Gutbur’s Grand Adventure: Session #003
Introduction | Previous Sessions
The Adventure Continues…
[DM]:
After another hour or so, make another Wisdom (Perception) check. +5
[Dice Gutbur: Perception]: 1d20 (5) + 5 = 10
[DM]: There are signs that people once lived in this forest. Overgrown heaps of stone and rotten wood vaguely resemble the (likely temporary, nomadic) structures they once were. They remind you more of your tribe, than of a permanent settlement.
As you move through the area with the Cinderlings, the ground suddenly gives way. You dodge out of the way of the collapse, but as you get back on your feet you see several Cinderlings fervently dancing around the hole.
[Gutbur]:
How wide? Deep? Peer in over the edge … ask Bop why everyone is so excited.
[DM]: Several of the cinderlings fell into the hole in the collapse, what you saw as dancing was frantic panicking. It is hard to tell with small living dust-bunnies.
The hole is about 20 feet deep, looking in, you see that it looks like an old cellar, probably 20 feet wide. There is water dripping throughout.
[Gutbur]: I will lower a rope down and tell Bop to tell those that fell in to climb onto the rope. Once they are all holding on I can pull the rope up with all of them … hopefully.
[DM]: Without getting too close to the hole, you throw the rope down the hole and tell the cinderlings to grab on. The cinderlings up top “help” you pull. As you are pulling, make a Wisdom (Perception) check (+5).
[Dice Gutbur: Perception]: 1d20 (20) + 5 = 25
[DM] You notice two cornering things.
1) where the rope is going over the edge, it is starting to dig into the earth, potentially causing a second, wider collapse.
2) A very large owl, not a giant owl mind you, is swooping down toward the vicinity of the edge of the hole where the cinderlings are “helping” you.
[Gutbur]:
Is the owl behaving in a predatory manner?
[DM]: This is all happening at once in an instant, you can’t really tell.
You can see that the owl is swooping owl style.
[Gutbur]:
If I have time, tie the rope around my waist and draw my bow.
[DM]:
You can tie the rope, or draw your bow before it arrives. Not both.
[Gutbur]: Okay, drop the rope, shoot the owl. I don’t really want to kill the owl so if I could shoo it away I would, but if this is split second timing, then arrow it is.
[DM]:
Make a ranged attack roll, which is +4 for @Gutbur (Lasarian) .
[Dice Gutbur: Bow Attack]: 1d20 (8) + 4 = 12
[DM]: As the rope slides into the hole your shot sails wide of its mark.
The owl dives, claws out and snatches… the rope. It pulls the rope and attached Cinderlings out of the hole and deposits it safely outside of the hole before landing in a nearby tree. It moves, looking into the hole and looking at you ruefully.
Make a Wisdom (Nature) check, +1.
[Dice Gutbur: Nature]: 1d20 (12) + 1 = 13
[DM]: Given what you’ve already discovered about the cinderlings unnatural heft, no owl should have been able to lift that rope.
[Gutbur]: I look back at the owl ruefullly … “Um … thank you. And sorry for taking the shot, but I thought you were intending to harm my charges.”
[DM]:
It hoots an acknowledgment without looking at you.
[Gutbur]: “What manner of creature are you, although you appear to me as an owl, I sense that is not your true nature.”
Ask Bop to do a headcount while I’m speaking with the owl. Oh, and step away from the crumbling edge ….
[DM]: It screeches before lifting off and returning back across the hole where it came from in the first place.
Bop says that everybody is accounted for. The rest of the cinderlings have backed well away from the hole. Bop is closer to the edge peering in.
[Gutbur]: Put away my bow. Retrieve my rope and arrow. Try to keep an eye on where the owl is and advise Bop to stay away from the edge. If he wants to know what is down there, I will look into it.
[DM]: On Bops encouragement you descend safely into the hole.
As you noticed previously, this appears to have been a semi-permanent structure for what was a nomadic people. The uthgardt tribes also have things like this. Places that you frequently return to, so you have make shift semi-permanent storage. For the uthgar they are normally in caves or other natural formations.
This may have been a natural sink hole, but there is actually some permanent structural elements added to it. Now rotting beans and joists, merged with natural formations of earth and stone. Make a Wisdom (Perception) check, +5.
[Dice Gutbur: Perception]: 1d20 (10) + 5 = 15
[Gutbur]: I’m going to take my time and look around, looking for any markings or symbols I might possibly recognize.
[DM]: There is more vegetation than you’d expect. Looking at the ground and you can see evenly spaced mounds on the ground, each one overgrown with vegetation, which should not be so thriving in a dank hole in the ground. In the edges, you can see that the Yew tree roots from above are digging into the space.
You can see cracked pottery in one corner, the kind that would store fermenting food for long term storage.
In the northern end of the hole you see a much denser grouping of yew roots.
[Gutbur]: How large are the mounds? I will get a closer look at the pottery in the corner, not necessarily rummaging or touching anything, just carefully stepping between the mounds if possible and getting a good look. I will also take a look at the denser group of roots.
