Hue wanted to capture this poor unfortunate. He wanted to complete the mission. He wanted to go home. But his heart just wasn't in it.
As the second Droki appeared, Maddy leapt into action. She dove forward, trying to grapple the derro. However, Dawnbringer hampered her - she didn't want to stab Droki, but was loath to drop the sword. The mad derro slid aside, and the shepherdess missed her target.
Precious had no idea where the second derro had come from, but with Maddy charging at their quarry with arms spread wide, only for the derro to slip out of her grapple, the ranger decided to play it safe. A murmured incantation, his open palms pressed against the ground, summoned a forest of clinging vines and roots that sought to tie down everyone in the area - Droki, Maddy, and the mirror-image of the strange muttering derro.
”Sorry ‘bout this in advance, lass,” Precious said, hoping Maddy wouldn't take the spell too personally… as he was well aware she could break him in half whenever she wished if she got too cross with him.
Droki stopped moving when his double showed up beside him. He started to say, "Aha! More Droki, more time! This will..." Then he heard Maddy running for him, and he slipped aside, only to be immediately surrounded by grasping vegetation.
The derro thrashed in the entangling vines, but was unable to prevent himself from becoming entangled. He grunted in pain as Dawn's light hurt his eyes, and he muttered, "Too bright! No light!" a fifteen foot sphere of darkness bloomed around the derro, hiding him and Maddy from sight (with the exception of the warlock).
This guy talks, too much, but if I go after his sense of identity, he may perhaps rebut rather then run!
I can see you drokis! Even big female Droki! In the black Darkness of the future, there is only Droki! You 2 Drokis are heretics pretending to be Droki, every Droki gangster knows that the real Droki is masquerading as a human female to bumfoul the Duergar!
Alexandra does a reasonable job of out insanitying a Derro.
Maddy recognized Precious' handiwork but instead of being annoyed, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that Droki was held fast. Barely noticing the entangling vines herself, she pulled out some rope and moved over to the derro.
She handed Dawn temporarily to Stool so that she had both her hands free and proceeded to tie him up.
If you're able to grapple him, he gains the grappled condition - basically his speed drops to 0. He can then attempt to escape on his turn. If you want to tie him up, you'll need another person to hold him (aka keep him grappled) while you handle the rope.
So, another roll since you're at disadvantage. Then you can bring him out to the others for the tying up.
The globe of darkness swallowed both Droki and Maddy, but not before Precious had seen his vines get a good grip on the derro. The dwarf gave Alex a sidelong look as she matched her words to the derro’s earlier voiced internal monologue, wondering if the words proved to be water or oil when poured into the fires of what he took as an unhinged mind now seeking to escape sudden attack.
Hue ran to the edge of the dark-darkness and tried to see into it. He waved his arms and went on his tip-toes (like he might be able to see over it) and mumbled.
"Oh, Mr Hue, this is A pickle, this IS a pickle ... looks like there's dark and there's real dark and now there's dark-dark ... and you have trouble seeing in the dark, the regular dark, no' even the real dark ... you said a mouthful and tha's no mistake ... Um, you go lef' and I'll go righ' ... your lef' of my lef'? ... nevermind, we'll jus' go this way, sounds like a kerfuffle in there ... shhh, I can' hear."
Hue cut clockwise around the darkness until he reached entanglement and tried to keep an eye open, spear in hand.
The area is dimly lit with glowing faerzress. The black sphere of darkness is visible as within the cavern.
Maddy is thrown off by the sudden darkness. She reaches for the derro, but can't find him. She hears a single strange click, then some grunts and muttering.
The sphere of darkness slowly begins to move towards the left side passage. At first it moves slowly, then more quickly. It slides away from Maddy, revealing the barbarian. On her shoulders, Stool is barely hanging on to the heavy longsword. Dawn is shining for all she's worth. Bright sunlight fills the room for 30 feet in all directions, and then another 30 feet of dim light beyond that. The exception is the sphere of darkness, moving away.
Hue put his left hand on the cavern wall and pushed his way through the darkness. He did his best to muddle through the darkness and block the way from the other side.
"I don' suppose you'd consider stopping for a quick talk???"
”Well, ‘least there’s li’le chance o’ losin’ sight o’ that,” Precious muttered as he gazed at the pool of perfect blackness soaking in Dawn’s light. As the derro had evidently managed to force himself loose from the vines Presious dropped the spell, and the roots and vines dried out and crumbled to dust, or withdrew back underground as if growing in reverse.
