"There's a tripline here," he replies, pointing along the ground, "which if triggered, will have those boulders crashing down on us," he finishes, pointing upslope to said boulders. "I could attempt to disarm it, but it's actually quite delicate and complicated, so I can make no guarantee at my success. And I suspect it's intended to act as much an alarm as a trap, so even finding a safe way to set it off may give us away. I will make the attempt if everyone thinks that's best, but if someone else has a better idea, I am open to suggestions."
Selina crouches beside Jonath and observed the trap. Quite clever indeed. "Do you feel it is necessary to disarm it? Perhaps we could set up our own trap by triggering it from a distance."
He shakes his head at the soldier, the boys mind is right but leading with your heart gets you almost killed. He turns his attention to the others. "Yeah we need to kill these bitches from a distance. We can make ourselves scarce over there maybe."
Betimi nods her appreciation of Tomreal's kind gesture and hands him her rope, as well as the light crossbow and ammunition, followed by a puch with 4 days rations.
[Thus lightening her load enough (20 lbs.) AND equipping Tomreal with supplies that might keep him alive.]
She patiently waits while Jonath investigates the trap.
"Would it be wise to alert them and draw the kobolds out of their lair en masse in an area where they will have advantage, because they will undoubtedly have created ample spots to ambush from, or better to sneak as close to their lair as possible before we are detected?"
If we draw them out they may get time to use the hostages against us as well.
It is just a trip-wire, are you not confident that you can bypass the trap simply by coaxing the mules over it without setting it off? The rest of us should be able to step over it now that we are aware of it's presence"
"Yeah that be true Betimi. Perhaps, they be just waitin' to jump us. Droppin' the rocks on their heads was what I was thinkin'. Gettin' the bastards with their own trap." Mardak stays low as he continues to keep his voice down.
[OOC: I would echo Betimi's question - now that we have spotted the trap, is it possible to just step over it? I assume doing so would cause some risk of setting it off, especially the mules, but would like some DM guidance before we continue.]
"That is why I inquired about setting it off from afar for our benefit. Perhaps we could tie a rope to the wire loosely, lead ita few dozen feet, then pull it."
Selina was clearly trying her hand at tactics here.
"My point was that at the moment they may be unaware of our presence. They certainly seem to be from what Jonath heard in the fissure. If we trigger the trap at all we raise alarms. If we attempt to lure some of them into the trap, we will have to raise alarms. I think the trap might be better used to cover our retreat. Setting a rope to trip it as we escape, as I doubt we can defeat an entire kobold warren once we rescue the captives.
If Mardak wasn't crouching low, he was now. Planning is not my forte and never will be, but there was some heft to Betimi's words. Perhaps a plan will happen at some point. Mardak continues reminiscing the nasty parts of what he remembers, tries to figure out how he seen a dragon so high up in the air and the exact details of such, perhaps the gods were just being mean. Then tries to figure how he was branded an attempted murderer when he helped to put out the fire in the camp so the dragon couldn't see it. Was it a plan to get the group killed, he comes to the conclusion it wasn't. Did he want to kill the group? No. Did the priestess realize just because he was unconscious, does it mean he went deaf? Apparently she didn't realize that. Why did no one but him react to the Priestess wandering off early in the morning to have 'A bath' when everyone seen her wander off?
Trust was going to be an issue no matter what between people of different races and the short time we know each other but their mission, the goal oriented people's mission, was to save hostages or something like that. Mardak's mind was usually keener than what comes out of his mouth
Reminiscing is a fools backwards dream, you can't do anything about past mistakes, so fuck em'
"Yeah what she said...And what are we to do."
"Very well then. We shall leave it and continue to trust in Master Jonath's ability to find any other surprises the little bundles of torment might have in store for us."