Decisions and Climbing the Stairs

After resigning themselves to letting the Drow get away, the group guarded the unconscious Orc while talking to the human captive.  Leaving him bound but ungagging him, they learned his name was Rastaff and he was a retained lantern carrier.   He had been hired by a party of roughly a dozen human adventurers who were escorting a group of Drow children towards the Southwest.  Unaware read this of the intentions, Rastaff could only tell the group that they were ambushed by the Drow and Orcs the previous day and half their party fled with the Drow children.  When they stumbled upon the group this morning, the Drow was in the process of interrogating him on the whereabouts of the Drow children, but he couldn't give them any information.  He asked that he be released and in return he gave the party a fist blog and sized gem that he had hidden.  Soveliss recognized the gem as a Radiant Gem of Pelor (minor action to activate a zone burst 3 - lawful good characters gain regeneration 5 - once per day).  The let him go and interrogated the Orc next.  He was part of the Drow recovery party - they were seeking the party of text me humans who kidnapped a bunch of Drow children but knew nothing more.  The arrival of Sir Oakley interrupted their interrogation and while he insisted they slay the evil creature, Edhas among others decided it was best to free the Orc rather than slay him since he seemed to have been doing good by rescuing the Drow children. 

They proceeded around the base of the mountain - several hundred the feet later, Edhas noted a series of foot prints but they decided to ignore them and continue their search for the hidden stairs.  Shortly after, Sir Oakley declared they were close to the stairs but needed to fan out and find them.  A long word discussion about traveling up the stairs in the dark versus waiting until the morning and traveling while exposed to the daylight ensued and they settled on waiting until the Arabian morning.  Curiously, Sir Oakley insisted he hadn't traveled the stairs before and hadn't visited the Abbey since it was still Goggles occupied and active (Thorm noted this would have been 2-300 years ago!).  Was Oakley crazy?  While bedding down for the night, Sir Loin noticed that Oakley's horse, Glue, and add had horseshoes branded and worn in fashion not seen or used in hundreds of years.  Something was definitely odd. 

In the morning, Oakley led the way to the stairwell but Thorm decided it would be wiser for him to go first.  Perilously climbing the stairwell of almost a thousand feet, the one potion of party was taxed by several areas of unstable footing, winds and uncoordinated movements.  Several times, party members nearly fell to an untimely death.  By the time they reached the plateau, Sir Loin was carrying Wyndham and Thorm carried Dora but their efforts left them nearly stretched to their limits.  The Abbey was dominated by three smaller buildings and a large temple.  Since Oakley had warned them of dangers, Edhas skirted the area inspecting for dangers.  Most buildings were intact, but on the southern side of the plateau an old barracks building was exposed to the elements with the ceiling partially collapsed.  A cure moderate strange clicking noise was coming from the inside.  She returned to the party and told them that she was unwilling to approach the larger temple without backup.  Instead they all headed towards the barracks building to investigate the noises. 

In the building, aside from the piles of rubble and old furniture, weathered by time, that identified it as a barracks, a large chitinous creature attacked the party while a pair of wounds ravenous carrion crawlers swarmed the beleaguered party.  The carrion crawlers used their tentacles to stun the party while the bulette charged and bit at them.  Without much energy left, the party threw all their abilities at the monsters and was able to defeat them.  Exhausted and wounded, the group immediately insisted on finding a safe place to rest.