Alex calls out the position of the "Droki", and then charges in herself
After hexing the Droki for some dex check disadvantadges!
Just grapple what I am grabbing Maddy-Droki!
Being plunged into complete darkness with Dawn having no effect was very unnerving. This derro may be eccentric with his mutterings but he was also slippery.
Not being able to see made Maddy think she was not going to be able to help, until she heard Alex's voice. She followed her voice and took a chance at grabbing the true Droki.
save
save
fail
Hue and Maddy plunged back into the darkness, Dawn's light winking out again. Following Alex's voice, all three of them tried to pile on the unseen derro. Alex, despite having eyes on the behatted creature, missed with her grab. Hue, following blindly, also grasped at empty air. Maddy, however, finally had some luck and suddenly had a wiggling armful of derro.
Droki shrieked and hollered in Maddy's arms, wriggling like an eel. "Let go! Too tight, too much might! They'll be angry, very vexed! Let go!"
All this time, the giant lizard creeping along the wall is not heard, it rapidly descends into the darkness and, guided by the sound, rushes at the derro trying to grab him with its mouth.
However, the darkness hinders him too.
Maddy surprised herself in getting ahold of the derro. When he practically screamed that she was holding him too tight, she reflexively loosened her grip a bit not wanting to squish him. But that miscalculation was enough for him to wriggle his way free and soon she was holding nothing but air.
Droki wriggles like a fish and escapes Maddy's grasp. The lizard, not used to the pure darkness of the spell, snaps at empty air.
Droki shuts his mouth and silently hurries away. Again, the darkness moves away from you, and the room becomes dimly lit again. Droki moves into the left hand passage, and then, suddenly, the darkness winks out. Dawn is revealed again, shining as brightly as she can, making Jimjar and Stool look away.
You quickly follow Droki into the left hand passage, only to quickly realize that it's a small chamber with no exit. Well, unless you count the crack running floor to ceiling, that's only 6 inches wide.
Other than the glowing faerzress and a variety of mushrooms, there's nothing else in this chamber.
Precious could not see into the ball of darkness, but all the sounds of struggle coming from it suggested there was a hell of a wrestling match going on there… and judging by the fact that the sphere was still moving, it seemed the Derro was winning against Maddy, Alex, Hue and a giant lizard of all things. The dwarf followed along gamely, and gave Kalanzar a sidelong glance.
”Ye sure yer lizard can tell the derro from all them other flailin’ limbs in there? Ain’t it just gonna bite whatever happens to come near its mouth first?” But then, the darkness gave way to Dawn’s light, and the elusive derro was seen slipping to a side passage. A passage that lead to an empty chamber, with no obvious exists and nothing to hide behind.
Precious gave the crack in the floor and ceiling a suspicious look… at least the aperture wasn’t wide enough for anything big and nasty to hide in, but deadly things could come in small packages, he knew all too well. Not did it look like somewhere their target could have fit himself in.
”Illusion?” he suggested, then retreated back to the entrance of the chamber, setting his feet and leveling his staff, to take as much room as possible, just in case the derro was hiding somewhere in plain sight, and waiting for the group to step far into the chamber so he could slip out and flee back the way they had come from.
The lizard responds to the dwarf with a growl of displeasure. The growl is repeated at the sight of an empty room! The version with the illusion seems to Kalanzar the most realistic, so he stands in the aisle next to Precious and begins to actively sniff and look closely. Even an invisible creature can touch a pebble or emit some kind of sound.
Maddy frowned when she realized the cavern was empty. "He can't just disappear. There has to be a hidden door or else he's using magic. I don't know magic but I can search for hidden passages."
::Stool, can you hear him? He liked talking to himself::
Maddy began feeling along the wall where Droki seemingly disappeared trying to feel for voids in space.
::Stool, can you hear him? He liked talking to himself::
Maddy began feeling along the wall where Droki seemingly disappeared trying to feel for voids in space.
Stool shook his head so violently that he almost dropped the brightly shining sword. ::I don't like to listen! It hurts my head.::
Maddy and Kalanzar look around, feeling the walls to see if they could find an illusion or other hidden area. The chamber was small, and they soon made their way around the entire area without any sign of Droki, or of an illusion.
