3:40 PM, there's a door down the hallway, looks carved into the inside of the tree here, Telal takes a good while to check it out & eventually gets something to pop in the moldy keyhole & then nudge the door open. The party finds a groggy & confused owlbear inside, the room is about 30' x 30' circle, 12' high ceilings, they notice a ladder going up into a hole in the ceiling across the room. Leif casts Speak w/ Animals & starts trying to parley w/ the owlbear. The owlbear isnt having it however & becomes hostile, but doesnt attack. After much talk, Leif presents an offer that they could bring the owlbear an alligator to eat if he'd let them pass. The owlbear agrees to the offer, reluctantly, & begins dozing a bit as the party goes about making this happen. The gnolls & Djarel are sent to retrieve one of the alligators, & luckily, they are all still asleep. They manage to secure one w/ ropes & drag it to the owlbear's lair in about 45-60 minutes... While the owlbear dozed, the party waited @ the door & looking around the layer noticed what looked to be a throne carved into the wood on the wall across the circular room/// when the alligator finally makes it, the owlbear attacks it w/ gusto, hacking, hugging it to death, then beaking out large chunks of meat; the party moves around the room toward the throne where Melon spots his two bags of silver, they grab them, then examine the throne where below, in a hole behind cobwebs, they find a small chest, they then grab a statue of a paladin from a table nearby & then book it up the ladder, all while the owlbear still worked on his dinner... Atop the ladder they come to a room where a hole leads down into dark, or a window to a staircase they can see; first trying the hole, they go down a bit w/ a rope, but then come back & exit the window & down the staircase, out of the tree & into the plain. There in the grass they inspect their findings, busting open the chest, they find two books: one a journal of some sort, quick glance shows Eric Talbot's name on the front page, then the other is a larger tome that seems concerned w/ understanding the universe, also, in a corner, is a tuft of Spanish moss. It is 6:40, the sun setting, so the party decides to enter back in the hollow branch they entered the tree in earlier; however, as they reach the branch, & Telal goes in w/ rope, plus the two gnolls, 3 stirges appear from nowhere, perhaps in top of tree, or somewhere else, swooping down on them...
7:20 PM, Friday, 15th day of the month of the Hummingbird, Talbot, Furthermoor
*lair
ReplyDeleteI'll tell ya—as a player, the much of the excitement of the sesh was that there was NO confirmation that the owlbear had agreed to the alligator offer. Made for lots of tension as we waited for the gator and tried to cross that room...
Can you basically confirm that "Speak w/ Animals" saved our arses?
Yes, it helped that you could communicate about the alligator w/o having it w you... Plus, the owl bear's reaction roll @ that moment also went to yr favor, so both things clicked; his confirmation was basically his chilling out & waiting, etc.
DeleteRe: lair, haha, thx, i typed this in a hurry & many times my fingers forget my brain
Yes, Lee you did come through for us. That was a fun encounter and nice call ending before the combat sesh
ReplyDeleteMN, the gator was YOUR idea. genius, actually. I wonder if the outcome woulda been any different if I woulda saved "speak w/ animals" and we'd all just backed outta the room and gone for the gator...
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