Angie H's page

Hue looked around for any sort of helpful fungus, but only found a very thin layer of a hard, scrubby lichen. Even if he scraped it up off the rock, it didn't yield much of anything.

Kalanzar and Maddy stared at Kip's final deposit, somewhat stumped. It looked somewhat like an amphibian's egg - round and slimy. But those types of eggs were laid in water, and meant to stay wet. This was already starting to dry, the slime becoming gummy and gluey. There was no colour with the darkvision, but the surface seemed opalescent but opaque. It was sturdy enough not to be immediately fragile, but it probably wouldn't be hard to smush, or break open, if you wanted to.

Hue begins to head into the tunnel. He would need to go on hands and knees, but with his slight stature, it wouldn't be a difficult trek. At least not from what he could see here.

How far ahead will Hue get before the others start following? I'll need a marching/crawling order. Small folk can crawl but medium folk will need to belly wriggle.

What skill does one use to investigate potential carrion crawler poop? Although I’m rooting for larva. Kip Jr :)

Use whatever skill you think would be appropriate.

Rereading our adventures with what I know now, it really speaks to Corey's mastery at world building. It's just as entertaining the second time around :)

AMEN!

Awwww, did Kip leave her a larva?

Maybe a larva, maybe a poop, maybe something else....who knows?

Thanks for the poem! Take an inspo!

Kip quivered and twitched as Maddy took off the gear. He butted her head, and gave her an affectionate, if rather gooey, lick. Then he made a strange sounds, one you've never heard him make before. Almost the exact same whine you heard from above.

The carrion crawler makes a strange, shuddering motion, and you hear a wet splat. Then he gallops straight up the cliff and out of site.

One the ledge, where he'd been standing, lays a wet, slimy globe, about the size of a grapefruit.

Ahead of you, the narrow tunnel stretches into the darkness.

Sorry for the delay, I've been struggling this week. @Hue, I had a different plan in place, but the loss of climbing gear will also do just fine.

It was a difficult climb, but aside from a slip from Alexandra early on, and a close call from Hue, everybody made it up to the ledge. The cliff continued up and up into the darkness, but the rangers' innate sense of direction told them they'd climbed 14 times the height of the previous cavern. The ledge led to the right, widening out a little before entering a tunnel. A very tight tunnel.

From high above you on the seemingly endless cliff, you hear an eerie whine.

The problem with that is you'd have to do one at a time, the whole length of the cliff. There's nowhere safe for several people to stand/wait while everybody else comes up the same 50 feet.

I was going to reveal what happens with fails as it happens, but of course with pbp that doesn't really work, it would take forever.

If you fail, you fall. Dex save DC 12 to prevent an injury. Critical fail on the climb roll doesn't give you a chance for dex save.

Anybody below you on the climb can attempt to grab you for a Dex save DC14. If they catch you, STR save DC 13 to stay on the wall. Fail and you both fall, triggering dex saves for both.

If you fall, 2d4 damage for each height increment. If you fall on the first climb roll, 2d4. The second climb roll, 4d4 etc.

If you use light, you cannot see the glowing path, and the climb rolls increase in difficulty to DC 15. If you do not have darkvision, your climb rolls are DC 10. Good thing Kalanzar can bestow darkvision.

Anybody with a climb speed (aka Kalizard and Kip) don't need to make any rolls.

As for Kip - he cannot help with climbing. He can carry Maddy up, but she's the only one "trained" to ride him. If you want to carry a small character with you, I'll need an animal handling skill for each climb increment, DC 10. What you do with him at the top is up to you. You can try to communicate with him about his desires if you wish to.

The climb will be athletics or acrobatics. DC is 5 if you don't use a light source and can see the path - it's almost like climbing a ladder. But those without darkvision will be at DC 10. I'll need 4 climb checks to get all the way up, it's a long way.

Everybody ranges out along the base of the cliff, which runs about twenty feet in each direction. The rocks are very craggy, with plenty of hand-holds, but based on the words of the kuo-toans, you're looking at a climb of at least 200 feet.

It's Precious who spots it, when Maddy moves away with Dawn, leaving the farther end in dimmer light. Some phosphorescent algae, growing on a likely-looking foothold. Some more, a little ways up, on a sturdy looking handhold. Up and up, the algae marking the best route to climb. He can even see what looks like a narrow ledge 20 feet up or so, a dim line of algae.

But when Maddy comes back, looking for a path, Dawn's light washes out the faint glow. Maddy knows that Kip could make this climb without any problem. However, the fish folk had warned of a tunnel with a tight squeeze at the other end - it sounded like a place too big for the large bug.

