Chapter 2: Still Caverns Run Deep

Ah, those stairs. Sorry.

Yep.

Nope.

Somewhere to the north. You'd have to crawl up it to find out, and it could run for miles to the spring or drainage point where it originates.

Scott

Gregorius looks at the stream's entrance decidedly unenthusiasticly.

"I should probably check there aren't any surprises up there at some point. And we'll want to install a grille. I think it can wait until we've finished exploring the rest of the cave system, though."

He'll set the quarryers to clearing all but the last foot or so of the one remaining blockage.

You mean the other blockage on this level?

Scott

No, sorry (although that'll need doing as well - my understanding is that it won't tell us anything new, though, as it's just another entrance to the store-room). I meant the one on the bottom level of the cave complex.

You'll have to do something about the water first--that passage is completely filled.

Scott

We already did - we moved it back, and then put in a moon duration block to stop it returning. (https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/campaigns-active/203/1)

Ah, right. Well, once the quarryers have gotten through it, you see that the downward-sloping passage continues.

Scott

Gregorius will request one of Fray's glowing rocks from him, and then proceed down the passage with Alcimus (and probably Fray?)

Fray will also proceed down the corridor.

(Ooc: away with family for a few days, happy to cast anything akin to what has been cast before)

Traveling down the winding passageway, you can see that, up ahead, the stream empties into an underground pond, or maybe even a lake--you're not yet close enough to be sure how big it is. Before you get there, though, Gregorius notices a regio boundary in the middle of the passage. Looking inside, he sees a similar passageway, leading toward what appears to be (rapidly waning) daylight.

Scott

Gregorius points.

"Careful - there's a regio boundary there."

Is the positioning of the regio boundary such that people are likely to stumble through it by accident? And how easy would it be to go round it and proceed in the normal world for now?

Editted to add: And what time is it in the real world?

It's the type of regio you have to see to enter, so no, no one could stumble into it by accident.

It's about sundown.

Scott

Gregorius hesitates.

"I'm not enthusiastic about leaving the regio entrance to our backs, but the light appears to be going in there, and I'd rather explore it when it's not dark. Also, it looks as though the regio reflects at least to an extent the real world, so exploring down the passage may well give us an idea of the geography inside the regio. The good news is it's almost certainly magical, or my sight wouldn't be able to spot the boundary."

He'll proceed onwards towards the water.

[OOC: I'm assuming he's not getting any particular bad feelings?]

It depends on how you intepret that rule...but remember that Gregorius has a high Perception and a reasonably high Second Sight, and you're in an aura of 5, so the bonus to his roll is over 10.

Nope.

Scott

[OOC: +12 for regiones, I think, assuming a level 5 aura still The ease factor for seeing into a foreign aura from a magic aura is going to be 5 + 2 x ( Magic Aura + foreign aura), so I suppose the ease factor would only be 17 for a level 1 foreign aura, which is doable (I'm not sure whether you can have lower level foreign aura, although the text on how regiones are formed implies you might be able to). Or he could have just rolled really well if it was a stress die, of course.]

Anyway, on down the mundane passage to the water!

I've seen a forum thread where someone used that formula, but is it anywhere in the books?

Gregorius finds that the pool at the end of the stream is not all that large--maybe a dozen paces across--though it does fill up most of the cave. There don't appear to be other exits.

Scott

[Rules for seeing regio boundaries are on Page 189.]

Hmmm. So there are no obvious exits, but water would normally flow into here. It's possible it just completely fills the cave and then stagnates, but that wouldn't explain why it wasn't completely full when the blockage was removed. Alternatively, there may be another exit from the cave he hasn't spotted yet...

Gregorius will spend a bit of time searching the cave for any additional ways out. To help in this he'll cast the following spells:

Non-fatiguing aura check.

Eyes of the Cat at Personal Range, MuCo(An) 4. Casting total (Mu 0 + Co(An) 1 + Sta 1 + Aura 5? + die 7) = 7, works. (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4483920/)

Clear Sight of the Naiad, to see clearly through the water, in case there's an exit there (rolling up duration in the unlikely event he can): (In 6 + Aq 0 + Sta 1 + G 1 + Aura 5? +die 9)/2 = 11 - so he can extend it to concentration duration assuming the aura is what I think it is.

Oh, I didn't realize that bit was in the main rules. Seems on the uworkable side, but OK.

Whoops, my mistake--yes, the magi can see that the pool is still filling, having been dry for a while. They can also see a hole which is almost certainly the outlet through which the stream continues. There don't appear to be any proper exits, though.

Scott

[I don't think we undid the blockage to allow water to start flowing yet?]

How big is the hole? (Bigger/smaller than person size?)

Oh, that's right. Well, the pool goes up to the bottom of the hole. The hole is big enough for the stream, but crawling down it would be a tight fit.

EDIT: Actually...it's been over 15 years, so the pool would have dried up by now.

Scott