From my point of view, the only plausible reason to go after me that hard is if someone really hates my patron, and plans to do some type of reverse summoning ritual to trap her useing one of her agents as a focus, but that doesnt really fit with what we are observing.
And while my patron yzalina has potent foes, and is powerful herself, she is not tangling with demonlords other then Nocticula whom she serves. Demogorgon, and now Zuggtmoy in the flesh? On a material plane?
She pauses
Like, demonic realms in the Abyss are, as a rule with some exceptions, anything but stable, their absence is probably having... very very interesting ripple effects.
Perhaps some infernal ploy in the background to gain an edge in that bloodwar oweing to their leaders absence?
Or someone really hates this plane of Faerun and voluntold it somehow for a demonic free for all?
"Don't buy that either... say someone's after yer patron? Means that someone's git some real mystical muscles. Ye ain't gonna pick a fight with heavyweights that grant powers tae mortals without bein' pretty tough yeself... 'less ye be an absolute ass. An' if someone's that strong an' wanted ye dead, ye'd already be a puddle on the floor, an' the rest o' us right there besides ye. I mean, there was no guarantee we ever git to the myconid Grove in the first place, an' what happened there had gotta been preparin' fer a while already. Doin' somethin' like that to git at any one o' us..."
I agree, like, stuff that would go after my patron through me are... Erinyes or Incubi? Not full on Demonlords. She pissed of a pit fiend once, but that bloke would go at her directly, or pretend that she is way beyond his notice, to pridefull by far to go for people like us.
Alexandra nods to precious
At least Succubi dont have to be that super powerful to grant mortals warlock-powers, as long as there is something or someone bigger behind them. The old rule that the warlock never gets stronger then the pact giver applies though.
My patrons is stronger then most Succubi though, you remember when I turned into bat? Like, thats not part of the normal pact package.
She pauses
My patron, Lady Yzalina is a patron of the arts, as well as a diplomat and occassional ransom broker. Her other clients tend to be artists or nobles, I did use to be an artist on the surface too.
If I compare her with "Succubi according to standard demonology 101" she is odd because I have never seen her eat anyone, and she asks for consent before doing anything to anyone who hasnt attacked her. She was also... fun, like, her jokes... Alexandra pauses again with a broad smile on her face
She had a very rude one which she used to ferret out an agent of Baphomet, because it made him very very angry. Like, her seduction was less *sex appeal*, although she had that in spade, but more wit, humor and style.
”But from what ye have told ‘fore, none o’ ye did anythin’ to warrant this level o’ effort to hunt down or kill… so we be just stumblin’ into all these horrors by chance?”
The drow looks at the dwarf with an attentive and heavy gaze.
Yes, this is a deep thought. I hadn't considered it before, but it's true that these horrors fill the entire Underdark space, a vast and endless expanse. This realization makes me uneasy because it means that this dark tide could rise higher and higher, eventually reaching the surface.Kalanzar listens silently to Alexandra's stories about demonic patrons and shakes his head. Nocticula has left the Abyss, and Alexnadra is being pulled back into the Abyss. This girl is going the wrong way, but he just doesn't have the energy to explain something to her right now.
Then the druid's gaze switches to Hue and his strange dance. An unpleasant thought occurs to him...
Maddy was grateful for the break. Her dream hadn't been overly disturbing, not like some of her other nightmares, but it seemed to have bothered her on some level that had sapped her energy.
Even though she was more than happy to sit and rest, when the faerzress began to creep in, she regarded it with distrust. "I don't like the look of this. We've encountered stuff like this before and it never ended well. Maybe we should find another place to rest."
Whatever the madness is I am going to RP it harder:)
As the lights and other things effect Alexandra, she... dances.
In a lithe and almost mesmerizing way, almost flowing over the hard and rocky of the cavern, her performance is almost... ballet-like, but with too many rapid and quick, almost manic, movements?
And odd since at several points it seems that her shadow lifts her into a number of poses, nor would she normally have the agility to perform a one handed handstand while floating mid air, but warlock powers are odd one would guess.
She sings something as she dances, barely perceptible perhaps.
