{OOC: might not be the best idea to let everyone within 300 feet know we're here, as much as I would like to get through that door. Bilyur and Xarkris attempting to beat it down is probably quieter...lol}
[Speedrunning fighting all the enemies 😎]
Sly lets the others know about her suspicion that the dark matter was, in fact, a sort of spatial anomaly and should be approached with caution once they got the door open. For now, she stands next to Bilyur as he peers down the stairs.
Are there any noises to be heard from below? [Perception 11]
Bilyur sees just as much as Sly, and the rest of the party, does when he goes to look down the passage; very little can be seen of the bottom room without descending. Sly meanwhile takes a listen to see if she can hear any curious sounds, though doesn't hear a thing, it's just eerie silence.
The party heads down, your footsteps clearly echoing on the cold stone steps. As you descend into the gloom, Techi casts light on one of the lenses of his glasses to shed 20 feet of bright light and a further 20 feet of dim light where ever he looks, just to aid any non-darksighted party members, such as himself. You look around the spacious room and find that it appears to be the bowels of the fortress, being a large, simply built chamber with two doors on either side of the room. One door, the eastern one, is blank, whilst the other one to the west has a hand-carved wooden sign bolted to it, which reads 'Meldin Balcast: Wizarding Apprentice.' Neither have locks and appear to be simply 'push to open' doors like the majority of other doors you have seen. The actual room itself is fairly empty, with only a couple broken trunks and cases pushed against walls, as if this area had been used to store items out of the way of the general castle facilities.
Xarkris Only:
As you descended the flight of stairs, and particularly when you have entered into the chamber, you can hear a strange scratching and giggling noises coming from the western room, very faint, but noticeable enough for you to pick them up. The noise sound to you like somebody is chattering away in gibberish, and scratching at the walls.
Xarkris stops suddenly and turns his body to face the Western Room and hisses in warning to the rest of the group. He enters the room cautiously and slowly approaches the entrance to the Western room. His shield is raised and axe is ready.
The chattering that Xarkris is hearing, now slightly more audible to the rest of the party since he's brought it up, doesn't stop as he approaches the door. Either the source of the noise coming from the room hasn't heard the party, despite all your stamping feet coming down, or just doesn't care.
Xarkris approaches the opening to the next room cautiously. He activates his Divine Sense
As an action, you can detect good and evil. Until the end of your next turn, you can sense anything affected by the hallow spell or know the location of any celestial, fiend, undead within 60 ft. that is not behind total cover. You can use this feature 3 times per long rest.
When the rest of the group is ready, Xarkris will enter the next room and engage the perceived creature there.
Xarkris activates his Divine Sense once more, but as he enters the room, nothing flares up. Instead, you all find the wreckage of a gloomy study of sorts, all the furniture ripped and torn to shreds, the walls covered in claw marks and deep scratches through the stone. What's most disturbing however, is that crouched over a trunk at the back of the room, toying with what looks to be a voodoo doll, an abberant, humanoid figure is coiled over, chattering to themself. Their skin is a mottled grey and pick, with dozens of bony spines sticking out of their back, and their bare feet and hands are grotesquely twisted into claws. What's most notable about the creature, however, is it's baleful green eye, the size of a full pumpkin, taking up far too much room in it's skull to the point where you aren't even sure how such a creature could fit a brain in there without having a horrifically warped anatomy.
The nothic notices you as you enter, tossing the doll aside and leaping a few feet forwards of the chest, and although you feel inclined to attack at it's hasty approach, it soon stops about 10 feet away, and simply gibbers and wails at you, pleading 'Tnih a em evig! Tnih a em evig!' over and over, though none of you know what it actually means at all.
The nothic sees Xarkris's display of intimidation, and simply continues to moan and wail at your feet in a tongue none of you can understand, continuing to ask 'Esaelp! Esaelp! Em Llet! Tnih a em evig ouy fi ekil ouy gnihtyna ouy llet nac I!' It seems that it is either unphased by Xarkris's aggressive appearance, or is to busy pitifully pleading to notice that it might be in danger.
[The player knows what's gnineppah, but I'm not sure Sly would be able to realize and also compose a response.] [Intelligence check: 21] [Fair enough?]
