The Second Adventure

[rredmond]

Noh checks the other fungi in the area. Are they all immature, or are there some mature specimens? "So what is this goat creature? Do we know which way it went? Perhaps up??" He tries to peer past the torchlight above.

[mushgnome]

Noh sees that all of the puffballs in the immediate area are at the firm, white-flesh stage of maturity. Some of the puffballs to the north (at the edge of lantern light) look more mature. The puffballs are as tall as a Hobbet, so it's actually pretty hard to get the lay of the land. You're going to have to squeeze between them to get anywhere, like trying to push your way through a crowd of sumo wrestlers to get to a buffet table.

[rredmond]

...like trying to push your way through a crowd of sumo wrestlers to get to a buffet table.

So, easy for a hobbet then.

[mushgnome]

I wish the forums had a 'like' button!

The puffballs look pretty delicious, so you could probably chew your way through if you wanted.

[kipper]

Dame Simonetta recovers Willie's lantern, does it look fixable and/or usable? In either case, she hands it back to him.

She then dons her mail armour, and readies her sword and main-gauche.

[waysoftheearth]

Tet sits down to dab the sweat from his forehead. I forgot how tight that tunnel was... thoroughly unenjoyable! he complains. Once he is sufficiently rested, he unrolls his mail shirt and slips it on.

[acodispo]

Willie considers the lantern, with a glum expression.

"That's the second lantern I've lost to that beast... In answer to your question, I don't think it counts as spoilers to say we don't know what it is, but it's a menace! It might be up there now, listening to us! Let's keep an eye out."

When all are armed & armoured, Willie holds up the carton of holy water flasks.

"I need to bring this over there," he says, pointing north-east.
"Can someone go at the front like a guard? Be careful -- " he pauses, thinking out the words to use, no spoilers now, " -- of tripping. On things that might be the size of wooden chests."

[rredmond]

Noh looks over at the others, "this 'no spoilers' rule seems... unhelpful," he says with some concern. "We aren't allowed to discuss tactics to defeat an adversary, or its lair? I mean, not in this instance, the goat seems more worthy of study than defeat, but with other creatures that might want to eat me, with or without syrup, I think I'd want to be better informed." But he immediately ensures to watch his step, and takes a hunk of the meaty mushroom to sniff it and maybe see what it tastes like.

[mushgnome]

Willie is dismayed to see that his lantern is beyond repair. Not again!

So let's take a "rest turn" for Tet and Dame Simonetta to put their armor back on. If Noh wants to try the glow-worm trick, this might be a good time. Willie and maybe one or two of the others could detour to the chest since they don't need to rest.

A quick clarification on the "no spoilers" rule: You can certainly speak freely and discuss tactics amongst yourselves (especially out-of-character; your characters have promised to follow The Rules, but you the players have made no such promise). The rule is more intended to keep other adventuring parties from spoiling each other. For example, before the First Adventure, the party met a toothless Hobbet in the pancake house. He could have warned the party, "Watch out! There's an angry spider-goat down there. Knocked me teeth out," but he didn't, because of the Rules. Basically the Rules are a meta-game solution to the question, "If Frederick is such a nice guy, then why doesn't he give the party a map showing all the dangers, so they can stay safe?"

If the veteran players wanted to abide by the spirit of the rule (for fun's sake like Willie just did) they could maybe say something like, "There's a really weird monster behind that door. I'd describe it to you, but you wouldn't believe me until you see it with your own eyes. Be sure to look up because it can walk on the ceiling!"

@rredmond if you are worried the other players held back some critical information from you, in my opinion they did not. The first adventure party members encountered the spider-goat in a different section of the caves, so as far as they knew, this area was "safe."

Let's flip a coin to see whether or not the lantern can be repaired. Tails = smashed.

[rredmond]

Noh and Carc try the glow worm test. Fingers crossed!

@rredmond if you are worried the other players held back some critical information from you, in my opinion they did not. The first adventure party members encountered the spider-goat in a different section of the caves, so as far as they knew, this area was "safe."

Not so much worried about the players, just what the limits were. If (as a player) I wanted to I could just read the past posts. Noh's no adventurer so he needs to know these things. (Three "no"s in one sentence! That's a winner there!)
PS: The quote function will travel across both IC and OC at the same time and I really freaked it out when I put the open quote tag BEFORE the OC tag, then the rest of the quote in the OC tag. Fun.