CH 9: To the Walls of Pax Tharkas

[Jenara]

(Order is good, we'll go with it, never suggested they go sixty feet away! Just didn't make it clear.)

"Good thinking Goldmoon, lets do that." Laurana keeps her bow at the ready.

-----

"The order is a good idea, let us move with care." Sturm comments as he moves to the right of Laurana.

[JadedDM]

The party travels down the tunnel for 120 feet before reaching a crossroads. The corridor continues straight ahead at 20 feet wide; it also branches to the right in a corridor of about the same width.

More significantly, the dust on the floor of the tunnels now shows the passage of many feet. The marks extend into both of the passages continuing into the mountain; only the corridor leading to the gate seems to have been untraveled before.

"Which way?" asks Caramon.

"Well, we came in from the north, right?" Eben says. "And Pax Tharkas is south. So...we should head south. At least, that's my two coppers."

[Jenara]

"A sensible suggestion. Riverwind is there any signs of anything going this way?" Laurana asks stopping the group.

[Nuke]

"There has been lots of traffic in these tunnels now, only our entrance was not."

[Kafen]

"I say we go the other way." Tas pipes up. He looks at the tracks. "If we are going straight there, it is smart to go straight there. If we are trying to be sneaky, we should not go straight there. Unless of course, we want to go straight there and get caught." He looks to the side and thinks about it. "That would be fun, though. We could go straight there and get caught. We could find our friends in that case. I bet the others would love to see us!"

[Jerrard]

"Perhaps Tas has a point? The most obvious route might lead us into a trap. I say we take the route straight on, and see where it leads." The Knight looks down the passage. "Laurana?"

[Jenara]

"Tas and I will take a look, stay here, we will check the end of the passage and then return." Returning her bow to its quiver she draws her blade, "It was your idea Tas." She moves slowly and as quiet as she can down the passage until the limit of the light.

[Jerrard]

Sturm Hurumps quietly, but says nothing as she departs. "We wait five minutes."

[JadedDM]

Laurana and Tas carefully move sixty feet down the western corridor, stepping outside the light of Goldmoon's spell. This takes a single minute.

What they see is that the tunnel continues along, then splits into two further paths.

Eben snorts and shakes his head. "Geez, I know I'm the new guy, but are we really going to listen to the kender instead? He'll probably lead us right to the most dangerous, but in his mind, 'fun' monster he can find." Nevertheless, he patiently waits for the two scouts to return.

Caramon stands by, his sword at the ready. He never put it away after entering the cavern. He seems pale and a little disquieted, but also quiet alert. His eyes dart back and forth, as if waiting for something to leap out of the darkness.

[Jenara]

"Princess lead us to friends." Magpie says angrily to Eben, "She no lead us wrong." The little gully dwarf glares at the new human, he was mean to Tas too.

"Lets go to the fork and see what we can see.." Laurana walks on, ending at the fork, using her infravision.

[Kafen]

Tas leads the way and stays stealthy while containing his eagerness. Spotting the fork, he looks for the most travelled path. Assuming he can tell it from the path least travelled, he kneels and picks up some of the rocks looking for obviously different types of minerals on the surface as he tries to match the debris on the path to the sides of the rock face.

[JadedDM]

As far as Tas can tell, both paths are equally well-traveled. He finds nothing telling or interesting about any debris on the ground.

[Jenara]

(What can Laurana see when she looks down each passage with her Infravision?)

[JadedDM]

(OOC: From her vantage point? Nothing. Or do you mean you want Laurana to walk up to each path and look down it?)

[Jenara]

(ooc: she will walk to the start of each path, and look)