TTB: C1E19 - Mesym's Fall Report

General Summary

The Bound completed their interrogation of Mesym Bourne, focusing primarily on gaining further information about the entrances and exits to the cave the slavers use as a base of operations. Learning that there is only the one entrance and that there is a natural chimney somewhere within that allows them to safely cook over open fires, Ceasar Andit announces that he has learned everything he needs to know and that Katrina Runesong can take over. While Ceasar and DIGE leave the room, Chance stays with Katrina as she begins to question Mesym further. Chance reminds her that this may be an opportunity to learn more about the whereabouts of her sister, Sarah. Katrina asks Mesym about her sister, giving him a thorough description, but he indicates he has never met anyone that looks like that; saying that he has only operated in the area around the Sea of Fallen Stars. Katrina then proceeds to ask how many girls Mesym has captured over time and when he doesn't have any idea of how many she begins to get angry. Chance tries to talk her down so they can question Mesym further, but the anger takes over and Mesym can sense that he is going to die so he gets desperate and tries to fight his way out, revealing that he is a spellcaster. In the end, however, Katrina disarms him (literally) and he dies of massive trauma and blood loss. Meanwhile, D.I.G.E. decides to begin heading to the cave in the escarpment immediately and will not agree to wait until the others have had time to rest and recover from their battle. Eventually Chance gives up trying to convince him and turns back to the Spouting Fish where he meets the others and they agree to rest for the night and leave in the morning. The party now split, D.I.G.E makes it about an hour out of Scardale Town before needing to enter his stasis mode to recharge as well. In the morning he continues along the road for several hours before cutting due north to intercept the escarpment west of where the cave may be and follow it north-east until he discovers the entrance. About an hour or two behind him, the rest of the party heads out along the road and follows it all the way to the point where the escarpment faces due east, then they head west to the cliff face and follow it west-south-west looking for the entrance. Eventually both parts of the party discover the entrance and each other at about the same time. At this point, Ceasar reveals that his plan is to smoke the slavers out of the cave. He wants Urirel Naïlo to climb up the escarpment and drop a flaming sack of tinder and poison ivy into the chimney and then fill the hole to trap the smoke inside. At the same time Ceasar and Chance use magic to place enough material for a large bonfire about 10 feet inside the cave entrance and then Ceasar once again magically creates a pit trap, this time right outside the entrance of the cave. To finish the trap he casts a minor illusion to hide the open pit from view. Unfortunately, with the chimney blocked there is no airflow through the cave to draw the smoke from the larger bonfire in, so it really just fills the immediate entrance tunnel and then begins to billow lazily out the entrance. To combat this, Ceasar fills the cave mouth with earth and leaves the slavers (and slaves) trapped inside with the smoke for 10 minutes. When he opens the cave mouth again, much thicker smoke rushes out and then dissipates, leaving a heavy haze of smoke inside the tunnel. The group discuss whether to enter or wait longer and come to the conclusion that there's no telling how extensive the cave system is, and therefore no way of telling if the smoke has any chance of being effective. As they are discussing this, D.I.G.E., Ceasar, and Chance all catch sight of humanoid forms moving within the smokey tunnel and then Uri screams out in pain as a crossbow bolt pierces her calf muscle. The ensuing fight is quite drawn out as noone can see clearly on either side of it and the slavers seem happy to lay cover fire with their crossbows while some of them attempt to put out the fire. Eventually, a half-dragon slaver comes to the forefront in response to D.I.G.E.'s taunting and expels a blast of fire from its mouth that catches D.I.G.E. full on. What the half-dragon didn't know is that he had come straight to the edge of the pit and that Chance was just waiting for the chance to telekinetically push someone into it. Most of the other slavers were already dead or fleeing deeper into the tunnels as the party finished off the half-dragon, who had become trapped in the bottom of the pit and vulnerable to Ceasar's attempts to bury him alive. Now the heroes need decide how they wish to proceed - do they give immediate chase to the fleeing slavers, or do they regroup briefly before taking a more cautious approach to their next actions.