Ангелы и демоны кружили надо мной
Рассекали тернии и Млечные Пути
Не знает счастья только тот
Кто его зова понять не смог...
Полюбуйтесь, Полюбуйтесь
Aeria gloris, Aeria gloris
Полюбуйтесь, Полюбуйтесь
Aeria gloris, Aeri
I am calling, calling now, spirits rise and falling
Собой остаться дольше...
Calling, calling, in the depths of longing
Собой остаться дольше...
Angels and Demons circle above me
Cutting the thorns and milky ways
Knows not joy is only he
who never heard its calls
Behold Behold,
Aeria gloris
Behold, Behold,
Aeria Gloris
I am calling, calling now
spirits rise and falling
myself, myself I must stay
Calling Calling,
from the depths of longing
myself, myself I must stay
As you finish your long rest, Hue and Alex have a brief interlude of dancing (and some singing), ending with them both feeling relaxed and happy. Maddy, Precious and Kalanzar have a few moments of also feeling oddly happy and at ease. The magically produced water and trail mix sustains you enough to keep going.
As you gather up your gear and head out into the tunnels again, the joy quickly fades away. Jimjar has lapsed into complete silence, and doesn't speak unless pressed. He seems to have given up hope.
Hue had a fight to get through the emotional crash he inexplicably found himself with and tried to get his mind working.
He had been thinking and thinking about how to find water and mumbled, "… feed a local prima'e some sal' candy and … no, tha's in the pre-deser'. Place two tarps close together and fold their bottoms a' an angle with a bucke' a' the lowes' … no, tha's for humid places with no veg … place an absorben' cloth under a pile stones under a dripping stalagti'e … tha'll take too long …" He went quiet and stopped walking. He let the team slowly walk by him as he looked off into space. "well, well, well, well, isn' this a situation, a real fine howdoyoudo"
Alex is rather oblivious
Precious glanced in Hue's direction with half-hearted interest, thinking the halfling had just got tired blazing their trail and had stopped to let another take the lead… but then he noticed what had caught Hue's attention and slowly came to a halt.
”Ye mighta not want tae make any sudden movements or loud noises, but there's a trio of damn real uncanny web-spinners starin’ holes intae Hue right over there,” Precious murmured, first in Common and then repeated himself in Undercommon for the others’ benefit.
I mean, precious, do you know what exactly they are? They seem to be somewhat capable of communication.
Hue walked closer to the spiders, "Tha's true isn' i'. Such a howdoyoudo. You're little talkers aren' you. You have loads to say to good ol Hue. Oh, look at you. You're beautiful! Don' be afraid little ones. Hue's here. Wha' can ol Hue do to help." … and closer.
I mean, precious, do you know what exactly they are? They seem to be somewhat capable of communication.
Precious was about to whisper back then noticed Hue walking closer to the arachnid trio. "Hue... ye still in control o' yer senses? 'Causr where in the Nine Hells ye think ye be goin'? Yer mother didn't teach ye not to follow strangers home?" he said aloud, hoping to get a response from the overly curious halfling... or not, in which case he just might be in need of rescuing.
Hue looked back at Precious with a mild worried look, "Shhhh … you're going to scare them."
"I'll take that as a 'maybe'," the dwarf muttered, slightly reassured and thus lowering his voice, but still ready to do... something if Hue kept walzing away into narrow tunnels or if the spiders got overly intimate with him.
"So what do ye have there?" he asked.
Alex also follows, she does not have her weapons out, but is ready to throw eldritch blasts if Hue is attacked.
Honestly, intelligent spiders could be good trading partners for like... silk? Feed them some livestock in return? Like, spider silk clothes are really pricey, the silk a spider uses to cocoon, lets say a pig, is going to be a lot more expensive then a pig
She muses
Now, to make the trade even more effective, ideally you would sell such intelligent spiders livestock that is not nearly spherical, but that rather has a high surface to volume ratio. This way, the spider would need more silk and you would get more raw materials out of it per expended lifestock
Huh, is my patron holding a *how to operate a business and maximize trade* lesson somewhat and I am accidentally receiving it?
Somewhat scatterbrained as ever, Alex is Alex.
