Episode 1

Rutcranna stares at Kray and then looks over at the others. She tilts her eyebrows down a bit in the middle, looking back at Kray.

Then she reaches up to purge her mask and walks away, moving to one of the tables further away from the group as she gets her self situated.

Hinka stares at the interchange, remaining silent and perfectly still throughout. The Tochoan makes eye contact with Kray, gives no expression at all as he stares at the Yuoric noble for several seconds, and then turns away himself to put his krekutil in his small net bag and prepare his own equipment on top of a low rising stone block near a side wall.

J, speaking of managing game mechanics, I'd like to use Kray's Rally maneuver before his short rest (like Second Wind, applying the effects outside of combat). Basically it'll let him grant temporary hp to a PC. RP-wise thinking his whole 'bigger blood bath comment' might exude a little swagger toward some faith in the group's chances.

I'd use Kray's last 2 maneuvers (pre-short rest) on Maeriks and Bryn, giving them an additional buffer on hp before the next fight. Rolling the dice to move things along in the case that you're cool with that.

This is fine. I adjusted Short Rest for a few reasons, one of them being to open the door for more use of rechargeable powers that everyone enjoys. You guys are creative on how to max available resources, so this sort of thing is in the spirit of what we were aiming at.

The others see Bryn approach Rutcranna across the room. Bryn tries to get a conversation going, but Rutcranna is being a bit of a bitch and giving him short answers. For everyone else, the entire conversation is not entirely understood word for word, but in this small echo chamber, it is difficult to have a private conversation either.

After the small talk fizzles out, Bryn pulls out a scroll case and unrolls some old papyrus scroll from it, showing Rutcranna. She watches Bryn as he talks about it and then begins to inspect the scroll herself. Her eyes scan over it, spread out on top of a large stone table.

After scanning through it for a while she says, "This says nothing helpful for our time now, if that was your hope. This is an old Uisde writing about a timekeeping monument, one used by star gazers from the past. Wherever that structure was in another era, I am sure that it is toppled to ruin in this time now."

"Depart from me, Rynalt." Rutcranna says, recognizing Bryn's old Dannein clan name. "I will prepare as I can for the matter at hand."

With that Rutcranna climbs up onto a large stone table. She shifts around sleekly to a crossed-legged sitting position. Soon she is perfectly still, eyes closed, meditating.

Hinka comes up to Kray and speaks in the Tochoan language. It is very difficult for Kray to understand exactly, but he understands the general idea.

Hinka explains that the group must put krekutils back on for 1 more long swim. They will descend again, round a corner, transverse a long narrow hallway to a different stairwell up.

At that point they will emerge into a great room with a large pool of water, water that is managed and cleaned, as if it is a water source for the inhabitants. Hinka says the Deep Ones have built it, using the natural water of the lake flood, yet they have put a dam of sorts in the main hallway that feeds this large pool. There is a sliding shutter that can let water in and refill as needed.

Inside the water though, is a creature of some sort. It is an old creature Hinka says, one from a past era. Hinka says this creature is a "tool that makes the water clean" but it is also "a weapon and a guard."

Where the group will enter, everyone will be standing on a sort of balcony overlooking this great chamber. On the other side of the great pool chamber is another balcony of similar sort. That balcony goes into other large chambers beyond, chambers that are filled with torchlight. Hinka heard human voices during his last attempt to infiltrate before he had to turn back to avoid capture. He feels certain that the humans live in the rooms beyond the opposite balcony.

So the team will have to figure out how to cross the great pool with the "tool" living in the depths below. ("Tool" means monster or creature for Hinka. Kray has learned that Tcho-Tcho have great comfort and strange experience of the idea of using unusual creatures as tools.)

Hinka asks Kray what he will have his men do to cross the expanse between the two balconies. Are they good climbers, and could they make the great feat of scaling across the side walls of the large pool chamber? Or will they swim across quickly to avoid danger and hope no alarm will be raised? Or will they descend into the depths and slay the tool to ensure their own safety and stealth?

The sideways shimmy climb is a very narrow trimwork line in the rock wall, mixed with making your own hand holds in little cracks in the blocks. About a 25' slide on the close wall, turn the corner, a 80' wall stretch along the full length of the room, then another 25' back to the balcony on the far side wall, A tough task, no doubt. That's pretty much "Second Story Work" for a real rock climber or thief. You can bank on 1 or more DC checks in the 14+ range. As you might have guessed, this is little Hinka's preference if it were just he himself. At the same time, he understands a concern that the entire team may have a tough time making it across with no mistakes.


Hinka explains further that the tool creature IS the alarm. He calls this creature a "hippa haxital'ipol" translation of that you are just not sure, but it seems to be a mix of other words that ends in "creature". The Haxital has tentacles and large billowing suckers pores and bladders all over it, including tubes that can make noise. It also has many organs that create enzymes, acids, and even air. It can make different sounds on the surface or underwater by forcing air through certain appendage tubes and cartilage cones, blowing them like horns.

