[IC] Chapter 2-4: You Hear Them Whispering in the Crowns of the Trees

[Shanna Rendin]

Toot shakes his head in frustration.  With Boo's help, he climbs back into his exotic bear saddle then says, "Creature is powerful and highly resistant to magics.  Including Divination.  Me wish me could commune with nature then his resistance would not matter.  Soon will be able but not now.  Should me try again in the morn or wait to try to gain more of a connection to the creature?"

Shanna taps her lip with her finger as she considers this.  "Hmm...this is unusual news.  You had his scales so the divination should have been relatively seamless..."

Toot returns from his scrying and says with a shrug, "His magic resistance was too great for me to overcome.  If me knew if he had a friendly creature with him then I could have targeted that creature instead but me don't think he has many friends."  Toot looks at the Fey.  "Does he have any friends, guards or companions known to you?"

A wry smiles appears at Shanna's face as she continues to ponder things.  "Perhaps the individual, or individuals, with him are not friendly...either to him or us.  That is even more frightening than before.  A hostile someone with the power to forcibly control an adult green would not be someone I wish to encounter."

The cliff's face can be climbed, a tough climb (DC25) while dry and gets even tougher (DC30) as you reach the area that is wet from the spray of the waterfall.
Rowing with a boat right next to the cliff is possible, using some kind of anchor to get attached to the cliff to avoid the boat being washed away by the turbulent waters next to the waterfall.
Straining his eyes, Giant thinks that the cave entrance is about ten feet wide and it's on the water level so that even someone could swim across. He can also imagine that it's not the entrance that he can see from here but an indentation from the eroding power of the waterfall, and once behind the waterfall, the true entrance should be an easy climb.

How far is the "cave entrance" from the lakeside, from our position?

SG is volunteering to swim across first if no other suggestion. He starts to prepare.

Shanna holds up a finger as she taps his shoulder, indicating her request that he wait a moment.  She scribbles in the ground 'Please let me check for magical barriers or traps.  I would not want us stumbling into something awful the moment we enter.

Assuming he is okay with this, she begins to cast Detect Magic, and will maintain her focus with it on the cave entrance, as they approach.

[Silent Giant]

Shanna holds up a finger as she taps his shoulder, indicating her request that he wait a moment.  She scribbles in the ground 'Please let me check for magical barriers or traps.  I would not want us stumbling into something awful the moment we enter.

Assuming he is okay with this, she begins to cast Detect Magic, and will maintain her focus with it on the cave entrance, as they approach.

Traps? Okay.  - he waits her

[DM Surranó]

The cave entrance is about a hundred feet from the lakeside. (reminder: the lake is roughly oval, about 200 yards by 150 yards in diameter, but if you imagine it as an egg-shape then imagine as the cliff cut off the top of the boiled egg and there you go. So it's a roughly sixty yard straight cliff on the north side)

Assuming Shanna will cast and maintain Detect Magic when the cave entrance is within range, and she's not willing to do that while swimming, is she?
Giant, on the other hand, is willing to swim from the lakeside, or only from the point where the boat is too close to the waterfall to proceed further?

[Silent Giant]

The cave entrance is about a hundred feet from the lakeside. (reminder: the lake is roughly oval, about 200 yards by 150 yards in diameter, but if you imagine it as an egg-shape then imagine as the cliff cut off the top of the boiled egg and there you go. So it's a roughly sixty yard straight cliff on the north side)

Assuming Shanna will cast and maintain Detect Magic when the cave entrance is within range, and she's not willing to do that while swimming, is she?
Giant, on the other hand, is willing to swim from the lakeside, or only from the point where the boat is too close to the waterfall to proceed further?

Giant is willing to swim where it is necessary.

[Merrinna Starsong]

Merri isn't about to let SG swim across on his own. "I am coming with you," she says as she kicks off her boots and removes anything that won't survive the water or impede her swimming.

[DM Surranó]

OOC - So I take it that the party will use the swan feather Cranberry provided and then the strange elf-orc couple will swim through the last few yards to check what's beyond the waterfall, with the others staying in the swan boat until their return?

