[Let's Play] The Legends of Skyfall: Monsters of the Marsh

[deaddmwalking]

Half vote for jumping back.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to face him.

[Thaluikhain]

Face the deer.

[Beroli]

The Stag has Expertise 8 and Vitality 6, and can do 2 Points of Damage with his antlers. The difference between your Expertise ratings is such that he cannot hurt you and so you automatically win.

The Stag lies dead at your feet. Although the rest of the herd is watching, none of them approach any closer. You can cut enough meat from the stag's haunches to add three days' meals to your supply, although you will need to cook it before eating.

Leave the cleft and go West?
Go back North?
Investigate the dense clump of bushes?
Plow through the mud into the cleft?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Clump of bushes.

[deaddmwalking]

Sure. Let's find the guard hiding in the bushes and deal with him before he alerts everyone else.

[JourneymanN00b]

Check out the dense clump of bushes.

[Beroli]

Parting the bushes, which grow close to the steep rocky wall of the Mount on the left-hand entrance to the defile, you detect a narrow ledge which will enable you to reach the firmer ground further in without going through the glutinous mud at the entrance.

Move along the ledge?
Move on along the South Eastern corner of the Mount?
Head (back) North along the Eastern side of the Mount?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to move along the ledge.

[deaddmwalking]

Yes. Let's walk along the ledge.

[Thaluikhain]

Agreed.

[Beroli]

A short scramble along the ledge and you are past the worst of the mud. The defile is only about twenty feet wide and the stream hurries down a pebbly course along its right-hand side.

Along the left, the ground is covered with grassy hummocks. The footing is firm but you have to weave from side to side to find a way forward. There are no real trees here, but a few holly bushes have established themselves. About seventy-five feet up the defile, you notice that one bush appears to have a small cave beyond it.

You are in a narrow defile. To your left it runs South East down to a narrow, muddy valley which leads away to the North East around a shoulder of the Mount. A large meadow stretches away on the other side of the valley. To your right it curves around to the North, narrowing as it climbs higher into the Mount.

In front of you is a large holly bush, partially concealing the mouth of a small cave.

Behind you a small rivulet tumbles along the Eastern side of the defile to form a stream in the valley.

Go right?
Go (back) left?
Go into the cave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Into the cave.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to go into the cave.

[Beroli]

The holly leaves are unexpectedly sharp, causing some uncomfortable gashes on hands and wrists as you try to part the branches.

Get down and crawl beneath the thickest of the damaging foliage?
Take the worst the leaves can do, don't crawl?
Leave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Half vote to crawl under.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to get down and crawl.

[deaddmwalking]

We haven't had much luck with caves so far, but I think crawling is fine. If we walk, we might get entirely entangled in the sharp leaves.

I have a holly bush beside my house right be the electricity meter. I have to trim that thing regularly and it fights back. If the author has similar experiences, I imagine he'd like to see us suffer for our hubris.

[Beroli]

The cave is about five feet high and only a little wider. You may have to move in a half-crouch to proceed. It is also quite dark within, so you must light a torch. (If you did not have a torch, you would automatically change your mind about going inside.)

In the light of your torch you are able to see that this is not really a cave at all; someone has tunnelled into the mountain, and timber props have been placed to support both roof and walls. You realize that there, has been a considerable rockslide here at some time in the past - what you had previously thought of as the steep side of the defile is actually the foot of the scree, and someone has made a way through to whatever the rockslide had covered.

Screenshot 2026-05-08 205016.png (227.01 KiB) Viewed 1067 times

The floor of the tunnel slopes gently upwards, but you cannot see anything of interest within the thirty odd feet illuminated by your torch.

Go in?
Leave?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[Thaluikhain]

Go in.

[deaddmwalking]

Is leaving something anybody would do? Push on, intrepidly, like the bold explorer we are.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to go in.

[Beroli]

The tunnel leads inwards and upwards, almost due East for a hundred feet. Then it emerges into a very large space, too large for your torch to reveal much in the way of detail. Indeed, you cannot even see the roof. You can see a level floor some ten feet below the inward end of the tunnel, down a slope of loose rock. To either side are rock walls a little over twenty feet away. It seems that there used to be a large cave here, narrowing to an entrance fifty feet wide which has been blocked by the ancient rockfall.

There is no sound of movement beyond the light of your torch.

Scrambling down the slope of loose rock, you start a tour of the dark cave below and some minutes later you have the position clear in your mind.

The inner cave is about one hundred and twenty feet long from East to West and some ten feet less from North to South. At the Eastern end it narrows to about fifty feet and the scree which blocks the entrance has spread out to almost cover the floor of this narrow part.

Near the North Wall lies an enormous skeleton, seventy feet long from nose to tail. From the scales scattered near it you are sure it must have been a Green Dragon and you guess this must have been how Dragon's Mount got its name, centuries ago. It was probably imprisoned by the rockfall and starved to death.

Screenshot 2026-05-09 094958.png (141.09 KiB) Viewed 1048 times

You have also discovered three passages leading out of the main cave. All are ten feet high and wide. One leads North from the North West corner. Another leads West from the centre of the West wall. The other leads South, sloping downwards, and is about fifty feet along the Southern wall from the South West corner.

The North and South passages and the area near the walls in the large cavern have a thick layer of dust on the floor. However, there seem to have been more recent comings and goings across the centre of the main cavern and into the Western passage. You cannot identify any specific tracks.

Go North?
Go South?
Go West?
Go (back) East?

Name: Andrew Bond
Sex: Male
Expertise: 13
Vitality: 17/20
Fortune: 14
Equipment: Sword, dagger, fifty feet of rope, some torches, flint, steel, tinderbox, 2 doses Potion of Healing (+8 Vitality), Ring of Fortune (double all Fortune gains), Centaur Amulet.
Provisions: 8 days, Centaur Leaves in effect until the end of day 19 (real food needs to be eaten when day becomes 20)
Travel time so far: 12 days, 5.5 hours
Deaths: Captured as a slave and worked to death, stabbed with a poisoned dagger, drowned when a dam collapsed, captured as a slave and sacrificed

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to go west.

[deaddmwalking]

No hoard? Sad.

Wesr is fine.