you decide to use it to try and hide your track should the Etting try and find you and follow it upstream.

Elyse gets excided when she notes a few rocks in the streambed show signs of mineral deposits that indicate possible mine sites may be nearby. Recalling the numerous caverns and cliffs seen from above she hopes to find further signs and begins checking the stream bed for more traces as you follow it deeper into the steep mountains. I need a test for geology/nature/tracking form Elyse and anyone else who wants to help