[DM]: The mounds aren’t very wide, maybe two, two and a half feet at the widest. But the range from 7 to 9 feet long.
The pottery is decorated with engraved leaves and vines but is not elven. What ever was in them has long since gone to compost.
[Gutbur]:
Do the mounds strike me as graves?
[DM]: They do, although not in a fashion with which you are familiar. They aren’t the orderly graves of civilized people, nor the cairns or tombs of honored ancestors in the Uthgardt tradition.
[Gutbur]: How many?
What about the denser roots?
[DM]: 6 mounds.
Investigating the roots, you can see that there is something behind them. A small passage, or maybe just an alcove.
[Gutbur]:
Move aside the roots to get a better look.
[DM]:
How hard are you moving them? They are quite thick.
[Gutbur]: Well I don’t want to be desecrating what seems to be some kind of tomb but I will put my back into it if require.
[DM]: It’s a grave, but definitely not a tomb. The whole area gives the impression that somebody happened upon the bodies and respectfully laid them to rest.
[Gutbur]:
Fair enough.
[DM]: Pushing through the roots, you can see that behind them is an alcove. Inside of which is a tree stump with something vaguely bookish on top of it.
(Lasarian):
Oh boy ….
(Talolan):
Gutbur loves reading.
[Gutbur]:
Give it a quick look- cover, title, any writing … but I’ll pick it up and look at it.
[DM]: You reach through and grab it. Examining the book, it looks like it was grown, rather than made.
The front an back covers are mostly rough bark like an Alder tree. The pages look like impossibly thin pieces of wood. They are a pinkish red at the front of the book, like the heartwood of an Alder, and milky pink at the back like the sapwood of the same.
The first page says:
Prakt, Strev, Rang, glang byrd.
Stomm rang glang du.
Blod ettin er blod kong.
Gi tusen val nul.
Trut zund stommpaart.
You speak giant, so you know this says:
Bravery, Effort, and Honor over birth.
The tribe’s honor over yours.
The blood of the runt is the blood of a king.
Give a thousand for nothing.
Truth is the honor of the tribe.
It doesn’t match any giant-kin code you’re familiar with. Being mostly familiar with Goliaths, Ogres, and true Giants.
[Gutbur]: No, it’s more like Uthgardt.
Can I read more without damaging it?
[DM]: Yes. It seems perfectly intact. Looking through you can see it is written by at least five different people in succession.
They refer to “we” and “the clan” a lot, but no member of the clan is ever named. It looks to be mostly a seasonal record of the clan, births, deaths, movements. Occasionally there are longer written passages that further detail specific events of significance.
Looking through, it doesn’t use Dale Reckoning for the roll of years, but just tracking season after season, this book is at least 2,000 years old.
For reference, that is before the time of Uthgar himself, about 1400 years ago.
[Gutbur]:
The graves then I presume aren’t very recent.
[DM]: Hard to say.
They are covered with plants that shouldn’t survive with this little sunlight.
[Gutbur]:
Some magical blessing over the graves or the ground I will assume.
[DM]: You have seen Daesy* cast plant growth, both the short term combat version, and long term large area version for farmers.
That is your only real frame of reference, but it fits.
[Gutbur]: i fear now we have left their resting place vulnerable to the forest above. How big a hole collapsed into the space? 20′ across?
(Talolan): About that.
I’m not sure how you’d fix that, but then that isn’t my problem.
[Gutbur]: I am going to put the book back where I found it. Any debris from above that fell onto the burial mounds I will clear away into the corners if possible and make my way back up.
I have a thought about how to fix it.
But I want to get the Cinderlings to where they are going first.
[DM]:
Alright. You tied your rope off so climbing out is easy enough.
[Gutbur]:
When I emerge I will ask Bop to rally his troops to move out.
[DM]:
Alright. You head out.
(Talolan): That is the end of the notes currently held in my head. So no more until tomorrow.
[Gutbur]: If the owl is still present I will address it: I disturbed nothing below, I will return to cover the hole to protect the site when I have safely delivered my charges.
(Lasarian):
Roger that. Fun little session.
Back Story!
(Tundrra): “Daesy” aka Daesyrliniwick is a fellow member of Orswin’s Spear, Gutbur party. He played by forever guild member Baiz aka Zif, if you have been around awhile:)
Daesy is Furbolg following the Nature Cleric path. On many occasions, the battle field has erupted in brambles and thick foliage, causing a rage amongst the inner Gutbur for not being able to get his axe to the nearest foe quickly.
Credited Sources:
Original Discord and Avrae play sessions were March 16th-18th and April 3rd-4th 2021.
Images:
- Castle Avatar Art by Lasarian
- Gutbur Avatar Art and Title by Lucy Lisett
- Shield Art by Lasarian
- “A Cinderling Conversation” art, by Tundrra (medium: Procreate)
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