The Haxital can kill people by tucking them into large bladders of armored skin and dissolving the victim with acids. It can also strangle people and just try to drown air-breathers.

The Haxital is a faster swimmer than a man. Perhaps it can be outrun if it is very far away and someone has a head start, but over longer distances, the creature will catch up.

This creature is probably 18 feet long and bulky. So it's big.

It's skin is tough inside and out, but not impenetrable. Hinka says, like all living things, the Haxital can be cut and pierced by steel. It would be foolish to attack it for a normal single warrior, but with this team, perhaps they could prevail, but Hinka is just not sure. He says it is a frightening monster.

On secret doors, need to pick one person to do it, send 1 check (even though I can understand if everyone is looking, but that doesn't mean it is rolled at Advantage).
Investigation.

Maeriks is not the best choice for Int bast investigation checks. He does feel comfortable with the wall climb, but he also really wants to see this monster creature. Maeriks doesnt consider this, but I do - our lights will negate any chance of trying to be stealthy, but not using lights means anyone pulled under will be gone. That beast sounds like a resource sink, which we want to avoid as much as possible before going up against the king in the box.

So I think we gamble with climbing, and when the inevitable ability check fails, we all need to dive in and fight, results being the same as if we just swam, but at the likely penalty of giving the beast a free attack.

We could probably work hard to help each other across, two at a time, tied to rope. Leverage gained from semi-taught rope to the side and climbing partner giving guidance on hand and foot holds visible from their vantage, and I think we could make the climb with advantage on our checks. And when a pair does fall, those on the side will have a rope life line to haul them up or at least follow down to them.

Thorn should do the Investigation check. He's our best guy at it.

More Questions for Hinka: Does he know if the creature has good senses? Perhaps it's blind (as an creature that lives in the dark 100% of the time) and it's other senses are limited? How deep is the Tool's water tank below us? I understand he might not have all of those answers.

Even if all of us have a 20 STR and Proficiency in Athletics (= +8 to the check), that means all of us have to roll a 6 or greater to make what I think will be multiple checks (130' total means multiple checks to me). That's 7 rolls per section with a 30% chance of failure (and not all of us have 20 STR and Athletics Proficiency). 7 rolls with almost a 1 in 3 chance of someone failing is bad business. And J said the checks would be in the 14 PLUS range. The distance and the difficulty is work for climbers and burglars, experts.

As far as tying off with rope and getting across, given the 'very narrow trimwork line in the rock wall, mixed with making your own hand holds in little cracks' it seems like the idea of someone falling, and then one of us somehow holding on is very slim. We've seen that J's game world is realistic. The odds of holding on to that narrow trimwork or little crack, supporting the weight and force of someone falling, seems entirely unrealistic. I set that DC at 25 or 30 if I'm DM. An Athletics check to stop that attached person from falling. And the real bitch here is that we won't get to pick who makes that roll. It will be the two people on either side, or the one person for falling players on the ends of the rope. That means weaker characters might be trying to support the weight of Maeriks (maybe 400 lbs with all of his gear--- I've pictured him as 6.5 feet tall and stacked, carrying a maul, etc), or those of us who are still wearing metal armor.

I just can't picture people hanging on to narrow trimwork and cracks having remotely and kind of grip that would stop someone attached by rope from falling. And then there's the domino effect. If two people drop, I now call that check impossible because it's Dark Thrones and realistic as possible, not Fantasy La La land where 'heroes' can do anything. Our group is not cut out for that team climb.

Also, when we fall in, that means the rest of us go diving in while we're attached together by rope. Splashing in, disorganized, out of formation. Adjusting to the underwater scene, getting our bearings. I think the safer bet is to slink in to the water, tie off some rope on the balcony and just slide in. Get oriented and move forward as a team with an organized plan to fucking kill the Tool.

Another option: we tie off on the balcony, have our absolute best climber take the rope with him via the sideways shimmy, get to the other balcony quiet-like (we don't know what guards might be nearby on the other side balcony). He ties the rope off on that opposite side balcony and we all go across on the rope, straight across the creatures pool, suspended above it. That seems like one at a time across though, to account for weight on the rope, and we'd have to tie two lengths of rope together to cross the span (Kray has 50' rope as well and the span across is 80'). So it'd better be a good ass knot.

Still, best climber might splash in, alone on the other side of that room, separate from the group, etc. It's a better option than group climb, however.

I say we send one guy and do the rope span across the pool, or we go down quiet into the water and find the Tool, and kill it.

With the single PC rope span plan now presented, I'm thinking that might be our best option. The question is, then, who is our best climber? Kray is only +4 on Athletics checks. I'm guessing it's either Bryn, Maeriks, or Ivor. Anyone with high STR and Prof in Athletics. Ideally, that person has access to re-rolls (CTC).

I like the rope span idea. Maeriks is only +4. (He never focused much on being athletic, just trying invited too much attention.)