The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (Game Thread IV)

[Elvenoff]

"I will take the watch." Voices Elvenoff as he moves over to where Babushka was standing. Pulling his sword and sliding off his shield he takes his stance. "I agree with putting the pods into the grinder. That would be removing a possible threat later on." He adds while keeping watch.

[Jenara]

Locky smiles at Ulster, "Of course we'll give you a weapon.." She rubs her head, "Oh,
I am in my twenty second year of life gift, but they were quite suprised when I entered the Order. It was almost as if they had never seen a Kender before." She giggles and looks to the cage with the Dwarf.

"I fear his mind has gone, she says with a frown "The capivity has driven him to insanity, I wonder what he will do..? She gives him a look of sudden wisdom, before returning to Bab who as cutting the womans cage. "The Dwarf, we should release his cage, but leave it closed until we can talk to him properly, he might go mad and attack us for no reason."

When Babuskha has finished cutting the cage free she keeps talking to the woman, helping as best she can while Shay and Jerrard move the cage to somewhere more safe.

(She will direct them away from the Grinder, to somewhere hidden if she can.)

[Jerrard]

Jerrard waits for Babuskha to cut the plant connecting the plant to the cavern floor, then he grunts and attempting to move the cage with a smile.

"Merithina, we will move you somewhere you can be safe, we will stay with you, don't worry. We'll split up and look for anything that might help." When they are done with Merithina he will move onto Ulsters cage, then lastly the dwarf.

[Breila]

While cutting away at the cage containing the dwarf, Babushka rakes her brain. Someone, sometime in her youth, had tried to teach her and her friends a few expressions in Dwarven, simple things like "Hello", "My name is...", "I am hungry". What was it again?


(ooc: do the dwarf's utterings trigger any memory, can she understand any of it?)

[JadedDM]

The dwarf does not seem to be speaking Dwarven at all, nor any variation of it. It's just nonsense and gibberish, as far as Babushka can tell.

[Jenara]

(ooc: Locky directs the cages to the gap to the north, behind the entrance, basically the four squares to the very north.)

Locky turns away from the dwarf, rather bored, and instead she concentrates on checking the parties wounds.

First she checks Babs wounds, calling on Paladine for aid, (Cure Light wounds, 1d8=6) then checks Jerrard, (Cure Light wounds 1d8=7)

Ignoring her own wounds she checks on Ulster and Merithina "Are you injured? I can help.." She smiles, "I can pass you some food, if you wish."

(ooc: I have assumed there are holes in the cages, thus we can pass things through).

[Jerrard]

Once Jerrard has helped move the cages he sits quietly, looking at the Grinder in the centre of the room.

Taking Locky's healing with a smile of thanks he looks to Babuskha... "You have some knowledge of machines, do you not?" He asks the Gnome, looking closely at the woman,
"We need to destroy those bodies, and the pods, then destroy that evil device." his face is unreadable.

He notes Locky is healing everyone but herself, yet her wounds are substantial, the little Kender had proven herself to be a tough one, she did need healing though. He'd have to mention that soon.

"Elvenoff." He says to the newcomer, "We are all a little hurt, apart from you and Shay. Could you perhaps check the next cave, and see how many pods there are, and if we can cut them down?" Unsure if he should trust the man, he watches his movements. He had the bearing of a holy man, one of those high and mighty types, yet he had proven himself in battle.

[JadedDM]

Locky's healing restores Babushka completely, and helps a great deal with Jerrard's wounds. Elvenoff suffered no damage in the fight, and Shay only has a little bruise not worth fussing over.

Merithina says, "Any injuries we suffered have healed on their own by now."

Ulster adds, "We still have a little food and water left. That was about the only thing they didn't take from us. In fact, when they killed the others, they distributed their food and water to us. It's clear they want us alive when they put us in that grinder." He shudders at the thought.

============================

OOC: Like this, Jen?

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
.x._._._.x.x.x.x.x.
.x._._._.x.x.x.x.x.
.x._.x.x._._._._._. -->
.x._.x.x._.x_x.x.x.
.x._._._._._.c.b.x.
.x._._.g._._.d.a.x.
.x._._._._._._._.x.
.x._._._._._._._.x.
.x._._._._._._._.x.
.x._._._._._._._.x.
.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

x - solid rock
a - Merithina's cage
b - Dwarf's cage
c - Empty cage
d - Ulster's cage
g - Grinder

[Jenara]

(ooc: that works, they are defendable from there.)

Locky smiles, "I'm glad you are ok. she yawns just a little.. "I'll rest in a little while."
She sits down, resting against the womans cage. "We will free you." She adds with a smile.

[Breila]

Babushka sits down next to Locky and, if she doesn't object, puts her arm around the kender.

"No, my dear friend, you should eat and rest now, we all should. And if you can, you should heal yourself first. You seem to think little of yourself, but that isn't true. In fact, your healing abilities were the most important abilities down here so far.

Am I not right?" she asks Shay and Jerrard.


Remembering Jerrard's request, she gets up and walks over to the grinder and examines it, careful not to fall into it. Can she figure out how to work it?

[JadedDM]

The tinker gnomes are infamous for their machinery, largely because the bulk of them either don't work properly or simply explode. Babushka was different from her kin, in that she preferred nature to machines. However, she does have some understanding of their ways. This device, however, is quite simple in design.

The 'victim' goes in the funnel at the top. The river flows beneath, turning the wheel which serves to keep the machine running perpetually. Inside the machine are likely a number of spinning gears, jagged metal teeth, and rotating blades that grind the victim into chum as they sluice through. The spout at the bottom is where the remains are collected, most likely to be put into the pods. Overall, the machine is just like the one they encountered before, but large enough to put people inside.

[Elvenoff]

"Sure." Elvenoff responds to Jerrend's request. He turns toward Shay and nods. "I will take the lead if you wish, for you all have had the tiring effects of a long battle where I came in at the last." He looks over each member notting their wounds was being taken care of.

He waited for Shay's response hoping that he didn't over step his place when suggesting that he would take the lead, for all he knew they could be in tip top shape and this was just a little bout for them. Moving forward slowly toward the destination that Jerrend pointed too.

[JadedDM]

"Go for it," Shay says, gesturing. He follows Elvenoff into the pod chamber, his sword at the ready.

Inside, they count ten pods hanging from the ceiling. Only two of them contain sleeping podmen, however. The other eight only contain a slurry of blood, guts, and bones.

[Breila]

As the men pass into the pod-chamber, Babushka calls after them: "Hey, Jerrard, don't call the guard off without replacement!" and hurries back to the tunnel entrance to resume her watch.

[Jerrard]

Nodding his head Jerrard jumps to his feet. "Babuskha, I was just getting ready to prepare my spells, I shall sit and watch while I prepare." He says as he approaches the Gnome, sit with Locky, I believe she may need some, help."[/b] pointing to the Kender, she looks rather lost.