[Silent Giant]

OOC - So I take it that the party will use the swan feather Cranberry provided and then the strange elf-orc couple will swim through the last few yards to check what's beyond the waterfall, with the others staying in the swan boat until their return?

Yep.

[Shanna Rendin]

Assuming Shanna will cast and maintain Detect Magic when the cave entrance is within range, and she's not willing to do that while swimming, is she?
Giant, on the other hand, is willing to swim from the lakeside, or only from the point where the boat is too close to the waterfall to proceed further?

[[No she is not.  I'm sorry, I was presuming that we had a swan boat she could sit (or stand) in while casting and concentrating.  The range is 60', which is plenty of distance to not have to actually go *under* the waterfall and still get an accurate reading.]]

[DM Surranó]

OOC @Shanna Rendin - yes, that's exactly what I meant: cast the spell while in the boat and neither from the lakeside, nor from the water.
OOC @party - Taking over Lugar now, I'll try to bring up with something that moves the story forward. Do tell me everyone if I took some of your intentions wrong at the end of this chapter.

Keeping a safe distance from both the waterfall and the dormant cylinder of light, Lugar wades thigh deep into the lake (knee deep for the average human), and places the feather on the water surface. It gently floats away from the dwarf, gradually growing and emitting a gradually growing radiation of pale yellow light until it shines like fierce moonlight, piercing the everlasting dusk of this place. Some cover their eyes, or at least avert them, when encountering such sheer whiteness, but those still looking can see purple circles and sparkles popping and bobbing in front of their eyes as the radiation suddenly stops. For them, it takes a moment that seems to be everlasting, but then all behold the magnificent boat of white wood, her bow carved to the likelihood of a swan's recurving neck and head. a pair of short beams run along the outer perimeter on either side of the boat. They serve as steps to facilitate entering the boat, as well as increasing her stability on restless waves.

"Whaddya waitin' fore?" Lugar looks back at the others, then enters the boat first. An uneasy task for a dwarf for sure, be him from the hills, the mountains, or from the depths of Underdark, but it seems the elderly miner wants to get over with it, taking the best spot inside the boat -- right in the middle, the furthest possible from the edge on either side, as well as back and front.

When everyone follows, the party finds six paddles on either side. Whoever takes the rear has surprisingly easy control over steering, and the paddles propel the boat seamlessly towards the cliffside, some fifteen yards west of the waterfall. As the boat approaches, Shanna's eyes start shimmering with blue light. Her gaze penetrates the curtain of rushing water, blocked by no obstacles, can see something magical about thirty feet beyond the waterfall. It is large and statuary; as if the entire area would radiate magic. The strength is moderate and the loremaster can recognise it as some combination of abjuration, transmutation, and conjuration magic, the latter from the teleportation subschool. Does this effect move subjects around? or prevent them from moving? Maybe both?

The boat reaches the cliffside in relative safety. With the grappling hooks and picks the party can muster, it's easy to navigate it to the frothing waves as close as ten feet from the edge of the waterfall.
With Torin's Water Walk, affecting everyone (Boo included) for well over an hour from now, Giant and Merri hop out of the boat and as Lugar can see them easily walking over the surface, he joins their ranks.
The three cross the waterfall, disappear from the eyes of the rest for a minute. Then, Lugar's head peeks through the waterfall, his beard a wriggling soaked snake, calling out,
"Whaddya waitin' fore? It's safe.

Giant and Merri, just like those who follow, take a few steps until they arrive to a cave entrance, half of which is underwater, but still sufficiently high abovewater to walk through it. The floor rises gradually and reaches the water level about five feet from what Shanna designated as a magical aura.

End of chapter, but feel free to add tidbits to this closing post. Continued in Chapter 2-5: You're whirling 'round.

[Toot]

Toot does not care for the idea of floating or walking on the water.  He grumbles loudly which as usual sound more like squeaks but eventually he will make his way with the group to the entrance.  

"Ummmm... how me going to get through waterfall," Toot asks while staring at the barrier of falling water.  "Me only five pounds.  Me could get washed away!"