Sly is still on guard, but since the creature isn't being aggressive, she tries to figure out what it's saying. Thanks to her well-connected synapses and ased on the warbled speech patterns, it becomes clear quickly.
Before replying, the wizard has a think about what the nothic might be meaning with "hint". [This time the player has no idea, so another INT check: 15]
If she doesn't figure out anything plausible, she simply asks, with great difficulty: "tahw rof tnih A?"
Sly has a think on what on earth this aberrant little creature might be jabbering on about, and slowly realises that it's actually not just nonsense, but a language she can decipher, and has actually also heard of before; Undercommon. It's a strain of the Common tongue, but simply reversed, and is used by the majority of black market traders and some denizens of the Underdark, though is less of a language and more of a dialect, or slang if you will. Although it seems very simple to interpret and then repeat once you figure it out, the language is still very successful in black market trading groups; it preys on the poor literacy of the common folk, with the weak levels of language skills in a everyday person's arsenal being the thing that allows an easy language of simple terms to sound like complete gobbledygook in the humdrum of a tavern, for instance.
Sly, now having cracked the code on the nothic's speech, then tries to actual work out what the monster means, since it still sounds like it's pleading nonsensically. She thinks about her knowledge of nothics, and takes in some context clues, and comes to a reasonable conclusion. Within the wizarding community, there's a common joke for more experienced mages to tell younger apprentices, where they'll tell them that if they end up digging too deep for arcane knowledge, their curiosity will get the best of them and they'll find something that the lich-god Vecna cursed to be hidden, and then they'll become a nothic, spending the rest of their days searching for a cure to their insanity. It's a rather mean-spirited rumour, especially since it can, and has, scared many a young wizard out of reaching their arcane potential, since they can end up shying away from the subject out of fear, but wizards who are a little less naïve realise that the tale is entirely overblown in its severity; however, in this instance, it has seemingly came true, and the creature is madly begging you for a clue of some sorts to end its suffering or restore its form, even though you clearly have no idea how to cure it.
[Since Sly identified what the nothic is asking for, I'm assuming she doesn't ask any further questions, and in terms of treating Undercommon like a code or cipher rather than a fully distinct language, I like to think of it similarly to Pig Latin or Cockney Rhyming Slang, where it was developed by people who needed to communicate openly but in secrecy, so used the regular tongue and added some simple rules to make it easy enough to understand and speak when learnt, but make it so that to the untrained ear it seems entirely nonsense. The same probably goes for Thieves' Cant as well!]
Sly has some sympathy for the poor thing, since rumors of the lich-god had been all-present during her time in the academies. Professors had mean-spiritedly invoked the cursed name in order to keep students focused. But she knew better. She knew that with the proper precautions, one could deal with forbidden knowledge. The problem was first learning and then executing upon those precautions.
"This poor wretch is all that remains of a once ambitious student of the highest arts. I fear nothing can be done."
She has a look at the voodoo doll the nothic is clutching. Might it contain a spark of the arcane still? [Arcana: 27]
The wizard also can't help but glance at the scratchings on the wall. Curiosity about what they might reveal wells up in Sly. [Investigation: 10]
Xarkris, although he doesn't quite figure what's going on by himself, is soon educated by Sly and is empathetic enough to identify strongly with the nothic's situation. He talks to it in its garbled language, to which the nothic jumpily responds 'Hho ,deliops eb ot raeb tonnac i! Em llet ton od tuB !ti dnif dna yrt em tel esaelp! Ecnahc a em evig lliw uoy fi, ti dnif nac I wonk i! Eruc eht rof gnikool ma i! Eruc eht! Eruc eht!' It takes you a little bit to gather what it's saying, since it seems to have expanded it's sentence length after identifying that communication is possible, but eventually you realise what it's saying, though the poor thing's delusion is still very much shining through as it thinks you all know how to help it, yet it only wants a hint on how to do so. Seems this nothic still retains it's curiosity and urge to figure out things on it's own, even if that's what may have caused this.
