Immersive Ink

"I don't think this will serve us much, and it will take too long! Let's do some more exploring & get the lay of the land before we tackle those spiders. What do you think?"

Willie suggests the party climb back up to the southern ledge and explore the south-east passage (directly south of area 3 on the map). Unless it's established to be spider territory (webs, etc), in which case he suggests getting a better sense of the size & contents of the excavation pit, by heading up to area 10 then north-west around the upper edges.

Dame Simonetta is not happy about it, but she does realise the wisdom in Willie's words. She agrees with his plan to explore the south-east passage.

"That is perhaps a better idea Willie," says Robur. "Oh, I do wish we could somehow get high above the spiders! It would make our burning easier... ah.. but for later I mean..."

Noh, and Carc, agree with exploring the SE passage.

Dougal agrees and makes sure he has a few sling stones in his hand, ready to go, before they head to the SE passage.

bilfur is all right with this and moves on

OOC: Map update to follow, I just wanted to share something I learned today. I don't spend a lot of time in caves, and this is really helping me visualize the vast scale of these underground spaces:

An acre measures 43,560 square feet.

20x20 squares on the dungeon map = 200' x 200' = 40,000 square feet = approx. 1 acre

This means that each 10 square x 10 square area on the map equals about 1/4 acre. For example the area directly underneath the spiders' lair (the 100'x100' area enclosing the 10, 3, and the trisquel-shaped rock column) measures roughly 1/4 acre.

I bring that up because 1/4 acre is the average lot size in my suburban neighborhood. So I'm going to use that to help me visualize these big spaces. For example if the party finds a giant 200'x300' cavern (20 squares x 30 squares on the map) I'm going to visualize that space as a block of six suburban house lots in a 2x3 grid, totalling 1.5 acres. (Illuminated by 30' radius lantern light.)

I enjoy "theater of the mind" style gameplay, and I thought that was a cool visualization trick.

You explore the SE corner of the map and come to a Y intersection. The left fork meanders northeast; if you had to guess, maybe it connects back up with area #2? The right fork leads south to Dungeon Level 4!

You already discovered another path to level 4, from the beach on level 2. The dungeon levels you have discovered so far fit together like tiles:

531
?42

What do you think? South to dungeon level 4, NE to close the loop, or something else?