Maddy reined in Kip as Precious audibly brought attention to the presence of the spiders. That was something about the Underdark that Maddy would not miss, the the many different types of spiders. She had no idea there were so many types or that so many of them grew to be so big. It made the ones on the surface seem like miniatures.
"It's time to go, Hue. We need to get Jimjar home. Unless those spiders know where Blindingstone is, let's just go our separate ways. We don't have the best track record with spiders."
Knowing that Kip could move quickly, Maddy remained ready to move in and scoop up Hue if needed.
Kalanzar coldly looks at what is happening. I don't think these creatures are friendly. We shouldn't give them the opportunity to attack our friend first. Silvery moonlight runs through the constellations on his body as he gathers this energy and brings it down on one of the spiders .
The spider explodes into a mass of pulp and exoskeleton, some of it splattering on Hue's face. The other two spiders immediately vanish down into the dark passageway, moving almost too fast to see.
Hue tried to get between Kal and the spiders but it was too late! He stood there covered in the creature's viscera in shock, but for only a second.
""
Seeing the others escape down the tunnel, Hue rushed Kal and tried to knock him to the ground.
It's not that Kalanzar is so physically strong, but he's not weak either, just a normal elf who has lived his life in a wild forest. But still, he is much taller than Hue and this gives him a great advantage. So the drow pushes the halfling away from him and shouts to his comrades, he's under the control of some kind of magic! Charmed! Hold him down before he harms himself or any of us.
Maddy's eyes widened as Hue lunged at Kalanzar. Yes, Maddy thought that the destruction of life should be avoided. FOOL!, echoed in her head. However, she was on the fence about spiders.
Not having time to unbuckle herself from Kip's saddle, Maddy attempted to maneuver Kip between the two.
"Hue! I'm sure Kalanzar was just trying to protect you. You know he isn't a monster. Don't do something you'll regret."
Maddy maneuvered Kip between the two friends, managing to make them move aside to avoid being stepped on.
Precious was shocked at the sheer force and of Hue's anger. Was the halfling under some charm or compulsion, to so turn against someone whose side he had fought, or had he been so taken with the spiders and convinced of their innocence he truly considered Kal's action a murder?
"Now hold yer rothes, both of ye!" Precious shouted, and forced himself between the enraged halfling and coldly logical drow to keep them from each other - or rather, the halfling away from the drow's throat. "Kal's what passes fer local, so we should ignore 'is warnin' tae our peril! Let's all cool our heads fer a bit, all right? Take a deep breath, eh? I'm sure Kal can explain 'imself given a chance, an we all might listen tae 'is warnin's 'fore trustin' critters we don't know 'bout, aye? This ain't our backdoor garden, an' even on the surface, a pretty flower mighta be hidin' sharp thorns, an' the most colorful insects be 'mong the most poisonous. How did ye git so taken by them critters so quickly in the first place?"
- Hue is only looking to start a shoving match and he's sloppy about it, all emotion.
- He appears to be in shock. Imagine if Kal, out of the blue, did that to Kip. How would Maddie react?
- Hue is trying to stare a hole through Kal, but not just through Kal. He sometimes isn't looking directly at him.
- Precious' words have sown some doubt in Hue, confused him.
Kalanzar takes a couple of steps back and says softly, I'm very sorry, Hue. But he doesn't add anything else. Your druid clearly doesn't want to explain anything, and his face looks sad, like someone who did something he didn't like, but it was necessary.
Hue bounced off Kal and when Maddy rode Kip between them he let himself be pushed back, even so that he fell on his backside. In a second Precious was also there and watching over him.
”Why?! Why!?” Isn’ wa’s going on down here enough???!” Hue’s nose was getting all snotty. He became a little more quiet like he was half calling back to Precious and half consoling himself. ”Being poisonous doesn’ make something no’worth letting live. Swee’ little glistener jus’ wanted to talk to somebody.”
Hue sat there looking pretty pathetic.
Precious sighed in relief when Hue wound down, looking hurt and in shock at Kal’s unexpected show of power and violence, but willing to talk things through rather than go for the throat. Or, at least merely figuratively rather than literally.
