[04] Filbert & Rahaulyr

| Ratikranger and Jeff, your adventure beings.... now! |

Elf and Hobbit. Hobbit and Elf; Filbert and Rahaulyr to name them.

This unlikely pair of sell-swords have been making a piece-meal living hunting swamp-rats for their pelts, but pickings have been mighty slim this season.

When they spotted a company of armed men entering one of the local ziggurats, they decided to investigate...

| Filbert and Rahaulyr are now inside the Ziggurat, have seen the body of Vergas and the Leeches and crossed the broad plaza, and are now in the wide passage way following behind the company. They have just observed the armed group pass through the rotating stone door ahead of them.

What now? |

Rahaulyr gestures to Filbert to keep an eye on the strange door at the end of the huge hall while he sneaks over to the dead man to see what he died from. | If I recall correctly the others took Vergas' backpack but left everything else? If that's the case, Rahaulyr will try on the helmet (and keep it if it fits) and take Vergas' bottle of holy water off his belt, tying it to his own. | Recognizing the marks of the giant leeches and seeing their bloated bodies lying about, Rahaulyr has some trouble controlling his facial twitch. However, he's relieved that the cleric wasn't killed by the armed men. He curses under his breath in elven and then sneaks back to Filbert. He whispers "No pelts here either." | That's about as funny as Rahaulyr's jokes get. | Then gesturing at the dead cultists, "But obviously some debased cult is hiding here and they probably have treasure. Maybe we should shadow those armed men for a little while and if they seem sane offer our help?"

| Nudge nudge... |

Vergas' helmet is slightly too large, but it will serve well enough. Vergas' Holy water is a glass flask containing a scentless, fluid; it could be anything. The cross etched on the vessel might a legit--or a mischief.

These things are taken without incident. Filbert snorts non-committaly.

What now?

Rahaulyr nods toward the door (at which point his face gives another small twitch of anticipation) and then starts to sneak up on it, bow with nocked arrow at the ready; he assumes Filbert will follow quietly. | I'll update the character sheet to reflect the new items and weight. |

Very well,
Rahaulyr sneaks up the dim passageway toward the queerly lit door, Filbert following quietly behind him. Both of them quiet as a pair of mice.

Peering in, Rahaulyr spies the balcony level encircling the broad chamber below, and the company of armed Men there, as well as a bunch of bodies. There must have been some fightin'...

What now?

| I know I am about to hold up the game a little, just trying to stay in character. | We'll observe what they are doing from the shadows outside the door, staying super-quiet (or at least as quiet as possible). If there's any indication that they are (a) closing the door or (b) moving on in either direction, we'll react appropriately. For now we're just trying to get a feel for this strange group of would-be explorers. Also, if we hear them say anything that could help us evaluate their motives or allegiances, that would be good to know.

| This is the first half of turn 3.15 for Rahaulyr |

Rahaulyr observes Potts the Halfling vanish down the ramp, while the others wait.

What next?

| If/when you want to reveal yourselves you can post in the Ziggurat thread. Otherwise, continue to post in this thread.

Let us suppose it takes Potts one move to reach the bottom of the ramp, so we're halfway through turn 3.15 before switching to the encounter timescale. Thus, combat-turns 3.15.1 thru 5 have elapsed at the exploration scale.

So, I'm now accepting your orders for turn 3.15.6, which will be a one-minute combat turn, even though combat has technically not broken out yet. |

| Since you said something about "grand finale" in the other thread, I guess it behooves us to join the party instead of just picking up stuff from their corpses later. So I'll switch to the Ziggurat thread and say hi to everybody. |