"Alright then, well let's get a movin! Kraz thinks anyways.."
"Do you... does anyone have a spare weapon?" Tirrendale rasps in his pitiful whisper. "I cannot call down my goddess's power, not since they cut my throat. I can channel a little, but no spells."
"That way," he rasps hoarsely, pointing back the way you've come. "On the other side of the big chamber, there's a secret door. That's where the gibberlings come out. I fled, hid among the sea of gibberlings, and made it this far before it all went black..."
Sorin tries to recall what a Gibberling is.
You said a sea? That is quite a lot. Is there anything else you can tell us about what we are walking into?”
Sorin racks her brain, but she's not sure she's even heard of a gibberling.
"Drow," he whispers. "At least ten or fifteen drow at any time. There's a priestess, and a wizard who leads them all. And quaggoths. They have a small base, where they hold us. There might be... a bridge before the gate."
"What's a Gibber? Kraz had never heard of one. Fifteen drow's and shaggy's sound like a lot to fight at once."
"Your right Kraz...that does sound like a formidable group, so we will just have to thin them out a bit! Perhaps we should sneak up and take a look at what this chamber holds before we try to make any plans?"
Jack is secretly relieved that they will not have to return to the small, twisting tunnel.
Nilelane and Sorin put their heads together, and between them they are pretty sure that gibberlings are strange, mutated creatures created by magic or on other planes. They roam in large packs, and are the scourge of whatever environment they're in, like a plague of locusts. Tirrendale confirms this, describing them as small, furry, mindless beasts. The drow have been releasing them in waves, and Tirrendale managed to hide within a pack of them as they were herded out of the drow complex. Where they went, he doesn't know, but he fell unconscious shortly after leaving the pack, battered and bruised.
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"Maybe Jack thought it was a Badger Wizard that attacked him and in fact it was the Gibbers! Tons of Gibber Wizards and Drows do not sound fun.. Kraz thinks we should definitely try to separate them before attacking."
Jack moves over to where the secret door is located and gives the area a check to make sure there are no traps attached to the portal.
Perception:
Tirrendale leads you all back into the huge cavern, and across to the south-east. He stops before a patch of wall only thirty feet to the east of the small tunnel you entered this section of caves through. He stares at it for a moment, then whispers, "It's here, but I don't know how to open it."
Jack steps forward, checking cautiously as he does for traps, then spots a hand-sized depression in the wall. Looking inside it, he sees a rough stone handle. Reaching in, he gives it a tug, and the wall swings out slightly towards you on silent hinges. Jack pokes his head towards the gap, and sees a fifteen-foot wide tunnel head south for twenty feet, then turn left (to the east). It is unlit and silent.
The glowing figure reaches the turn, obviously visible to anyone or anything that maybe around the corner. After ten seconds or so, nothing happens.
"Them wizards sure do have great ideas.."
Kraz moves up with the rest of the group.
Sorin nods agreement with the others and doesn’t have much to add besides moving cautiously behind the illumination figure.
You all creep down the wide, roomy tunnel, following it for maybe 80 feet, with the glowing man-shape preceding you by 20 feet (just far enough for you to stay out of the light, but close enough to benefit from it). 20 feet ahead of the glowing shape you see the the tunnel splits, both forks heading parallel in roughly the same direction (east). As you all instinctively pause, you hear an abrupt, loud creak, then a snap, followed by a crashing and rumbling noise from ahead. Before any of you can react properly, Nilelane's glowing man is buried beneath an avalanche of debris, mostly small boulders and gravel from the brief glimpse you get before the light is buried. As the dust swirls around you, you can see that the tunnel is now blocked for its entire width, but a foot or two of space remains at the top of the tunnel.
Beerg sees the roof ceiling collapse and instinctively steps forward to assist. In doing so gets a lung full of the rubble dust created by the moving earth. Ugh.....Cough, ahhhh, cough
Beerg begins struggling with air and holds his chest as his lungs fill further as he inhales involuntarily with each cough
Con:
Jack, unfortunately, was just in the middle of taking a deep breath to ask the group what they wanted to do, thus inhaling a huge amount of dust! Hacking and coughing, the poor rogue stumbles back towards fresh air.
"Arrrggg.. Cough.."
After the dust settles Kraz will begin digging out the area for better access each way..
"Kraz will move these rocks. Yall keep a look out."
Kraz, Let me help you there. Many hands make light work!
Beerg gets up on the rubble after he stops coughing and gets chance to take a deep clean breath of air.
Sorin quickly covers her mouth and nose with her sleeve. As the dust and debris settle, she watches and readies for an ambush.
As the others begin digging out and she is confident that there is not a pending attack to intercept, she begins helping the others.
Kraz and Jack recover quickly from their coughing fits, but Beerg takes slightly longer to clear his airways. As Kraz begins to clear the debris from the top of the rockfall and Nilelane retrieves her body of light from the pile, Sorin sees a flash of movement with her darkvision - behind the party. Turning, she sees three robed and hooded creatures crouched some 40 feet away. Just as a high-pitched, birdlike twitter emanates from one of them, she calls out to her companions, "Look out!"
Knowing her friends are not ready for the attack, Sorin leaps toward the three enemies hoping to stall them long enough for the others to get prepared.
After reciting a prayer of protection, Sorin clears the forty feet quickly (due to her monk movement). She pauses briefly to consider her opponents. ”Friend or foe? Speak now or feel the wrath of Torm.” she asks while taking a defensive stance with her quarterstaff.
The cowled creatures appear taken aback by Sorin's sudden leap forward, and as one they raise their hands to their faces. A series of 'fwoops' can be heard. Up on top of the rubble pile, Kraz hears the same noise - coming from the other side of the debris.
Nilelane feels a sharp pain in her leg, and looks down to see a small feathered dart protruding from her thigh.
Kraz moves along the rubble, springing off and ending up in front of the middle robed thing.. With a bestial roar he enters a rage as a bonus action.
"Kraz doesn't like sneaky wizards!"
Jack silently shifts himself into the darkness and tries to get into a better position to surprise these mysterious beings.
Stealth:
Sorin focuses two attacks at the creature on her left. The shadows playing games with her perception, her attacks are not well timed.
The figures engaged by Kraz and Sorin drop something to the ground and draw longswords, slashing at the companions with those weapons but also lunging forward to bite! Those not engaged attack again with what must be blowguns.
One of the creatures manages to bite Sorin's forearm, and as its cowl falls back a little she sees that its head and face seem to be half wolf, half snake, with human eyes glinting!
Beerg wtaches as Kraz climbs over the pile of rocks. He the hears Sorin yelp in pain and instinctively runs to her aid
Sorin is relieved to see Beerg coming to her aid as she shrugs off the flesh wound caused by the odd creature. Focusing her ki, she unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches at the creature. The dark tunnels unfortuneately have an effect on her accuracy allowing only one of them to slip through.
that won’t do it
maybe?
oh yeah
Kraz swings at the one in front of him. His face a contorted look of rage..