3 Arodus
post-lunch

So, having found a clue in the trash at the book store, we put our heads together to figure out “Guardian’s Way”.  Even though nobody had been born here or even lived here a week ago, we collectively determined it was a place, not a street, and from there it was easy to find it was another outpost left over from the Goblinblood Wars, but also now abandoned, much like our local citadel.  It was over 6 miles away, so more than a five minute walk but probably less than two hours at a leisurely pace.

A sometimes heated discussion ensued; Aemi felt that we needed to go straightaway to Guardian’s Way, while several of the rest felt we hadn’t yet made the citadel safe enough for the Bumblebrashers to move back, as we’d promised, and further, that task should be complete before we left town any farther than the citadel.

A compromise was reached.  Going to Guardian’s Way today would have us arriving in late afternoon and possibly exploring the outpost in dim light anyway.  So the rest of today would be spent taking care of loose ends in the citadel (like the skeletons in the holding cells and the gelatinous cube we found), making the place once again safe for the goblins, and then leaving in the morning for Guardian’s Way.  Aemi more than once said something about wanting to find the gate quickly, not necessarily Voz, but that the two might be intertwined.  In the end she agreed to leave tomorrow.

So, today, the next thing up was the skeletons.  In the short time we’d been together, we’d all improved in the things we do (like healing, destroying, and triggering traps) so we felt pretty sure that this encounter with the skeletons would go better.  We headed back to the citadel, headed over to the room outside the holding cells (without opening the door to the cells!) and surveyed that room.  We decided to move the existing furniture so as to create a passage that twisted back and forth before emptying into the middle of the room.  Bows and crossbows would get two or three shots before a skeleton reached the end, where melee experts would finish it off.  Additionally, using magic to open/close the door we could guarantee with fair certainty that only one skeleton at a time could come out the door, so they couldn’t gang up on anybody.

Very controlled.  Minimal risk.  Uh-huh.

First problem.  Without our being in the room of cells, the skeletons had no reason to come out.  So they didn’t.  Finally Qantrip jumped into the room, made a face at them and quickly jumped out the door.

That did it. They headed after her.

Second problem.  Liberté decided to use long arm to fight the skeleton “safely” over the barrier.  Unfortunately, when he and Marcus hit it, Kyira decided to advance into the labyrinth to finish it off.  But now she was the only target for every skeleton that came out of the room, and we’d intentionally built it to be narrow.  She was going to take damage every round now from whatever skeleton was before her, and also find it difficult to retreat because of the close quarters.

I think I missed every shot with my bow.  Although Kyira made sure the first skeleton was now a pile of bones, the second one hit Kyira especially well, and now she was in danger of dying at the hands (bones) of this second skeleton.  She tried to step back gingerly (and got another cut for her trouble) before formally and carefully disengaging, and I quickly cast shield of faith, drew my morningstar, stepped between the two of them and smacked it good – it fell and did not rise.

Well at this point our plan of safely shooting from a distance fell apart, at least for me.  Armored up and swinging a good chunk of pointy steel, I blocked the way to the others.  Between my armor and shield of faith, (and Liberté’s helping guard my flank) they had a tough time nicking me.  Eventually it was Gath who brought down the last one with a blunt arrow, but the whole thing didn’t go exactly as planned.  Not even close.  There’s probably a lesson here, but nothing we couldn’t learn again later.

With the skeletons out of the way, we were able to go into the room and seek out the magic we sensed there earlier.  There were a variety of weapons and minor magic items, but the breastplate of one of the skeletons caught my eye.  I can’t easily carry both it and my scale mail at the same time, but I think I’m going to trade up when next I have an opportunity to switch.

That taken care of, next up was the gelatinous cube.  What the heck led it to take up residence where it did??  After consultation with others in the group, it quickly became apparent that it was not a great pursuer, although it could probably dissolve both people and weapons if we obligingly embraced it.  So – distance weapons.

And fire.  Fire was very effective, so Qantrip’s burning hands were welcome.  Some fire, and some arrows, and we had ooze splashing all over the floor.  And a magical battleaxe retrieved from its interior.

Since we still had afternoon left after all that, Marcus and Gath checked out the tunnel to the Pickled Ear.  The end in the Ear’s basement no longer opened freely, so we supposed Roxie kept her promise of blocking it off.

Tomorrow, Guardian’s Way.