-
-
Hue had become lost in the dark-darkness, was momentarily tangled in what felt like grasping vines, chased after an illusion, grappled at the real Droki and missed, then caught him! He caught him!
Wait! Droki's still moving??? Up, swing forward, down, up, swing forward, down. He grappled Droki all the way out of the dark to find himself hanging off of Maddie's leg.
And Droki nowhere to be seen.
He let go, looked at the others and shrugged his shoulders, "Well, Idonknow ... he's jus' gone. Maybe they were both illusions? Maybe we came down the wrong way." He looked at the ground and tilted his head. "Maybe he followed these Droki sized footprints."
Hue got down on all fours and crawled over to the crack. He drew on the ground with his finger and outlined a much smaller footprint near the fissure. "Hmmm, unlikely. I don' think he would have spotted these tiny footprints. And if he followed them into the crack... He looked at the others like he was about to say the most brilliant thing, "wouldn't there be a second set of footprints?" He nodded to the others and raised an eyebrow in self-satisfaction.
He looked back down at the crack looking for some other brilliant thing to say and his eyes went wide. He got back down on his knees and reached into the crack and produced a frilly pale white mushroom. He started to shake in his whole body. "I never, I never seen this mushroom before. Ohhhhhhh. I, I don' have my book. I don' have my maps and tools! How am I supposed to record where this is?! How am I to make any notes!!! "
He looked up to where the heavens ought to be to call out a plea and notice an upside-down growing red capped mushroom. The mushroom quivered for a second and released tiny sparkling spores.
"I never seen tha' one before either." His shaking stopped but his eyes were welled and wet. He was hard to understand. He sounded like a child who had just been scolded. "My book. My maps. All my work. They took i' from me. I' wasn' theirs and they jus' took i'. Like i' wasn' nothing." He reached into the crack and collected what he could but he was quiet now and not looking at anybody. He stuffed mushroom in his armour, stood up and said very quietly, "Um excuse me, Miss Maddie, could you reach up and grab some of tha' fungus jus' there."
He stayed quiet after that and watched his feet like they were whispering something.
Trying to make sense of Hue’s words was some tedious work… although he did recall some folks giving him the same kind of lip for his own accent, so perhaps he wasn’t in any position to throw stones. ”Hold onna minute, what’s that ‘bout second footprints?” he asked, even as Hue got distracted by the local fungi. ”Leadin’ where? That tiny li’le cut in yon wall?”
Hue didn't reply to Precious but pointed out what were obviously Droki's footprints heading to the crack and then a tiny set of footprints otherwise identical to the first leading into the crack in the wall.
As Hue picked the pale frilly white mushroom, he noticed that there was another broken stalk immediately beside it. The inside glimmered wetly, and some white spores lay like dust on the ground. Somebody had picked it within the last few minutes.
With the help of Dawn's light, Maddy was able to see footsteps going towards the crack in the wall and she noticed two types of mushrooms that she hadn't seen yet in the Underdark.
She could tell that Hue was interested in the mushrooms but she was more interested in the footsteps. ::The footsteps are very small. Does that mean Droki can shrink himself with magic?:: She looked at Precious, ::I don't think there's a second set of footprints. There are normal footprints leading up to the crack and then very small ones heading into the crack::
Then she looked down at Hue, ::Are the mushrooms harmful? I'll pick you the mushroom you're asking for but I just wanted to know if it'll be dangerous:: She took a closer look at the surrounding mushrooms, looking for any disturbances.
”Well, tha’s an idea. Better make sure we pick lots of both mushrooms then.” Hue made sure he had a few pieces of the red mushroom on him then, a little too used to consuming unidentified fungus, bit into the white frilly stuff.
He waited a second.
”I don’t feel any different.”
The white frilly mushroom has an almost sweet taste, and Hue immediately begins to shrink. He's so taken with the taste of the mushroom that he doesn't notice that he's shin-high to Maddy within seconds. His voice comes out high and tinny as he claims not to feel any different.
Hue continued to squeek, "no, really, i think i's a los' cause ..." Hue slowly looked up at Maddy. "oh come on. tha's jus' ridiculous." He preceded into the crack. "i think i'll call the white one dungensia minisculius hueorum and the red one dungensia rebiglius maddylii" His voice slowly faded into the crevice as he forgot the others couldn't follow yet.