Meanwhile, Alex stares up and considers just flying. The cliff is so high, and the dark so absolute that for a moment she feels vertigo, as if she's staring down a deep well instead. The warlock feels a deep, almost nauseating, sensation of premonition, as if being warned that flight in this place would be dangerous.

As for Hue - he was muttering to himself and searching for equipment in his pack, not noticing the colourless, blind centipede that wriggled out of his pack through a small hole in the bottom.

You say goodbye to the kuo-toan family, and head carefully through the mine-field that was this cavern. Precious keeps you pointed in the right direction, and an hour or so later, you come to a hole in the ground. The dangerous cavern continues, but you can see that the hole becomes a tunnel, and continues straight ahead for a while.

You descend carefully, back into pitch darkness. Dawn lights your way as you try to figure out how long it would take to pick the bones out of a fish. About twenty minutes later, you come to a path on the left. You can see that it curves to the right at a steady incline.

Deciding to see where this goes, you follow the path, which quickly leads to the base of a very tall cliff. The nearly-vertical wall stretches away up into the darkness, well past even Alexandra's ability to see.

The kuo-toa don't have any more advice to give. I'll need some survival rolls to follow their directions.

"A troglobite is a delicious fish, one with many bones. As for heartbeats - I have never thought to count!"

The kuo-toa listen carefully to Hue's instructions, and the injured female sighs in relief as the first one is applied. "Thank you! This helps already." Having rested long enough, the others help her to her feet. "We will move from this dangerous ground. I hope you are able to follow your river upstream, and find your spawning grounds again."

Any last thoughts? Otherwise, survival to follow the first direction and get out of this cavern

They pull out a notebook that seems to be made of large, oval scales, and flip through it. The writing looks like complete gibebrish. After a moment's consultation in their language, they turn to Precious. Alex continues to translate for those who don't speak undercommon. "You're very close. But you're too deep. You need to keep going through this cavern, but very carefully, because of the ground. At the other end, there's a tunnel that goes that way," she points very specifically to the NNE, "and you want to take that one. After walking for the time it takes to pick all the bones out of troglobite, then there will be a path to your left."

The flip a page and consult it, then look up to the ceiling, considering. "You need to climb, about 14 times as high as this chamber. At the top, go to the right, and there will be a tight crawl. It'll be wet and slippery inside, don't drink that water. When you come out, you'll be near a place where the svirfneblin mine their ores. They can point you the rest of the way."

The fishy adults looked at each other with concerned expressions. "Ah, the capital. We had heard of strange happenings there. Our village is quite far away, but we will approach with caution. Thank you for the warning."

Maddy tried not to look sad as she answered with help of translation, "I have no idea." She took a breath, "I have no idea where I am in the Underdark and what that means for the surface. Do you?"

"Know the way to the surface? No, we have no need to leave the depths. But the svirfneblin trade with the surface-folk. Perhaps you could seek them out?"

Everybody can read Alex's spoiler, I quite like it. :)

There was no safe way for Kip to get down to pick up the kuo-teens, so they had to stay to listen. However, in typical youth fashion, the news was seemed to be more exciting than scary. The adults, however, looked serious, and thanked them for the news. "Where did this happen? Darklake is a big place.

"I'm from a small village on the surface. I was taken from my home and brought to the Underdark as a slave. I was lucky and escaped and now I'm trying to get back home."

Loogoome nodded as if she expected that answer. Her husband (who had introduced himself as Glubboono) asked, "Do you have very far to go?"

"Oh! We are from a small village on the west of Darklake. Ghaullappool. But we are returning from a pilgrimage, and trading on the way. The most dangerous place is here! We did not come through this way before, and we will mark as dangerous for other travellers!" He pulls out some chalk and sketches a strange, simple rune on the ground. "This means the area is not safe! I will mark the walls at the other end, to keep our people safe if they come this way."

The younger kuo-toas speak quickly to him, and he makes a hideous expression which is probably a smile. "My spawn wish me to tell you that we also saw a giant running through here, but she seemed harmless. And there were some slavers, but they do not want our people, so we traded with them instead. Do you have anything to trade?"

Again the fish-teenagers spoke to their father, and he asked, "Where are you from? You are not all people of the below."

I keep giving you guys NPCs to interact with and ask questions of, and it's just crickets. You have two hours while Hue collects fungus. Anybody want to know anything about these guys, or the area they've come from?

There is sufficient fungus for Hue to find what he needs, but the ground is so dangerous that it will take double the time to safely collect everything.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!

The injured kuo-toa has a broken arm and several broken ribs, as well as lots of cuts and abrasions.

The fish-folk take the berries with suspicion, but are delighted when they actually try one. It helps with the injured ones surface injuries, but her broken bones will take more than a magical berry to heal.