”Aye, right ye are,” the dwarf murmured. ”Kal, Jimjar, ‘haps one o’ ye could take a look at the… casualty… an’ see if Kal’s caution was warranted? I guess ye two be most likely o' us tae know what them things were?”
’’less he’s just git an issue with them favorite pets o’ the kin he left behind’ Precious wondered. The drow were mysterious, but also the topic of many cautionary tale and scary story to frighten surface-dweller children. And one thing very consistent in those stories were the spider theme that the dark elves embraced. If Kal had been brought up on the surface and didn’t wish to return to the usual ways of his people… one could hardly blame him from being somewhat trigger-happy when spiders, particularly those encountered in the very realm of the drow, were concerned.
Hmm, spiders with charm capabilities? Unusual but not unheard of. Especially if they are some sorcerors, warlocks or somesuch familiar, but in that case they probably wouldnt be 3.
Also, we have... been through a lot. Like, I tried my damndest to pretend to be a demoness because it seemed like a reasonable enough idea at that time. Unusual behaviour from among us is not neccessarily an sign we are under a mind effecting compulsion.
Alexandra is surprisingly sensible and rational for a change
While these spiders may not be hostile, they are native to the underdark and I dont think we have a way of communicating with them. We are also larger then they are She says looking at Maddie and Pip
as such they would likely deem us threats. Were we to approach. Imagine being approached by a spider twice your size Hue, this may be how we look for them.
She continues
We should also keep moving. One relatively benign thing about spiders is that they arent very migratory, so if we move away we should lose them yes?
Maddy's heart went out to Hue. Even though she didn't have the same connection to the spiders as him, she did know what it was like to be connected to animals. She risked her life to keep her flock safe on the surface and would be devastated if she lost a single animal, so she could relate.
Looking down at the halfling she simply said, "I'm sorry for your loss, Hue."
She waited a few moments to see if the group would start moving again at Alex's words. "Alex is right, we should keep moving. If the spiders consider us a threat then they may return with reinforcements."
I'm getting violent like THEM. The roads to the Abyss are laid out with good intentions... Is this how the Underdark affects me, or are all drow cursed? Kalanzar walks with you gloomily, lost in thought.
Hmm, spiders with charm capabilities?… … We should also keep moving. One relatively benign thing about spiders is that they arent very migratory, so if we move away we should lose them yes?
Hue stood up and wiped his nose on his leather sleeve (along one of the small strips where there were no studs), "I'm no' under some kind of magic. I'm no' cursed or ensorcelled or in the throws of some kind of delusion."
He watched as, under Alex's direction, she, Maddy and Kal started to walk off. He stood in place, still under the eye of Precious.
"I agree we should ge' moving bu' we should find ou' if the other spiders are ok."
Kalanzar casts a puzzled glance at the halfling. He seems to want to say something harsh at first, but then restrains himself and says something completely different. I don't think the other spiders will communicate with us now. And that's for the best.
There are charms and other such spell in which the receipient does not recognice he is under a form of control. If the receipient is trained, he may detect that, or if he or she has experienced such things before.
If its a dominate effect, it is immidiatly obvious to you that you are dominated, even if you are untrained. You become a prisoner in your own body, which moves at the behest of someone else. This is an incredibly disconcerting feeling. I have experienced it during... mental sparring, so to speak, aimed at understanding how to try to fight off such attempts. Few things can dominate at will, so that represents an investment of resources.
Alexandra speaks about what she, as a warlock pledged to a Succubus, knows about charms, dominations and suggestions, which is quite a bit I hope.
Charm spells make you view someone in a positive light, seeing them as a friend and interpreting his actions in the best possible way. Other then that, you perception of things remains unchanged. The subject of a charm spell does not, generally speaking, know it was charmed, but they notice something was off at the time the charm effect fades, which is typically hours but could be days. My Patron can charm at will, so I reckon other Succubi can do that too.
She continues
Then there are suggestion abilities, this implants a compulsion to do something in the mind of the target, a compulsion that becomes harder to resist if it is pretty reasonable, and otherwise aligned with the targets morality and nature. In combat, my liege often made use of suggestions compelling enemies to "retreat and inform their superiors" in order to compel them to leave an engagement. The subject of a compulsion will initially think that the suggestion is of their own mind, but may think otherwise once the suggestion is completed, or dispelled. Its the form of mental control my patron uses the most, typically to remove someone from a fight by compelling him to be elsewhere.
