This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
After being hit again with another surge of lightning, the chest, which looks to be on its last ... hinge? bites at Ebokk once again. (bite attack: 24, damage: 8 piercing damage + 3 acid damage)
Holy moly, that's insta-death, folks.
The chest pulls the almost dead dwarf into it and chomps down. There is a final scream by Ebokk and then silence.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Ebokk! No!!"Erric darts forward to the opposite side of the chest from Anafrey, grabbing his daggers for two swift attacks, hoping he can cut the chest open to free the dwarf.
(Closing to melee basically because he assumes that his magic stopped working after the last spell failure. Erric's not really considering the idea that Ebokk could be really dead. He'll use his bonus action for healing word next round, because Ebokk is definitely 100% savable, if only he can pull him out of the creature's maw, like they do in the stories. This is going to fall on him like a ton of bricks.)
Erric runs forward, yelling. He swings his first dagger, but his foot slips on Ebokk's shield, which is still lying on the ground, and he misses. The bard steadies himself and swings his second dagger, cutting into the chest. The blade sticks for a few seconds, but then the chest begins to "melt", and Erric is able to pull the blade free. Anafrey's flail also becomes unstuck, as does the rock Erric shot earlier. (Maldorn's arrow remains embedded, however.) The chest's colors fade and blend as the form almost liquefies. As the adventurers watch in shock (and with a little bit of disgust), the chest becomes an amorphous blob. It is a medium brown color mottled with gray and black patches. As it flattens out to a wide mound, you can almost make out the shape of Ebokk within. The blob does not move and, as far as everyone can tell, is dead.
The screaming, both Ebokk’s and Eric’s, snaps Jambiya out of her fugue. Her eyes widen as she takes in the scene. “Oh no! Is he?” She rushes up to the group. “Is he... dead?” She’s not sure if the others can hear her over Eric’s keening.
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ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he). Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. Here's my D&D stuff. I love it so.
Erric's shriek disintegrates into burbling cries. "If my... spell just... worked he.... would be.... okay!" He's sawing at the opening, trying to safely get Ebokk out with his dagger. His face is just a rictus of disbelief and sadness. When he finds the corpse he's going to be broken and will blame himself and his inexperience for a long time.
Erric cuts open the blob rather easily. It's a mess, but is dissecting a blob cleanly even possible? You pull Ebokk from the interior of the creature. He's covered in goo and not breathing. He's battered and bruised. Goo is everywhere. It's running over the sides of the ledge/bridge. Luckily, it doesn't smell too bad.
OOC: I as the player know that Ebokk's gone, and also is very aware that this is Erric's last spell slot of the day. But Erric doesn't know that, and wouldn't care about that. So.
Erric sees this, and tries to stabilize him/bind his wounds. When it doesn't do anything, he goes to cast healing word on the dwarf. If someone stops him and gets him to understand it's futile, he won't cast it. But he'll try.
After this, after he realizes it's futile, he'll put his head in his hands and rock back and forth for a bit, grieving this strange man he found it a little to hard to trust completely for no reason. And angry at himself for not being able to do magic better than he did. "I thought... I thought the hideous laughter spell would work, and make it stop, make it let him go. But it didn't. I need to learn so much more."
He will, before they leave the area, search the body for the beard ring to ensure it gets back to Ebokk's family. He'll advocate they bring back both the remains of father and son, since he's heard stories of people being resurrected, and maybe his mother will be able to do that. Otherwise, he's a very quiet halfling who struggles to make eye contact.
Maldorn is solemnly quite. He also briefly distrusted the dwarf for no particular reason and now guilt is settling in. His face does its best to hide any hint of it, but it is not particularly successful. After a moment of pause, he reaches into one of his many pockets for the berries Jambiya had offered him earlier. Before he has a chance to offer them to Erric for force-feeding, the bard tries to heal the dwarf through his own magical means. When that fails, Maldorn pockets his berries again and grinds his teeth in frustration.
Not knowing what else to do, the ranger tries to recover the one arrow he managed to shoot at the terrible goo monster. He then mumbles: "If I had shot a second one instead of trying to pull the dwarf from the monster's grasp, maybe it would have died sooner... I should have known that my arms wouldn't be strong enough to pull our bulky benefactor away from danger..." he turns away so no one can see his face: "I... I am sorry."
Sagitta is hiding somewhere within Maldorn's clothes/armor. The snake seems to be getting a knack for not revealing too much emotion, just like his new master.
Without facing his companions, Maldorn then agrees with Erric: "Yes, we should give Master Ebokk a proper burial." Though likely not consciously, this is the first time Maldorn correctly pronounces the dwarf's name.