Loogoome spends several minutes struggling with the rope, trying to get it around themselves, under the armpits, and tying a knot. Finally they call up, and Maddy and the other Kuo-toa begin to heave on the rope. It's difficult, as the edge of the hole is jagged and they have to be careful to prevent the rope from fraying and snapping. Loogoome cries out in pain several times, and is panting by the time they're hauled up over the edge and to an area Maddy deems safe.

The two smaller fish folk throw themselves on the rescuee, causing another cry of pain, but Loogoome draws them both close in a hug. The spokes-fish begins examining Loogoome's hurts, and for a moment, you're all ignored.

The fish folk watching in amazement as the drow became a lizard. One of them shouted something down to their stuck companion, in their language. Probably warning them about what was coming.

Maddy found a place to tie the rope off, just in case. Then, the shepherd holding one end, the lizard scampered down into the hole with the other.

At the bottom he found a kuo-toa with a large backpack, loops of rope draped all around them. Their back was clearly injured - they couldn't sit up straight, and certainly couldn't stand. They watched with wide eyes as the rope-bearing lizard climbed effortlessly down the sheer side of the hole they were trapped in.

The fishfolk will say that their trapped friend can't climb, but they could hoist her up with the rope. Or somebody could climb down and get her, or Alex could levitate her up. Or levitate Maddy down and up again to get her.

With Precious and Hue alert for danger from within and from without, Maddy checks the ground carefully and inches towards the hole. The footing is treacherous, but she gets close enough to see that the hole is about six feet in diameter and about 25 feet deep. Definitely too narrow for Kip, and the ground wouldn't support his weight.

Survival to pick a safe path. Once you're close you can tell by looking

The ground in this whole area is unstable, you guys have had to tread carefully for hours. You'd need to get close and have a look at the pit to see if Kip would fit.

The three kua-toa spin around to face Alexandra when she speaks. The one on the ground scrambles ungracefully to its feet. "Oh! Um, hello surface people!" One steps forward, arms spread low to indicate no weapons in hand. He speaks undercommon a bit slowly, as if to ensure he's understood. "Yes, um, we have trouble. Loogoome has fallen down, and she has the rope! But she is injured and can not throw it. A cucumber, as you say up top!"

The other two shrink back behind the speaker, as if trying to hide. They look smaller, with bigger eyes. Juveniles? One of them whines something in their language to the speaker, who responds with a single word.

He then looks at Alex and who came forward with her? I know Hue is hiding, clearly looking to see if they have rope.

You guys remember that Shuushar and the others spoke their own kua-toan language, but most also spoke undercommon.

It wasn't hard to sneak up on the shouting Kua-toans. There were three of them, standing around a large pit, alternately staring down into it and shouting at each other. As you watch, one of them lays down next to the pit and reaches an arm down into it. The edge of the pit, however, is unstable, and begins to crumble. The fish-person shouts in alarm, and one of their companions grabs their ankles and pulls them to safety.

The pair lumber off down a different tunnel, continuing their hunt for the stone piles.

You keep heading in what you believe is the right direction, and eventually it's time for another sleep. The next day, you find yourself on a path with treacherous footing - the path seems to be comprised of a thin crust, and beneath it are pits and crevices. It appears to be a natural formation, but no less dangerous for it.

You move very carefully as a group; as the lightest, Hue picks a careful way. Even Maddy, riding upside down on Kip on the ceiling, has to be careful, as pieces of the ceiling are also loose and keep tumbling down.

After several exhausting hours of traversing this landscape, you hear shouting coming from ahead. Several voices shouting in a language you recognizes from your time with Shuushar.

The area here is wide enough, with enough cover, that you can go towards the shouting or probably skirt round and avoid it.

If there are no questions or answers for this guy, I'll move us along this afternnon.

Alex wracks her brain, but can't come up with a memory of that name.

You make a roll and tell you if it gets you anything. Your choice.

If Alex is trying a knowledge roll, then make a roll.

The creature's accent is thick, but Kalanzar understands well enough. "We look for special place, special for our folk. Marked with stone piles. We not see, not know how big. But some see. We look and we look. Big power there, lost gift from Entémoch, power there. Big boon power gift. Entémoch gift to small folk, but they lose it. Foolish! You see stone piles?"

Greetings! We don't want anything bad. We come in peace!, says Kalanzar in Primordial and Undercommon. He raises his hands slightly in a gesture that in any culture means that there are no weapons in my hands right now.

As Dawn's light dims, the two creatures blink a bit then look again at your group. The winged one looks baffled at the primordial words, but its eyes widen a bit when Kal switches to undercommon. It pats its mount on the head and says something Anybody speak Terran?, then says, "People hi! Where stone piles see? Big piles?" The stony mount holds its hand about four feet off the ground.

There weren't so very many of them, about 2 dozen. Probably not enough for war. :) No obvious signs of battle damage.

The next few days pass quietly. Kip sticks to the roof, and clears out a few darkmantles lurking overhead, his stomach gurgling with happiness after the feast. The corridor gains more side tunnels, and the river begins to narrow as you travel upstream, as various feeder creeks join it. You pass an area where the eerily glowing purple faerzress swirls thickly around you, and everybody has bad dreams. You pass a restful copse of fungal forest, and are able to hunt and catch a large lizard. You roast it in relative safety, and sleep with fully bellies that night.

Finally you leave the river behind - it has separated into smaller streams that vanish into passageways too small to follow. However, the main passageway continues, and you start to see signs that the stone has been worked. Stalactites have been knocked down and stacked tidily, and the floor is very even.

As you feel you must be getting close to Blindingstone, Precious begins to notice faint vibrations in the stone beneath your feet, as if something heavy is approaching. You are in a larger, twisting cavern, with several passageways of various sizes leading away. Stumbling into view is a very strange sight. A large, stony biped, clumping heavily along. On its shoulders is a smaller creature, dark skinned with wings, and a swirl of dust whirling around it. The "mount" stops as you come into view, holding up a hand over its eyes in Dawn's light.

Image on slide deck

I assume Kal is still getting back into the habit of checking this regularly, and I don't want to hold up the game waiting. So we'll keep moving, and when they're able, they can write the catching-up scene.

The mechanical person hurried away after its companions, and you're left alone in the passageway again.

The monodron designated 1 Esk 19 turned back to Alexandra as she started vocalizing again. She attempts a series of whirrs, whistles and clicks, hoping she's speaking its language, but in its soft monotone it replies,

It glances occasionally at her magical images, but it seems more interested in watching what she's doing than the substance of the images. When she fires her eldritch blast it visibly startles, and the hand comes up again, this time with a grey light. It doesn't attack, however, and after a moment it says,

It then turns and hurries after its companions. Unless you physically try to stop it or attack, it will leave.

Unfortunately, the spell comprehend languages does not allow you to speak their language.

The modron flashed the red light over Precious, and then again over Maddy when she appeared. It kept up a monotone drone of whatever language it spoke, though it didn't appear to expect an answer. When it was done scanning Maddy, the red light went out, it put its hand down, and turned as if to catch up to its companions, who had marched on without it.

The modron holds up its palm and a wide beam of light falls over Alexandra's head. It seems to have no effect. The modron tilts its hand, and the beam slowly moves from head to toe. Then it does it again, this time moving slowly from left to right. Then it turns to do the same to Precious.

The creature listened intently to Alexandra's words, and when she stopped reciting, it waited a moment, then repeated them back to her, exactly. It was eerie - the same words, but recited in a flat, mechanical voice. It was clear that this was mimicry without understanding.

When Precious appeared, the mechanical creature repeated its incomprehensible jargon at the dwarf, and then repeated the dwarf's dwarven greeting back at him, in that same flat voice. Then it held up one arm, and a red light shone from its metal palm. It moved its hand, clearly intending to aim the light at Alexendra.

The march of the mechanical creatures moved past Alexandra, who moved up against the wall out of the way. When most of the creatures had gone past, one of the almost-identical round creatures stopped, turned to face her, and moved a small dial on it front. A cog began to whir. Then it spoke a few sentences in a strange language, its voice full of clicks, whirs, and other machine sounds.

Arcana, religion, or history

New image on the slide deck. It's an AI creation, so a bit funky. The lead guy shouldn't be twice the size of the others.

Hue's roll isn't good enough to know anything. If anybody recognizes these guys, please don't act on it unless your character succeeds on a roll.

Precious, Hue and Maddy scrabble to find cover among the broken rock and small stalagmites between the path and the cavern wall. Kip climbs easily up to the ceiling and hides as best he can. Maddy douses Dawnbringer, and the cavern becomes entirely black.

Alex, her glowing sign alone in the dark, is the first to see the cause of the noise. A host of almost two dozen....somethings...are marching towards her. They're metallic looking creatures; most of them are round bodied, with thin arms and legs. The leader is diamond-shaped, with too many legs, and three, spear-wielding arms. Bringing up the rear is a large, hulking shape that looks somewhat like a walking, metal seastar.

They don't seem to notice Alex's rune. The leader makes a sweeping motion with one of its spears, clearly indicating that she should move aside for them.

They'll be upon her in 6 seconds.

So good to be back!

The cavern corridor you're in isn't straight enough for Alex's devil sight to be an advantage. They'll come around a corner into sight about 80 feet away. Precious' survival roll is good enough to find a place for everybody but Kip to hide in. Though he could always go on the ceiling and hope not to be noticed.

You have about 30 seconds before they come into view. What's the plan?