To fight the dead - round 2

[tomcat]

Although gaming with PbP can be very descriptive with the written word, it can also be challenging to convey an image so that all people are 'seeing' the same thing. I am attaching the following picture of what the Sunstead-folk call the Crown of Barrows, and the warren of tunnels that have been dug by the barrow-wights. I don't provide this for you guys to meta-game, meaning your characters don't know what you know, but to make sure you are all on the same visual playing field. 

[Telcontar]

  awesome, thanks Doug.

Bandy scrounged around the barrow collecting the clay pots. He grabbed the hem of his cloak to make a make shift gunney sack to carry them on his hip. after shaking the pots to wet the wicks he wrapped them in the rags he found as hastily as he could.

"You big folk will have to trust to steal, I'llmake due with the deadly aim of Hobbit of the Northfarthing. And if that sword belonged to a king of old then it should be used to defend the realm, as a king should. Not lie moulding in the ground. Take it or leave it we mat get going. RORIN! We are coming. Now for a last sprint friends and let us be on our foe and end this fools errand."

The small legs of the Hobbit then took off in the direction the barrow ghoul had gone.

[disench4nted]

"What have I done? What foolishness led me to rush into the mists alone? Curse your stupidity Rorin, you should have never left the light of the bonfire!"

As the fog of unnatural sleep began to clear from his mind, Rorin silently chastised himself.

"Enough! If Caewin is here, he must have come underground with the others, and they are surely searching for the both of us. I must bide my time until I have the strength to fight back."

He tilted his head slightly towards where Caewin lay so that he could watch whatever was happening and silently focused on trying to force his stiff limbs to move again.



You have Rorin down for 1 success die, but I don't think he was present when the song was sung to rally people. So I'm not sure that he should have it.

[Telcontar]

Ooc: yes he does. We were on the downs at the time.

[tomcat]

Bandy moved to the open sarcophagus, where Esgalwen and Grimbeorn had found the hole. He climbed up and into the stone box until he was over the darkness that sank below, and then let his torch drop. It fell a short distance down and landed on the floor of another dug tunnel.

"Wait, my friend," said the ranger. "Bold be your heart, but let it not also be foolish. I shall go down first."

"Nay, woman," interrupted Grimbeorn. "Let the strongest of us go first."

Esgalwen gave a small laugh at the man's chauvinism, or maybe it was concern, but she replied, "Grimbeorn, you and Arbogast are both armed with weapons that to be effective must swing. I on the other hand am armed with a stabbing weapon, which can be accommodated in thin tunnels. Do not worry, if we meet them down there and I cannot drive them forward, it may not matter for the lot of us."

The Beorning could only give a gruff nod at the woman's logic.

Esgalwen jumped down into the tunnel below and then assisted Bandy down, with his makeshift satchel. The Hobbit's eyes were wide, but the Dúnadan admired the courage within his heart. Moments later, Arbogast and Grimbeorn were down and with torches lofted above their heads, so as not to create bright spots in their eyes, they started moving west towards some unknown target. Hopefully, they would also find their companion, Rorin, and the Master of Sunstead.

As they walked, Esgalwen whispered to Bandy, "You are right about the weapon, Bandobras, but unfortunately we Big Folk are not skilled in its use. Besides, though it be a treasured item and would seem more fit in the hands of a king, and not moulding away, I have heard that some things become tainted by the Shadow. I cannot speak of such things for this particular weapon, but if these foul wights have cast evil spells upon it, than it serves us no good. Let Ceawin claim it, if he should leave this place alive and then have the desire to come down, once more, into these barrows."
Feel free to add anymore you want to this narrative and dialogue, but I am going to set up Round 3 for when you guys enter the next engagement scene.

[Eclecticon]

"You big folk will have to trust to steal, I'llmake due with the deadly aim of Hobbit of the Northfarthing. And if that sword belonged to a king of old then it should be used to defend the realm, as a king should. Not lie moulding in the ground. Take it or leave it we mat get going. RORIN! We are coming. Now for a last sprint friends and let us be on our foe and end this fools errand."

Arbogast nods.  "Onward, onward," he rasps. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Do any of us have rope or is the hole something that one could get down easily without it?

[tomcat]

the hole is just about a 10 foot drop, Matt, and then you guys can follow it straightway across to the other barrow.

[Telcontar]

Bandy seemingly disconnected from events for a moment pushed aside the budding warrior aspect and again turned his keen mind in the direction of the scholar.

"What you say is true Lady Esgalwen, but we found the sword in a crypt untainted and the coffin secure. Such wealth and weapons have perhaps survived the passage of time to assist the living and secure the defense of the people, though the king who had them buried is long from his throne, his stewardship might still endure. Such wealth would do much to ease the people of the Black Tarn, and build a mighty wall. Perhaps even to hire some of Rorin's folk of the mountain to lay stone foundations to the wooden halls of Mirkwood."

Esgalwen stared at the Hobbit for a moment, torch held aloft in the burrow of an undead fiend the Hobbit had so easliy perceived a brighter and more cheerful outcome. Hobbits were strange folk indeed.

"But first, we must rescue our friends, and end this horror if we may." He pointed his torch ahead of himself, "after you and may your thrusting be keen and sharp for I shall stand ready to throw."

[Eclecticon]

I'm guessing that, given the tightness of the tunnel and the need to hold a torch, Arbogast still can't ready his shield.  In fact, he's probably going through the tunnel sideways.