Huzzah! Kondor is going to leave the studded leather in a nook when they pass one, but he's a hunter and may find arrows eventually.  Could have sworn I had them.  Anyway, everything is in the backpack, which he's going to drop when he gets into a fight.

As we enter the caves, how warm is it? Are there any signs of traps or hazards as they go along?

[That is correct. But I seem to be all caught up on PMs. Kondor isn’t. I took a discussion about online game groups directly to him, but I don’t think he’s seen it yet.]

Heh, sorry guys. I don't see PMs unless I'm on the desktop, so don't know to look for them.

Kondor and Gundrabu scramble up the rock face to the cave opening. The smoke is sulphuric and the stone is dry. The cave opening is about 10 feet high at the mouth, but the lamp shows the ceiling drops considerably a few feet inside. Both of you will need to lower your heads within.  The cave seems naturally formed although you can see the work of hands and tools along certain seams.

The cave entrance is a circular cavity about 15 diameter 10 feet high and the mouth lowered to around 5 feet high in the rear  where it bends to the right and downward going farther inside the hill.

I expect Gundrabu holds a lighted lantern, his flail ready in his weapon hand.

Iron Ranger wrote:

fireinthedust wrote:

Before going in, Kondor looks over the landscape, back toward the scorched sanctuary. He's looking to get an idea of the direction it's in compared to the cave system.

After that, Kondor leads the way.

[Man, Kondor +500 XP for that, never thought anyone would do it!]

Kondor cannot get an accurate read on direction with these heavy snowclouds blocking out the starmap overhead, but he knows he traveled generally east from the sanctuary.  
There is a glowing red light atop the sanctuary, a dull pulse. 
And you can see tiny flicks of torchlight slowly approaching it from the south.

“Huh. Looks like the sanctuary will have new visitors soon. The red light means someone rang the bell, and the torches from the south are perhaps new travelers. I wonder, Gundrabu, if we’re all here because we have all been drawn by strange sorcery. Emral, us, Tetranna, the Picts hanging from the roof, and I might even guess the beast men. We have to explore the cave, and rest, but when we return I think we’ll have to scout the place first. Any corpses may become undead if the new people are slain by the curse.”

His voice is calm, as though accepting the inevitability of the conclusion as much as his understanding that as mere mortals they cannot just dash across the hoary wasteland to see the newcomers.

Kondor is ready to enter the cave, leading Gundrabu when he’s ready.

Kondor steps inside the cave, his hulking form casting shadows as it blocks the light from the lantern which Gundrabu holds. The cave seems warm and he feels a radiating heat from down the dark bend near the rear of the cave. Once inside, Gundrabu's lantern radiates light across the cave which sparkles with iridescent dust painted across the top of the dome.

Kondor is unfamiliar with this substance or why it refracts the lantern light in such realistic colors.

The iridescent dust has been painted on the cave's dome with some type of sticky resin. The image depicts a group of figures in motion around a large bonfire in which a tied figure burns. Hovering above the commotion is a slender silver plate shaped object.

Last edited by Iron Ranger (5/19/2020 5:51 pm)

[Ha, now you guys are on to something!  Gundrabu +500 XP!]

Gundrabu looks up to the dark sky, the heavy cloud cover moving west toward the sanctuary. The starmap of Hyperborea regaining its twinklings of direction and directly above the clearing surrounding the fire pit -- a total absence of stars in a perfect circle.

Eirvit wrote:

Gundrabu stage whispers into the cave behind him.

”Kondor, leave the light inside a moment, and please come here.”

[Gundrabu expects that there is some disc hovering up there, absorbing starlight. His player expects that it is impossible to judge how high up it is, but if his player is wrong, Gundrabu tries to get an estimate.]

Kondor joins him, looking up.  "What do you think, some... flying beast hovering above us? Blocking out the stars like a cloud blocks the sun? How does it hold still like that, without flapping wings? It holds still, like some sort of ship at anchor."

ooc: this is my guess, like maybe a floating island? Or UFO, because it's AS&SH and it might have one of those.