[X] Hunt for your food (Does not spent trail rations; twice as likely to have a hostile encounter; potential for hides and other trade goods from the creatures Gorok hunts)
Lets kill some darklands wildlife and eat it. Also serves to get Mina used to eating weird shit
[X] Keep eating the dwarf supplies (-24 Duergar Trail rations for the round trip)
We might try for some hunting after the Vegepygmies, if we win that one without serious injuries.
But I don't want to go on the main-mission with wounds or low on alchemical weapons.
I'm not opposed to hunting for food as we travel, but that will slow us down somewhat, and since we're going to be gone for at least six days, adding more time to our journey means we're less likely to be able to find that Dark Dancer some of y'all were interested in speaking with.
There is also the issue of danger and resources. Random encounters can be pretty serious and we don't have a lot of combat power quite yet. Doubling the likelihood of random encounters could mean we end up facing multiple separate instances of combat, and while that's good for XP, it also threatens to use up more of our limited resources.
With Gorok along, however, there is a good chance any random encounter we have might also turn into an opportunity to supplement our rations.
[X] Keep eating the dwarf supplies (-24 Duergar Trail rations for the round trip)
It is unlikely that would be edible from what you know of vegepigmies, they are plants, not animal life so they seek out things as fertilizer not as food, which means their standards are different. You might technically be able to eat the remains of host bodies which have been... consumed (think Alien chest-buster) but that is rather grim.
As for the creatures themselves as Cob has been informed: NO
It is unlikely that would be edible from what you know of vegepigmies, they are plants, not animal life so they seek out things as fertilizer not as food, which means their standards are different. You might technically be able to eat the remains of host bodies which have been... consumed (thing Alien chest-buster) but that is rather grim.
As for the creatures themselves as Cob has been informed: NO
While we aren't likely to find anything edible in the Vegepygmy lair, we might find some useful gear or coinage. They could have already killed some unwary travelers, or may have even been unwary travelers who got the chestburster treatment themselves.
I'm certainly not opposed to a bit of lucrative grave robbing.
Also just remembered the reason the smugglers wanted the monsters cleared out. They're blocking an otherwise unguarded route that leads to the surface. That's useful information to have all on its own.
[X] Hunt for your food (Does not spent trail rations; twice as likely to have a hostile encounter; potential for hides and other trade goods from the creatures Gorok hunts)
Counter to what common sense might indicate, the tunnels get drier as the climb, winding slowly to the east only to cut south in an oddly straight path where the walls turn suddenly smooth, the corners sharp as the echo of many steps only grow more pronounced. Running your fingers over the stone you find it rough with the passage of years, and maybe water, yet it is hard to escape the obvious conclusion, someone had built this place. Who and for what purpose one can only guess at.
All marks of habitation save for the stone itself had long since been worn by time or taken far away by wanderers and scavengers. Still, whoever the mysterious builders might have been you can at least thank them for the spacious roof such as you had not enjoyed since the Long Walk. Cob might be untroubled by any passage wide enough to squeeze his head through and Gorok might be as used to traveling bent over, tail swinging for balance, as he is standing up, but you and Mina are far more cheerful with room to hold your necks straight.
It is in that long tunnel, a few thousand-beats at most after your seventh meal down there, that Cob scrambled back up the way he had gone, the red sparks of his eyes the only herald of his return as the soft soles of his feet make no sound along the polished tunnel floor.
"Found a break?" you call out, more than a touch disappointed, having enjoyed this place far more than the tangled snarl of tunnels before.
"No break, others coming down the tunnel, walking-crawling-climbing with big crab-beast that has stuff, maybe treasure, lashed to its belly..."
"It's going on the ceiling?" Mina glances up, obviously worried. Like the walls the ceiling might once have been smooth, but is now crisscrossed with cracks and limestone nodules.
Personally you are more concerned about 'others' with tools, weapons, and purpose than you are for any beast. A creature will only follow you so far as the prospect of turning you into a meal is worth the trouble of the hunt, but people, they are spiteful.
"Others?" you prompt.
"Pale-bellies, morlock," he hacks up the word in an alarmingly good rendition of the only time you had heard one of them speak. If the duergar are unpleasant by reason of cultural inclination and xulgath are more so from a willingness to throw their neighbors in the pot, morlock combine the worst of all worlds. Their 'prophets' snarl their demands with the surety of ones who think they are masters of all they survey, even as behind them the starving masses of the tribe present a threat as real as it is pitiful. A dancer had once recounted that they even send their children into battle, at the front because they are the smallest. Thank dark this is just a raiding party.
Cob to identify the Encounter : 1d20 +6 = 13 (Success)
Not trained in Knowledge (Nature), so no roll on the beast
Stealth and Perception Rolls
"How many?" Gorok asks, seemingly untroubled by the prospect, though admittedly it is hard to read a face of scared scales.
"Three and crab," the goblin scout replies, sounding very certain and understandably quite proud of that certainty. "Coming on slower than us. Beast has long legs but moves slow."
"So we could just go back down the tunnel..." Mina says, though without much enthusiasm and little wonder. It would put you two thirds of the way back to Cauldron.
"We talk, mutual-gain," Gorok offers. "They might have fought moldmen. All of flesh are enemies of them since all are food for fungus in their eyes."
Admittedly the morlocks must have claimed their loot from somewhere and they are coming from the direction of the mine. For all you know they had even done your job for you, but on the hollow side if you try to talk to them you will lose the element of surprise.
"Do we want to make enemies here?" Mina's mind had obviously been running alongside the same stream as yours.
What do you suggest?
[] Try to ambush the morlock raiding party
-[] Write in plan (optional)
[] Try to speak to the morlock raiding party, you can at least agree on the undesirability of vegepygmies for neighbors.
-[] Write in plan (optional)
[] Write in
OOC: I hope the pic of the rolls is fine, it would have been a real chore to link that many rolls. There is an error in there, the Morlock should have been rolling +2 not +12 for perception, but I only caught that on his third roll, but I left the rolls in since it did not actually change the result.
You do have the element of surprise and a witch who can cast sleep against the beings clinging to the ceiling. As you can imagine it would be rather painful for them to be hit with that.
You do have the element of surprise and a witch who can cast sleep against the beings clinging to the ceiling. As you can imagine it would be rather painful for them to be hit with that.
Damn, this will be tough. I don't think going back is a good option, it's just too much time (and time is always short, plus there can be more random encounters the longer our journey), and trying to let them pass us while we hide is not likely to work. Morlocks are exceptional Darkvision and the Scent ability. I wouldn't bet on them not catching our scent in the relatively confined space of this tunnel.
Damn, this will be tough. I don't think going back is a good option, it's just too much time (and time is always short, plus there can be more random encounters the longer our journey), and trying to let them pass us while we hide is not likely to work. Morlocks are exceptional Darkvision and the Scent ability. I wouldn't bet on them not catching our scent in the relatively confined space of this tunnel.
If we can lure one or two away, we can likely use Mina's save or suck hex to level the field. Cob is unassuming enough that they won't consider him a threat
If we can lure one or two away, we can likely use Mina's save or suck hex to level the field. Cob is unassuming enough that they won't consider him a threat
I don't think we can count on Morlocks to fall for that sort of tactic. They're really stupid and tend to swarm their enemies. Anything we do to get their attention will likely get all of their attention.
I don't think we can count on Morlocks to fall for that sort of tactic. They're really stupid and tend to swarm their enemies. Anything we do to get their attention will likely get all of their attention.