Sly then takes a look about the room, and her gaze turns to the doll strewn onto the floor. At this point she is well adapt in determining the arcane value of an item, and this item is flowing with near-palpable, magical energy. Everything about it screams dark magic, so much so that she doesn't even need a spell to tell. It's straw body is bunched together with what looks like little nooses of woven hair, and the jaw is unnaturally wide, hanging limp downwards in a mock gasp. The eyes are thin slits that make the tortured idol appear as if it's screaming, and a couple tufts of straw come loose at the top to appear like the short horns of a devilish sinner. She then looks at the walls, but if the nothic's speech was border-line unintelligible, then the scratchings may as well be complete nonsense. She can barely make out any letters, let alone words. However, she does note that within the study, everything seems to have suffered some form of damage, from scratches across all the wooden desks, trunks and cabinets, to every piece of paper being torn into the minutest little shreds to make whatever cursed words they may have held unreadable. Everything is ruined, that is, aside from the doll. A key feature of voodoo dolls is usually the pins poked into them, and this wretched little thing shows no signs of such hardship.
[To make translating the nothic's speech and your responses a little easier, I'd recommend using an online text reverser!]
Sly quints at the doll for a moment longer. Is it possible to estimate the danger it poses? As in, might this doll have been responsible for the transformation of the nothic? And might it still be dangerous to touch? [Not sure what skill, but trying Arcana: 18]
The wizard is clearly way too focused on this magic item, having gone close enough to touch it. If the nothic is still holding it, she will inspect it by moving her head this way or that, getting all the angles.
"?sruoy siht sI" she asks the aberration.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
With the door now open, Bilyur begins to peer down the corridor.
[A paper drops out of a flash of light and drifts to the ground at your feet] -(extended sig)-
[Speedrunning fighting all the enemies 😎]
Sly lets the others know about her suspicion that the dark matter was, in fact, a sort of spatial anomaly and should be approached with caution once they got the door open. For now, she stands next to Bilyur as he peers down the stairs.
Are there any noises to be heard from below? [Perception 11]
Bilyur sees just as much as Sly, and the rest of the party, does when he goes to look down the passage; very little can be seen of the bottom room without descending. Sly meanwhile takes a listen to see if she can hear any curious sounds, though doesn't hear a thing, it's just eerie silence.
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Sly is halfway satisfied with this and looks to the others. "Shall we?"
The tiefling then tiptoes down the stairs, a bit too impatient to be actually silent. [Stealth: 4]
[[ fine with exploring on ]]
This is a signature. It was a simple signature. But it has been upgraded.
Belolonandalogalo, Sunny | Draíocht, Kholias | Eggo Lass, 100 Dungeons
Talorin Tebedi, Vecna: Eve | Cherry, Stormwreck | Chipper, Strahd
Beneath the Mountain | Let's Test Monsters! | We Are Modron (recruiting)
Get rickrolled here. Awesome music here. Track 44, 1/3/25, Yellow Light
Xarkris would like to take point using his PASSIVE PERCEPTION to look for danger and secret doors
The party heads down, your footsteps clearly echoing on the cold stone steps. As you descend into the gloom, Techi casts light on one of the lenses of his glasses to shed 20 feet of bright light and a further 20 feet of dim light where ever he looks, just to aid any non-darksighted party members, such as himself. You look around the spacious room and find that it appears to be the bowels of the fortress, being a large, simply built chamber with two doors on either side of the room. One door, the eastern one, is blank, whilst the other one to the west has a hand-carved wooden sign bolted to it, which reads 'Meldin Balcast: Wizarding Apprentice.' Neither have locks and appear to be simply 'push to open' doors like the majority of other doors you have seen. The actual room itself is fairly empty, with only a couple broken trunks and cases pushed against walls, as if this area had been used to store items out of the way of the general castle facilities.
Xarkris Only:
As you descended the flight of stairs, and particularly when you have entered into the chamber, you can hear a strange scratching and giggling noises coming from the western room, very faint, but noticeable enough for you to pick them up. The noise sound to you like somebody is chattering away in gibberish, and scratching at the walls.
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Xarkris stops suddenly and turns his body to face the Western Room and hisses in warning to the rest of the group. He enters the room cautiously and slowly approaches the entrance to the Western room. His shield is raised and axe is ready.
The chattering that Xarkris is hearing, now slightly more audible to the rest of the party since he's brought it up, doesn't stop as he approaches the door. Either the source of the noise coming from the room hasn't heard the party, despite all your stamping feet coming down, or just doesn't care.