Anafrey would put the flail back on her belt and watch the scene unfold... Erric and Meldorn both seemingly blaming themselves for what had happened. Anafrey however would pull out her flask and quickly drain all the liquid inside... before pulling out another and doing the same. Only after realizing she had no more booze on her person would she bother to say anything. "It's... It's no use blaming yourselves... I failed to connect with that box monster with a couple of attacks as well... that.... could have been enough to.. " She stops and looks at the ground.. wiping her nose and her white hair out of her face. "It's... It's eaiser if you tell yourself that he was a bad guy... that he was going to double cross us... " She would say as she turned and started heading back to the room containing Ebokk's father. She would sway a little as she walked after having downed all the alcohol on her person in such a short time but was trying her best to keep herself together. "Just keep telling youself..." She would say quietly as she moved towards the old corpse.
Jambiya comes up behind the group, watching numbly as they drag Ebokk's lifeless body out of the goo. Then she turns and runs back, past the body of Ebokk, Sr., into the mud room, where she slides down the wall to the (dry part) of the floor and puts her head between her knees in the darkness.
Wow. Please continue playing here and discussing in PM. But I wanted to add this:
As Jambiya is running away from the scene, she can see and hear — though she doesn't really care — the winged lizard take flight from just a little ways down the tunnel ahead of her, fleeing her charge. After she has been sitting in silent remorse for about 30 seconds, at the same time Anafrey is slowly making her way toward the old dwarf corpse, Jambiya hears the creature nearby, moving toward her slowly. Inexplicably, the image of Erric pulling Ebokk's body from the remains of the blob flashes in her mind along with the strong feeling of an unspoken question.
Jambiya turns her head to look towards the creature. In her numbed state, she’s not so surprised at feeling the creature’s thoughts. After all, she can talk to animals, who know what other weird stuff there is in the world.
She sniffs a little, though she hasn’t cried yet. “Yes, our friend died in there,” she says to it, out loud. “He was always trying to protect us, with that shield of his. He came looking for his father, and now it looks like he might just stay here. At least they’ll be together. I think maybe that’s the way Ebokk would have liked it.”
She pulls out one of her good berries. “Here, you seemed pretty hungry earlier,” and she rolls it in the direction of the lizard.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he). Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. Here's my D&D stuff. I love it so.
After swallowing whatever emotion he was feeling at that moment, Maldorn helps Erric clean Ebokk's body as best as he can. Not letting the halfling embarrass himself in a foolish attempt to carry a body that is bulkier than his own, the ranger volunteers to do so himself (not that he is that strong, actually). He carries the dwarf to the other chamber where Jambiya and Anafrey are and stops for a moment, noticing the lizard (assuming that he can).
Although he does not say it out loud, it is clear Maldorn is waiting for some sort of agreement on what to do with the two dwarven bodies at this point.
Before the others have cleaned the goo off of Ebokk, Jambiya keeps talking to the little lizard. “My name Is Jambiya, but my fathers told me to pick a middle name that could be all mine since I’m a foundling, so I picked Saxifragicae, it’s a plant, and you can use the root to make a drink that’s smooth but has a little bite to it. I always liked that. I miss my dads a lot right now. Do you have a name?”
Now there are some tears rolling down her green cheeks.
When Maldorn speak, Erric says, "no, Maldorn, it's my fault."He doesn't even react when Anafrey tries to lose herself to drunkenness.
Does Erric find the beard ring? He'll take that and all the rest of the loot and put it in their bags, quietly. He'll use his bedroll and maybe Maldorn's if it's still being used to wrap up Flindbar's remains, and then he will offer to help the big folk carry Ebokk's body out. He's ready to go. The bard's almost silent. If asked about what he thinks should happen to the remains, all he says is, "This is a bad place and they shouldn't have to stay here. They should go home."
He'll help carry, as much as he's able, the body, and the bags, to the rowboat.
Jambiya sees in her head a brief image of three more winged lizards clustered together. Two are the same red and orange coloring, but the third is more yellow and orange. As the labored and slightly uneven footfalls of Maldorn carrying Ebokk approach, the creature scurries back into the mud room and up the wall.
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After being hit again with another surge of lightning, the chest, which looks to be on its last ... hinge? bites at Ebokk once again. (bite attack: 24, damage: 8 piercing damage + 3 acid damage)
Holy moly, that's insta-death, folks.
The chest pulls the almost dead dwarf into it and chomps down. There is a final scream by Ebokk and then silence.
Erric, you're up!
