Chapter 32 - Impasse

General Summary

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Day 46 (Corrupus 18th, 1053) - Mid Afternoon

The party has been (mostly) covertly exploring the tunnels inside the Miracle City Volcano for 2.5 hours now, in prparation for their assualt tomorrow to stop Django's, at this stime, still unknown ritual.
Relevant Stat Block: Skeleton Bandito

From behind the party is approched by a lone Skeleton Bandito with a determined look. Everyone must make a DC 17 Insight check.
If everyone fails, You have no idea what this Skeleton Bandito is thinking. Has your cover been blown?
On a success, you recognize that this bandito has the correct light and dark values, but their bones are a littl too clean, and all of their brown and black clothing is actually shades of very dark blue. This is Frida's warforged ally,Jen Wakeman.
Jen:

• There you guys are! When you didn't come don to the hideout this morning, Frida said you might've gone off on your own.
• Cut off from a larger compatible power source, I've been unable to charge most of my offensive weapons and abilities. Shapeshifting like this is about the extent of my transformation, right now.

Jen has explored some of the lower area, finding a group of zombies standing around in a cavern, but had to turn back after a while as the banditos down there were getting suspicious of a single skeleton wandering around. It seems there isn't much patrolling on the lower areas.
There were a couple areas with closed doors and guards posted, and a wider area full of scratch marks in the rock, like a fight happened there. Magma seemed to flow into these lower spaces from above, so it was a little closer to the core of the volcano than the tunnels aroud where everyone entered.
(Jen joins the group and adds her Deception and Performance rolls to the group's with advantage from her shapeshifted appearance)

The party moves around a large natural rock pillar and stands infront of Bayle as he opens Chest 3 with successful sleight of hand and stealth checks (at advantage).
They move South around the lava puddle, but draw the suspision of the guard in that area and end of destroying it, and the one that they had snuck by back by the chest, but not before Bayle is able to break off one of their skeletal arms, which remains intact after the rest of the Skeleton Bandito crumples to ash and bone dust. Bayle keeps this skeletal arm.
Using the extra speed granted by his Cumulus Boots, Bayle leaps across the lava puddle island to reach the chest (#4) on the other side, but the chest turns out to be a Mimic! Bayle engages it in single combat and defeats it with relative ease. After which, he leaps back across and then continues to long-jump over the smaller lava puddle in the southern part of the cavern to investigate the small open area spotted on the other side, where, tucked into an alcove, Bayle finds another chest (#5).
After Bayle rejoins the rest of the party, they move East, through the final cavern of the middle tunnels and ascend into the upper tunnels.

moving into the upper tunnels, the party is faced with a large cavern that opens to the south. Unfortunately, bast the small rocky beach area they arive at, most of the rest of the floor is covered by a wall-tp-wall lake of lava. Farther out, a rope bridge appears to be strung up from one side of the cavern to the other, parallel to the "beach", but there doesn't appear to be a pathway on either side connecting the bridge to anywhere. Past the bridge, the cavern splits.
Seeing no way for the rest of the party to continue, Andromeda uses her last wildshape to become a raven to scout ahead over the deadly lake. She first flies to the left, East, and finds another beach. The cavern dead ends shortly after that, but there is another chest (#6). without the ability to change shape anymore times without taking a rest, she notes the chest's location and flies on, down the other braching tunnel, South. 
Here, she encounters a cross intersection with another rope bridge going east to west, but this time with solid ground on either side. Andromeda continues flying stright across and around a bend in the tunnel whe she suddenly spots two skeleton banditos standing guard at either side of an opening off the side of the tunnel, which has a beach followed by solid ground for about 40 ft before dead ending.
She quickly turns around to fly back to the rope bridge she crossed to land and decide which way to explore next. Unfortunately, she was spotted by one of the undead guardsmen, and while no alarm seemed to have been raised, it does appear in the dead end tunnel on the eastern bank of the lava lake tunnel to launch a ranged attack using the razor sharp tips of its fingertip claws.
The damage is small but enough to knock Andromeda out of her wildshape. Hearing the comotion and seeing the confrontation across the lava, Bee dimension doors with Bayle over to the second rope bridge to come to Andromeda's aid.
They defeat the lone Skeleton Bandito, but the three, now trapped away from the rest of the party with no spells or wildshapes left to get back to each other, decide to take a short rest

Chest 3

• A humanoid skull with the horns of a ram protruding from the forehead
• 2 matching scimitars with patinaed red metal blades

Chest 4

• You open the chest to find inside a long pink tongue and rows of sharp teeth! This is a mimic!
• The mimic appears to have dies some time ago, and is rotting inside it's wooden

Chest 5

• Half the jawbone of some creature with razorsharp teeth (9 here)
• 7 loose monster teeth, all enting in a sharp point

Report Date

09 Nov 2024