Maddy was in the process of harvesting the red mushroom when Hue shrunk and began squeaking out some words before disappearing into the crack! Maddy finished grabbing the red mushroom and then picked some of the white frilly mushroom to eat. ::Wait, Hue! Don't go in there alone. I'm coming::
She then held out some of the white mushroom to Stool in case he wanted to come with her, not even thinking that it was weird she was offering mushrooms to a myconid. She then ate her own piece while resisting the urge to close her eyes against seeing what would happen next.
Hue continued to squeek, "no, really, i think i's a los' cause ..." Hue slowly looked up at Maddy. "oh come on. tha's jus' ridiculous." He preceded into the crack. "i think i'll call the white one dungensia minisculius hueorum and the red one dungensia rebiglius maddylii" His voice slowly faded into the crevice as he forgot the others couldn't follow yet.
”Damn,” Precious muttered at the halfling shrunk to a fraction of his regular size with one bite of a mushroom. That explained where the Derro had vanished… and also meant the slippery little devil had a fair head start on them. As Maddy repeated Hue’s actions and followed the halfling into the crevice he hurried to follow them, copying the pair in picking up a handful of both kinds of mushrooms before taking a bite out of a white mushroom, chewing industriously even as he felt the magic take hold and squeeze him into a miniature version of himself.
The change in perspective was quite an experience – small stray rocks he had barely noticed under his boots were suddenly like boulders, and the crevice in the wall loomed like a great canyon.
”Gonna bet a wooden spoon I don’t have ‘gainst a gold coin there’s gonna be some tiny li’le beastie’s waitin’ fer us out there, ‘cept they won’t be lookin’ so tiny no longer,” he muttered glumly as he hurried after the pair.
Shrinking shrooms? weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee look I am tiny!
Alexandra quickly pockets some shrink-shrooms for later and then gets ready to consume some
Anyone got an idea how long they last?
--
--
Maddy takes a bite of the mushroom, and shrinks down, she starts to follow Hue, then feels a strange tingling that warns her she's about to grow again. Hurriedly, she eats the rest of the mushroom, and the tingling goes away. Jimjar and Stool eat the mushrooms readily, the latter not minding eating it at all.
The mushroom's effects work even on the lizard, which shrinks down to the size of a rat. Like a collection of bizzare, aninimate dolls, you hurry through the crack, Dawn's light filling the narrow space. You twist and turn through the small passage, and after five minutes you hear what sounds like water passing beneath the rocks under your feet. The sound passes, and another five minutes later you come out of the crack back into a normal sized hallway.
The faerzress again lights this area with swirling patterns of purple, sometimes coalescing into a form or face that almost makes sense. It pulls at your attention, and you can feel a headache forming.
If you look to the right, you can see the glimmer of a pool of water. From your tiny vantage point, it looks like a small lake. To the left, the hallway continues down, with a few branching pathways.
Kalanzar looks around for a few seconds in mild shock, then remembers why we are here and looks for traces of the fleeing derro.
Hue tried hard to stay ahead of everyone. He so wanted to eat the red mushroom and be the same size for even a second. But Kal was hard on his heels and, although they all shrunk down, his shrunk down legs were still shorter. By the time they got through Kal was already looking for a direction.
”What size are the footprin’s? Did he re-big-ulate? You know, I don’ even know if the red mushrooms are an antidote. Didn’ take time to try i’. If he stays smallish then we should. In case he heads for another crack. If he re-big-ulated then we won’ have much chance of keeping up unless we do to.”
Hue assisted Karl’s search.
But not particularly well.
Kalanzar found many old sets of footprints here; clearly these passageways weren't abandoned by any stretch. After a little examination, he found Droki's tiny prints, which turned large again and then headed to the left.
Now that they were in a normal sized space again, Maddy tested Hue's theory by eating one of the red mushrooms. The only way that they would be able to catch Droki is if they were normal size again.
She waited a couple breaths to see who else decided to eat the red mushroom before following the tracks to the left
Maddy ate the red mushroom, and found it quite sour. However, as she swallowed the final bite, she returned to her original size. It was a very peculiar sensation, in that there wasn't any sensation at all. It was as if the world around her shrank, closing in on her, until suddenly it stopped and everything was back to normal.
From her new/(old) vantage point, her friends all looked like the dolls that Maggie used to play with. She could scoop them all up and carry them if she wanted to.