[Let's Play] The Legends of Skyfall: Monsters of the Marsh

[Beroli]

This passage is ten feet wide and roughly ten feet high, but the roof and walls are quite uneven. It looks as though a natural passage in the rock has merely been widened here and there. The floor has some dusty patches, but is much cleaner than the other two passages leading from the main cavern.

The passage is fifteen feet long: at the Eastern end is a large cavern, while the other end leads to a half open door. Peering cautiously around the door, you will see a room some twenty feet from East to West and perhaps thirty feet wide. There is a closed door in the centre of the opposite wall and there are some chairs and benches with equipment upon them.

There is no sound from the room.

Enter?
Go back to the previous room and make a different choice?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to enter.

[Thaluikhain]

Entre.

[Beroli]

You enter the room and look around by the light of your torch.

Both North and South walls have work benches standing against them, and both benches are covered with an untidy array of equipment. Papers are scattered around both benches and the floor, some bottles and retorts have been smashed, and a wooden stool lies overturned in a corner. On either side of the door in the East wall through which you entered are what must once have been comfortable, upholstered couches. Both have been ripped to shreds, and you now notice that chunks have been gouged from the edge of the open door.

Looking closer, you see that the Western door is actually made of metal, and dogged shut by heavy clips. That one appears to be undamaged.

You have a look at the papers, but the symbols and writings on them mean nothing to you. Similarly, the purpose of the equipment is a mystery, although it seems various liquids and powders have been mixed and heated in a large jar. Oddly enough, although the contents of most of the surviving bottles seem to have degenerated into a gooey paste over the years, a few appear to have been introduced more recently.

In particular, a ceramic bowl, which has been placed to collect liquid condensing from an oddly-shaped glass, is still half full of a clear mauve liquid.

Taste the liquid?
Smash the equipment?
Remove the clips on the sealed door?
Go back?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm..remove clips?

[deaddmwalking]

I like opening sealed doors. Maybe there are prisoners. We could use the allies. Maybe it's a scary monster. We could unleash it on the reptile people... I think whatever is beyond this door is more likely to a solution than a new problem.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to remove the clips.

[Beroli]

The clips are slightly rusted, and need a considerable effort to move. Evaluate E + 4H. If you score less than 13 you are unable to move them. (With an Expertise of 13 you cannot fail this.)

You manage to undo the door and open it. It is quite hard to move, and there is a rush of cold air when you eventually swing it towards you. Beyond is a narrow, obviously artificial passage carved from the rock. It is just over six feet high and four feet wide and leads West as far as you can see in the light of your torch.

Enter this passage?
Leave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Entre.

[deaddmwalking]

Sally forth!

Which really means to exit through a door leaving the castle but I'm fine with meaning enter through a door and go deeper inside.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to enter.

[Beroli]

As you enter the passage from the disordered work room, you notice that there are similar securing clips on the other side of the door, which can obviously thus be closed and fastened from either side.

Seal the door behind you?
Leave it open?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

That is a tricky question. If we close the door we cannot be followed, which, under the circumstances, seems like it would be to our benefit. Whether we latch the door or not, anyone who finds it open could seal us in. So half vote for sealing it behind us with the expectation that we'd suffer more from pursuit than needing to flee quickly.

[JourneymanN00b]

I also vote to seal the door behind Andrew Bond.

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm,,,not that it matters, but half voting to seal, because I favour the idea, but not strongly.

[Beroli]

Closing and dogging the door behind you, you set off along the narrow passage. It leads straight West for eighty feet, and ends at another similar door, again secured by clips. Condensation appears to be forming on the surface of the door which is cold and clammy to the touch. There is a small puddle on the floor before it.

The clips securing this door are more difficult to move; you will need a result of 15 to open it.

Try to open the door?
Leave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

They could be trying to indicate a water containment system. The thing is, water flows downhill, so it's hard to keep a reservoir at the top of a mountain. Narratively, I expect us to drown if we open the door in front of us, but realistically, that should be the least concern.

Half vote for opening the door.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to try to open the door.

[Beroli]

Unfortunately or fortunately, as the case may be, your roll produces only a single heads for a result of 14 and you find yourself unable to open the door. You return to the entrance cavern.

Go North?
Go South?
Leave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

I am always deeply suspicious of a preference for the South, so vote for North.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to go north, as there are very few moral incentives to head South nowadays.

[Beroli]

This passage is ten feet wide and ten feet high. Fifty feet long, it runs North-South. The floor is thick with dust.

At the Southern end it enters a large cavern in the North Western corner.

At the Northern end it leads into a twenty-foot-square room through the centre of the South wall.

This room is twenty feet square and twelve feet high, carved from the solid rock. The floor bears a thick layer of dust. A passage ten feet high and ten feet wide leads West from the centre of the Western wall. A similar passage leads South from this room in the centre of the Southern wall.

Of particular interest, however, is the creature in the North Eastern part of the room. It has the body, legs and tail of a large lion, but the head, although surrounded by the typical mane of a male lion, has the face of a bearded man with a fierce, set expression. From mane to tail the creature is some ten feet long and the head is as high as your own.

Cross the design on the floor to approach the creature?
Go back South?
Go West?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[deaddmwalking]

The cover of the first Xanth novel (my favorite series in 2nd grade and for many years after) depicts the protagonist treating with a Manticore in the castle of an oracular Magician.


In any case, if Bink was brave enough to saunter up to a Manticore with nothing more offensive than hot pants, how could we do less? Vote for approaching.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to approach the creature.

[Beroli]

As soon as your foot crosses the design on the floor, a tremor runs through the Sphinx. Its chest heaves as it takes a deep breath, and it turns its baleful countenance towards you. The mighty jaws begin to open.

Attack the Sphinx? (You will have SURPRISE for the first two rounds of combat.)
Wait and see what it does?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed