Ugh, that's the worst! Take care.
I'm back. Anybody have anything to say to the cube?
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I'll be away camping tomorrow until thursday, out of cell range.
The nearly invisible wall quivered again as Maddy and Alex spoke to it. "Maddy! My friends! Alex! I am Glabbagool. Welcome to the temple! Have you come to worship?"
The rock definitely hits something - it stops midair and falls to the ground. It then is slowly absorbed into the near-invisible slime and joins the other items in hovering a little ways off the floor. Using Dawn's light and peering carefully, you can see the clear, jelly-like wall, which seems to fill the entire corridor. A few moments later you all hear a voice in your minds. ::Oh! Hello. What's your name?::
The next doorway leads into a narrow, 4 foot wide corridor. From Dawn's light, it appears to angle to the left about ten feet ahead. Between the doorway and the bend are a collection of somebody's remains. Some very clean bones, a handfull of coins, and a dark metal mace. Strangely, however, they all seem to be hovering a few feet above the ground.
Lidelse's rage and strength finally defeated the slime, and it collapsed into a pool of slippery residue.
Grey slime fell from your foe in chunks and pieces, mingling with the water pooling underfoot to turn the footing slick and slippery. Still, it continued to flail and lash, its tentacles/pseudopods forming and retreating with dizzying quickness. Another two pseudopods push out of the creature right in front of Precious and try to wallop him. Smaller sparks zap into the antlered dwarf, but at least it doesn't discharge full lightning this time. rolls: hit
plus miss
Slimy boy is actually not immune to psychic damage, so roll away!
The slime was buffeted with attacks, magic and mundane, and bits of electrical jelly splattered off of it. With no flesh or blood, it was impossible to tell if it was badly damaged, or barely hurt. It certainly didn't retreat. Instead of lashing out again, the slime suddenly acquired a very spiky look. Dozens of small, sharp-looking tentacles grew out of it, and they quivered with arcs and sparkles of blue electricity. Then, a longer psuedopod pointed at MAddy and discharged a burst of electricity all at once. It slammed into her, then broke apart into three smaller bolts, which arced out to Precious, Hue and Alexandra. The lightning filled the room with the smell of ozone, and blazed against your eyes.
Precious: Definitely and ooze or a slime. They can fit through almost any crack, and can change shape to suit. Those that have an elemental nature to their attack are usually healed by that same type of damage (lightning in this case). They're usually not too hard to hit, but have a pile of HP and are immune to critical strikes. It's unusual for one to be able to dodge aside from attacks as this one is doing.
For ooze type monsters, nature check. Also, should have said that the monster is using the Dodge action so rolls against it are at disadvantage. Maddy, we'll use your two rolls as one attack, so please roll at disadvantage for your second attack.
The water does seem to be pooling around your feet. The ground is very uneven, so it's hard to tell while you're moving around, but it does seem to be collecting, not draining away. With Dawn shining brightly, Maddy steps into the first square chamber. Hue squeezes past to look carefully at the stonework. It doesn't look at all like the fallen temple where they found Dawnbringer. As Precious follows Maddy into the room, something falls onto the shepherdess from above. For a second, it seemed like a large bucket of slime had been poured onto her head. Then it seemed to congeal into a mass of amorphous tentacles, and it began beating at Maddy as it slid down her. One of the tentacles connected, sending a spark of electricity into her even as she felt a bruise begin from the impact. The second tentacle swung wide, and then it was on the ground, dodging and weaving between Maddy and Hue. It was dark grey, with blue bands of electricity arcing through it as it moved.
rolls: Maddy Hit plus miss
Don't everybody post at once....
Everybody is shaken from the quakes and the collapse of the tunnel above. Having scouted down the crack, Hue declares it safe, and creates a mushroom snack to help save Kip. Maddy, Jimjar, Alex and Precious follow down the rope, and immediately notice the incongruous appearance of a worked-stone doorway. As Precious and Jimjar discuss the likely origins of the stonework, there's another small quake. Everybody staggers, and small stones and dust rain down from the ceiling. You hear a cry from above, and the rope drops down to join you. When you look up, the crack has closed up. Kalanzar is trapped on the other side. However, drifting through the cracks, you hear his voice. "Another small opening has appeared! I'm going through, before this collapses altogether. Get out of there!" The only light is the bright glow of Dawnbringer. The air here is stale and thin. Water seeps continually down the walls, and pools around your feet. You stand at the doorway, facing 15' square room. The walls are worked stone, and the floor is slimy with stagnant water. To the north is another doorway, leading to a hallway.
I heard from Hue, and he's good to pick up again. I DM'd Kalanzar to no effect, so I'm going to assume they're gone. I'm going to recon the last little bit to separate Kal from the group, but not outright kill him in case they're able to return. I'll post a bit of a recap and get us going again. Thanks for your patience, and I hope everybody is having a great summer so far.
Hello all! I'm back from a run of small camping trips, and ready to play again. Thought I'd take a roll call, and see what people's availability is like moving forward this summer. Sound off!
I'm off camping tomorrow until Sunday, someplace I've never been before, and I've heard there's no reception there. So I may be afk until Sunday evening.
Well, we seem to be missing half our party. We haven't heard from them since June 18th. I'm going to be away much of next week, so let's break until July 14th. If we haven't heard from Kalanzar or Alex by then, we'll need to make some decisions. But it seems like the rest of you are good to keep trudging through the dark. Things do change after Blingdenstone, though I haven't read much past that in the book. I'll need to do my homework soon. :) (Also, I realized that half the time I'm mistyping it as Blindingstone. All these underdark names are hard!)
I agree with all those points, and its something I've been struggling with as a DM. The point of the adventure is that it's hard, and resource-poor, and scary. But when playing online, which takes soooo much longer than at the table, it can feel more oppressive than it might otherwise. Kalanzar, Alexandra? Thoughts? (Not excluding Maddy, I just know she's away at the moment)
Time for a check-in. How are folks feeling about the game? How's your time look over the summer. We've really slowed down lately. I don't know if it's just a coincidental lull, or if the game is starting to drag, or what. Do we need a break? Do we need to fast-forward to Blingdenstone? Do we just need me to poke you? If so, here it is, poke poke. Be honest, we've been at this a long time, and if you're not feeling it any more, that's totally fair.
Jimjar peers in from the corridor and shakes his head. "It doesn't look familiar. My people didn't make this."
Precious crept closer, seeing that the doorless doorway opened onto a 15' square room. The walls glisten with oozing water, and another doorless doorway yawns open to the right, leading to a narrow, worked passageway. The stonework is of decent workmanship, though clearly very old.
It takes some slithering and squeezing, but you all safely make it through the crack in the rock and down to the corridor below. With a mighty yank, Lidelse helps Precious free his grappling hook. You're standing in a narrow passageway, about 5 feet wide where you are. To the right, it widens a bit as it curves away from you. To the left, it narrows down to about three feet, but at the end is what appears to be a worked rectangular stone opening into a chamber beyond. The air is stale and thin. Water seeps down the walls and drips from the ceiling, pooling around your feet.
Kip turned his nose up at Lidelse's offering, but Precious was able to convince the carrion crawler to swallow the ball of food. For a moment nothing happened, then the oversized bug started to make a whistling noise, like air escaping from a balloon. He seemed to deflate, sagging in on himself, then rapidly shrunk down. Seconds later, he was the size of a long weasel.
We can assume you get the mushrooms up to Kip. It will be an animal handling roll to get him to eat them.
HAHAHAHA! Her mouth can make it down as-is. :) You do not have what it takes to widen this crack. It would take days or weeks with your current equipment, and you are more likely to cause a full collapse of the tunnel than to fit Kip down that hole. Unless somebody has some helpful magic.
Hue makes his careful way down the rope. The air is cooler as he descends, with a strange, acid smell. He only goes down about ten feet before coming to the stone ground.
Hue makes his way in the dark, his nimble fingers finding hand and foot holds in the newly opened crack. He descends only three or four Hue-lengths, then the crevice disappears, and he's clinging to the ceiling of a cavern, with no way of knowing how far down the ground is.
Moving is the worst! Especially as I get older, it gets so much harder. Hopefully you're getting settled in.
What's up, team? Feeling stuck? Busy? Shall I massage us part this spot?
As an aside, everybody will be able to fit down the crack except Kip. It'll just be a squeeze, and Precious will need to be VERY careful not to get his antlers hung up. Banging away at the stone in this earthquake zone would be very dangerous. Anybody can point that out to Lidelse.
Bueller? Bueller?
Hue: The light shed by Dawnbringer turns the crack into dark shadow, and he can see nothing beyond a few feet down.
Precious:
It seemed likely that the increase in foul water is related to the tremors. Perhaps a new/diverted water source that is forcing its way through the stone?
For a long moment there is nothing but noise, flying stone, and movement. Everybody but Precious is knocked badly about. Finally, the tremor stops. The passageway is choked with stone and dust. As you all pick yourselves up and check on each other, you realize that the way forward is blocked by a cave-in of fallen rock. As is the way back. A crack in the floor, leading down to dusty depths, barely big enough for Precious to squeeze his antlers through, is the only visible exit. You hear the drip of water.
You move off through the large cavern, and an hour or so later, find yourself squeezing into dark tunnels again. And so you travel. You seem to be in a portion of the underdark with very little life in it. You see no fungal forests, no underground water sources, no animals, no vermin. No faerzress lending its eerie glow, no luminescent lichen. Just the ever-present, enclosing darkness. The only sounds are the echoes of your footsteps. It is colder here than it has been, as if deep in the earth is a heart of ice, sucking the warmth from the very stone. With nothing to burn, and nothing to forage, you find yourselves subsisting on magical nuts and conjured water, and relying on each others body heat at night. Or whatever time of the day cycle it is when you collectively decide its time to rest. The sun seems like a distant memory, a dream. You follow the ranger's directions, although they're relying on the memory of a pointed direction from Basidia. As the days crawl by, you can't help but wonder - had the myconid sovereign been correct it their direction? And even if it was, how accurate was a finger point over hundreds of miles? If you started in Baldur's Gate and were pointed in the direction of Hardbuckler, what was the likelihood of finding it exactly after weeks of travelling through the Fields of the Dead without further landmark or signpost? After ten or eleven "days" of travel, you start to hear the sounds of water again. The slow drip from stalactites, and the sheen of moisture on the walls, collecting in puddles and pools. It has a greasy, unhealthy shine, however, and even Kip won't go near it. And then, you start to feel the tremors. The first one wakes you up during a long rest, a long, low rumble that makes your ears pop and the ground shudder under your thin blankets. The next day they become more frequent. You pick up the pace as best you can, but there seems to be no outrunning them. The rock groans around you, and shakes underfoot. The oily water becomes more present, and it sizzles your shoes if you step in it. And then, the inevitable happens. Your passing through a tunnel just wide enough to allow Kip passage, though Maddy has to stay out of the saddle or risk bashing her head into the ceiling. The earth begins to shake, and the ceiling begins to collapse!
The giant stared down at Kalanzar with big eyes. Clearly reluctant, she was nevertheless swayed by his words. She reached down an oversized hand to take the potion, then suddenly snatched it away again. "No! NO! You're trying to trick me!" She smashed her club on the ground, making everything shake. She backed away, raising the club defensively. "You're with them. You're with THEM!" And with that, Nivram turned and fled into the darkness.
Nivram ignored Maddy's question about the noise, staring into the darkness for a long moment. Then, her face cleared of concern, she turned and asked, "What's a map?" We would alas be considerably slower then you, oweing to our small size and legs, are you certain you wish to be slowed down by us? The giantess's face split into a grin. "Oh, that's okay! I don't mind going more slowly. Besides, my legs are tired. Come on! The little guy is right, we should go. It's not safe here." She smiled at Hue, her teeth blunt and round like stones. She waited for you to pick a direction.
"I haven't always been alone! That's silly. I had my clan, and then when they died, it was me and my brother. But I lost him, a while ago." When she heard where Maddy was going, a grin lit up her face. "Blingdenstone! That's where I'm going! To see the small folk!" Insight DC 12:
She definitely just said that because that's where you're going. Seeing Precious eat a nut, Nivram reaches out a tentative hand. But before she can take one, she cries, "Did you hear that?" as she whirls around, facing into the dark, club raised. "You all heard that, right?" There is no sound from the cavern other than your own echoes. Hue: Wow 6 miles in the underdark. You aberations and fiends.
"Nivram, what are you doing in the middle of nowhere all by yourself? Where are you headed?" "Did I reach the middle of nowhere? I thought I was still at the start. I'm going...um....where are YOU going?" ”They ain’t look like much, I grant ye,” as he had to agree the handful of nuts amounted to very much less than that in the open palm of a giant’s hand, ”but just try ‘em. Short or tall, them nuts take the edge right outta even a ravenous hunger.” Nivram's eyes widened with surprise as she watched Precious create the small nuts. Then they narrowed with suspicion. "Those could be poison nuts! I'm not eating that." Thee hast the bearings of a proud warrior. Perhaps thee can scare these things further, by truthfully retelling thy mightiest victories? "My mightiest victories? Well, one time I bonked a whole family of goblins! And me and my brother had to fight these gross flappy things that fell from the ceiling. And I've killed lots of spiders. Big ones and little ones. But none of that was as scary as what's been following me. I think we should join forces! Safety in numbers, right?"
I'm waiting to see if Precious picks up the hint from Kalanzar.
Several of the party strain their ears in the darkness, but aren't able to hear anything beyond the occasional drop of water in the dark cavern. The giantess stared at Alexandra, her grey eyes wide. "You talk funny. I like you! I'm Nivram. I've heard all kinds of things! Footsteps, somebody whispering my name. Sometimes growling. Sometimes chewing. But I don't hear it now. Maybe you scared them away! Can I stay with you? Please?"
Apologies for the silence, ended up doing a long-weekend getaway with the kids. Will catch up tomorrow.
Can I get another persuasion roll from Alex please?
The giant looks at you warily, but seems to believe Alex, at least for now. Her chest heaves from sprinting, and she wipes sweat from her prodigious brow. "You're not with them? Oh, that's good. I don't know who's back there, I never see them, I just hear them. Could be anything! Did you hear anything suspicious?" She looks around, squinting into the darkness, gripping her tree-sized club in one enormous fist.
Forgot to answer Precious's question - no, the giant didn't seem to notice any of you in particular when she made her accusation.
Sorry, forgot to post that the CON save DC is also 12. Kip is too slippery to be ridden unless you're in the saddle. You could bring one of the small characters into the saddle with you with a successful animal handling check of 13. Then they don't have to roll at all.
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?!"
The people have spoken! You're always welcome to award inspo to each other. And I agree, that was nicely handled. Hue, are you going to check out the spiders before moving on?
Looks like we're out of combat style rounds. Jimjar doesn't know enough about spiders to have anything to add, other than "creepy".
Kalanzar's turn, then Hue, then Alex. Let's try not to let this sit too long. |