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
As a response to Xarkris' hiss, Sly raises a hand, ready for an incantation. She has his back, following at a good distance.
Xarkris approaches the opening to the next room cautiously. He activates his Divine Sense
As an action, you can detect good and evil. Until the end of your next turn, you can sense anything affected by the hallow spell or know the location of any celestial, fiend, undead within 60 ft. that is not behind total cover. You can use this feature 3 times per long rest.
When the rest of the group is ready, Xarkris will enter the next room and engage the perceived creature there.
Xarkris activates his Divine Sense once more, but as he enters the room, nothing flares up. Instead, you all find the wreckage of a gloomy study of sorts, all the furniture ripped and torn to shreds, the walls covered in claw marks and deep scratches through the stone. What's most disturbing however, is that crouched over a trunk at the back of the room, toying with what looks to be a voodoo doll, an abberant, humanoid figure is coiled over, chattering to themself. Their skin is a mottled grey and pick, with dozens of bony spines sticking out of their back, and their bare feet and hands are grotesquely twisted into claws. What's most notable about the creature, however, is it's baleful green eye, the size of a full pumpkin, taking up far too much room in it's skull to the point where you aren't even sure how such a creature could fit a brain in there without having a horrifically warped anatomy.
The nothic notices you as you enter, tossing the doll aside and leaping a few feet forwards of the chest, and although you feel inclined to attack at it's hasty approach, it soon stops about 10 feet away, and simply gibbers and wails at you, pleading 'Tnih a em evig! Tnih a em evig!' over and over, though none of you know what it actually means at all.
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Xarkris shows his teeth and gets to about 10' of the creature and attempts to INTIMIDATE it. I rolled a 6 +5 = 11
[Nothic Wisdom Check: 13]
The nothic sees Xarkris's display of intimidation, and simply continues to moan and wail at your feet in a tongue none of you can understand, continuing to ask 'Esaelp! Esaelp! Em Llet! Tnih a em evig ouy fi ekil ouy gnihtyna ouy llet nac I!' It seems that it is either unphased by Xarkris's aggressive appearance, or is to busy pitifully pleading to notice that it might be in danger.
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
[The player knows what's gnineppah, but I'm not sure Sly would be able to realize and also compose a response.]
[Intelligence check: 21] [Fair enough?]
Sly is still on guard, but since the creature isn't being aggressive, she tries to figure out what it's saying. Thanks to her well-connected synapses and ased on the warbled speech patterns, it becomes clear quickly.
Before replying, the wizard has a think about what the nothic might be meaning with "hint". [This time the player has no idea, so another INT check: 15]
If she doesn't figure out anything plausible, she simply asks, with great difficulty: "tahw rof tnih A?"
Sly has a think on what on earth this aberrant little creature might be jabbering on about, and slowly realises that it's actually not just nonsense, but a language she can decipher, and has actually also heard of before; Undercommon. It's a strain of the Common tongue, but simply reversed, and is used by the majority of black market traders and some denizens of the Underdark, though is less of a language and more of a dialect, or slang if you will. Although it seems very simple to interpret and then repeat once you figure it out, the language is still very successful in black market trading groups; it preys on the poor literacy of the common folk, with the weak levels of language skills in a everyday person's arsenal being the thing that allows an easy language of simple terms to sound like complete gobbledygook in the humdrum of a tavern, for instance.
Sly, now having cracked the code on the nothic's speech, then tries to actual work out what the monster means, since it still sounds like it's pleading nonsensically. She thinks about her knowledge of nothics, and takes in some context clues, and comes to a reasonable conclusion. Within the wizarding community, there's a common joke for more experienced mages to tell younger apprentices, where they'll tell them that if they end up digging too deep for arcane knowledge, their curiosity will get the best of them and they'll find something that the lich-god Vecna cursed to be hidden, and then they'll become a nothic, spending the rest of their days searching for a cure to their insanity. It's a rather mean-spirited rumour, especially since it can, and has, scared many a young wizard out of reaching their arcane potential, since they can end up shying away from the subject out of fear, but wizards who are a little less naïve realise that the tale is entirely overblown in its severity; however, in this instance, it has seemingly came true, and the creature is madly begging you for a clue of some sorts to end its suffering or restore its form, even though you clearly have no idea how to cure it.