It is often, against capable opposition, much more effective then trying to mentally control them, as there are many ways of countering that. But if the lets say Erinyes you are fighting has been suggestioned to leave the battlefield to inform superiors, she is probably away faster and quicker then the mage who summoned her can dispell the suggestion.
There are magiks to detect such, but I do not currently have access to them, I can however attempt to dispell such magiks, but only a few times per day. You could be charmed or suggestioned, but I have no way of verifying this, and your behaviour, namely seeking to benignly interact with wild life without malice aforethought, is in line with your ethics, as far as they are known to me.
She finishes
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Hue waited patiently for Alexandra to finish. She stopped talking and he waited a bit to be clear she was done. The he declared obstinately (like he heard her but couldn't conceive it applied to him), "Yes. Bu' I'm no' charmed." He moved in the direction that the last two spiders disappeared and looked. He looked hard into a darkness he couldn't see through.
He looked back at the others.
All he could see was practicality and heartlessness, someone who would never be able to appreciate the beauty and sweetness of these darling creatures.
Kip was doing their very best impression of a wall and Maddy was playing castle guard on top.
Alexandra was working in service to some wild compass that he was never going to understand.
Still dripping with spider goo, he turned his body to Precious, "Are we going to play i' safe? Is tha' wha' this is? We did wha' we could for the Myconoids. Wha's wrong with these swee' things? Too many legs? Do we have a leg limi' on helping? And wha' we did to their friend. Don' we owe i' to them?"
It was a very subdued group who made their way along through the Underdark, in what they hoped was the direction of Blingdenstone. Maddy, from her vantage point on Kip, kept a wary eye on her unhappy flock. Hue, heartbroken and unhappy, kept his distance from Kalanzar. He had looked deep into the narrow crevice, but had seen naught of the the friendly spiders. The others were unwilling to follow them, so Hue followed his two-legged (and hundred-legged) companions, forsaking the eight-legged ones.
The passage you're in steepens to become natural stairs, climbing up and up. The "steps" are not very wide - only Hue, Jimjar and Kip's feet fit on them with any comfort. The big folk have to tread carefully or risk slipping.
The stairs go up and up....and up. Some of the steps are narrow, and some are steep enough that Hue and Jimjar need help getting up to the next one. There is barely room to pass each other on the steps, and nowhere to stop and rest. After more than an hour of climbing, the stairs become slippery, as water seeps from cracks in the rock, pooling underfoot.
Finally, the stairs open up into a large cavern, so big that you cannot see the walls or the ceiling. The rangers consult and adjust your course - the stairs had slowly turned you away from your desired direction. Of course, there's no way to know if Blingdenstone is where you think it is, where you hope it is. After all, it could be hundreds of metres above or below the trails you now tread.
During a much needed short rest, you suddenly hear a rapid thud, thud thud coming from the darkness ahead. Alex sees it first - a huge biped emerging from the dark. Nearly 18 feet tall, grey and bald, she carries a massive club and has a crazed look in her eyes.
"They're coming! They're coming! Run! Run!" she shouts in surprisingly good Common as she approaches. Then she pulls up to a stop, twenty feet ahead of you. "Wait - you're WITH them, aren't you?!"
Precious was rubbing his aching posterior after a nasty slip on the too-small steps had landed him hard on his rear end, muttering the occasional curse at the source of all his woes when the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the darkness ahead, heralding the appearance of... a giant-kin of some sort? As frantic as she was tall, and apparently hunted. And addressing them in the trade tongue of the surface, rather than its below-grounds variant, before even realizing who she was talking to. Perhaps she wasn't any more a native here than they were?
Still, there was a good chance that any encounter in the darkness below was hostile, and whoever had got a giant on the run was not to be taken lightly... not that it was clear which of the two parties, would prove hostile to them... if not both.
We are independent and intend to stay that, as such we are not with anyone but ourselfs
Who or what is pursuing you, demons? Drow? Duergar? How many?