[Since Sly identified what the nothic is asking for, I'm assuming she doesn't ask any further questions, and in terms of treating Undercommon like a code or cipher rather than a fully distinct language, I like to think of it similarly to Pig Latin or Cockney Rhyming Slang, where it was developed by people who needed to communicate openly but in secrecy, so used the regular tongue and added some simple rules to make it easy enough to understand and speak when learnt, but make it so that to the untrained ear it seems entirely nonsense. The same probably goes for Thieves' Cant as well!]
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Zarkris lowers his axe and shield.
I rolled an INSIGHT roll of NAT 20 +2 = 22. I also rolled a 9 INTELLIGENCE roll. (I think I understand what he is talking about.)
Zarkris slings his axe and uses his open palm to show calm. He tries to communicate with the nothic...
"Rof gnikool ouy era thaw? Mlac ma I! Mlac ma I!"
Sly has some sympathy for the poor thing, since rumors of the lich-god had been all-present during her time in the academies. Professors had mean-spiritedly invoked the cursed name in order to keep students focused. But she knew better. She knew that with the proper precautions, one could deal with forbidden knowledge. The problem was first learning and then executing upon those precautions.
"This poor wretch is all that remains of a once ambitious student of the highest arts. I fear nothing can be done."
She has a look at the voodoo doll the nothic is clutching. Might it contain a spark of the arcane still? [Arcana: 27]
The wizard also can't help but glance at the scratchings on the wall. Curiosity about what they might reveal wells up in Sly. [Investigation: 10]
Xarkris, although he doesn't quite figure what's going on by himself, is soon educated by Sly and is empathetic enough to identify strongly with the nothic's situation. He talks to it in its garbled language, to which the nothic jumpily responds 'Hho ,deliops eb ot raeb tonnac i! Em llet ton od tuB !ti dnif dna yrt em tel esaelp! Ecnahc a em evig lliw uoy fi, ti dnif nac I wonk i! Eruc eht rof gnikool ma i! Eruc eht! Eruc eht!' It takes you a little bit to gather what it's saying, since it seems to have expanded it's sentence length after identifying that communication is possible, but eventually you realise what it's saying, though the poor thing's delusion is still very much shining through as it thinks you all know how to help it, yet it only wants a hint on how to do so. Seems this nothic still retains it's curiosity and urge to figure out things on it's own, even if that's what may have caused this.
Sly then takes a look about the room, and her gaze turns to the doll strewn onto the floor. At this point she is well adapt in determining the arcane value of an item, and this item is flowing with near-palpable, magical energy. Everything about it screams dark magic, so much so that she doesn't even need a spell to tell. It's straw body is bunched together with what looks like little nooses of woven hair, and the jaw is unnaturally wide, hanging limp downwards in a mock gasp. The eyes are thin slits that make the tortured idol appear as if it's screaming, and a couple tufts of straw come loose at the top to appear like the short horns of a devilish sinner. She then looks at the walls, but if the nothic's speech was border-line unintelligible, then the scratchings may as well be complete nonsense. She can barely make out any letters, let alone words. However, she does note that within the study, everything seems to have suffered some form of damage, from scratches across all the wooden desks, trunks and cabinets, to every piece of paper being torn into the minutest little shreds to make whatever cursed words they may have held unreadable. Everything is ruined, that is, aside from the doll. A key feature of voodoo dolls is usually the pins poked into them, and this wretched little thing shows no signs of such hardship.
[To make translating the nothic's speech and your responses a little easier, I'd recommend using an online text reverser!]
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Sparkles: Aasimar Monk: Drakkenheim: What's in the Here and Now
Lith Ja’mas: Githyanki Sorcerer: Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist! and The Hunt for the Balowang!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Sly quints at the doll for a moment longer. Is it possible to estimate the danger it poses? As in, might this doll have been responsible for the transformation of the nothic? And might it still be dangerous to touch? [Not sure what skill, but trying Arcana: 18]
The wizard is clearly way too focused on this magic item, having gone close enough to touch it. If the nothic is still holding it, she will inspect it by moving her head this way or that, getting all the angles.
"?sruoy siht sI" she asks the aberration.