(OOC: What would anafrey have to do to remove her flail?)
"Ebokk! No!!" Erric darts forward to the opposite side of the chest from Anafrey, grabbing his daggers for two swift attacks, hoping he can cut the chest open to free the dwarf.
Attack: 19 Damage: 4
Two-weapon attack: 18 Damage: 4
(Closing to melee basically because he assumes that his magic stopped working after the last spell failure. Erric's not really considering the idea that Ebokk could be really dead. He'll use his bonus action for healing word next round, because Ebokk is definitely 100% savable, if only he can pull him out of the creature's maw, like they do in the stories. This is going to fall on him like a ton of bricks.)
Erric runs forward, yelling. He swings his first dagger, but his foot slips on Ebokk's shield, which is still lying on the ground, and he misses. The bard steadies himself and swings his second dagger, cutting into the chest. The blade sticks for a few seconds, but then the chest begins to "melt", and Erric is able to pull the blade free. Anafrey's flail also becomes unstuck, as does the rock Erric shot earlier. (Maldorn's arrow remains embedded, however.) The chest's colors fade and blend as the form almost liquefies. As the adventurers watch in shock (and with a little bit of disgust), the chest becomes an amorphous blob. It is a medium brown color mottled with gray and black patches. As it flattens out to a wide mound, you can almost make out the shape of Ebokk within. The blob does not move and, as far as everyone can tell, is dead.
Erric uses his dagger, gently as to try not to hit the dwarf, to remove Ebokk from the blob, constantly emitting a high-pitched scream.
The screaming, both Ebokk’s and Eric’s, snaps Jambiya out of her fugue. Her eyes widen as she takes in the scene. “Oh no! Is he?” She rushes up to the group. “Is he... dead?” She’s not sure if the others can hear her over Eric’s keening.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. Here's my D&D stuff. I love it so.
Campaign links for Game Log access because DDB has abandoned the forum dice roller, apparently.
Radiant Citadel by cbaer8 ~•~ Stormwreck Isle by Rforrest14 ~•~ Wildspace by Rhanloi ~•~ Rise of Tiamat by SteveThaiBinh ~•~ The Long Road currently by me
Erric's shriek disintegrates into burbling cries. "If my... spell just... worked he.... would be.... okay!" He's sawing at the opening, trying to safely get Ebokk out with his dagger. His face is just a rictus of disbelief and sadness. When he finds the corpse he's going to be broken and will blame himself and his inexperience for a long time.
Erric cuts open the blob rather easily. It's a mess, but is dissecting a blob cleanly even possible? You pull Ebokk from the interior of the creature. He's covered in goo and not breathing. He's battered and bruised. Goo is everywhere. It's running over the sides of the ledge/bridge. Luckily, it doesn't smell too bad.
OOC: I as the player know that Ebokk's gone, and also is very aware that this is Erric's last spell slot of the day. But Erric doesn't know that, and wouldn't care about that. So.
Erric sees this, and tries to stabilize him/bind his wounds. When it doesn't do anything, he goes to cast healing word on the dwarf. If someone stops him and gets him to understand it's futile, he won't cast it. But he'll try.
After this, after he realizes it's futile, he'll put his head in his hands and rock back and forth for a bit, grieving this strange man he found it a little to hard to trust completely for no reason. And angry at himself for not being able to do magic better than he did. "I thought... I thought the hideous laughter spell would work, and make it stop, make it let him go. But it didn't. I need to learn so much more."
He will, before they leave the area, search the body for the beard ring to ensure it gets back to Ebokk's family. He'll advocate they bring back both the remains of father and son, since he's heard stories of people being resurrected, and maybe his mother will be able to do that. Otherwise, he's a very quiet halfling who struggles to make eye contact.
Maldorn is solemnly quite. He also briefly distrusted the dwarf for no particular reason and now guilt is settling in. His face does its best to hide any hint of it, but it is not particularly successful. After a moment of pause, he reaches into one of his many pockets for the berries Jambiya had offered him earlier. Before he has a chance to offer them to Erric for force-feeding, the bard tries to heal the dwarf through his own magical means. When that fails, Maldorn pockets his berries again and grinds his teeth in frustration.
Not knowing what else to do, the ranger tries to recover the one arrow he managed to shoot at the terrible goo monster. He then mumbles: "If I had shot a second one instead of trying to pull the dwarf from the monster's grasp, maybe it would have died sooner... I should have known that my arms wouldn't be strong enough to pull our bulky benefactor away from danger..." he turns away so no one can see his face: "I... I am sorry."
Sagitta is hiding somewhere within Maldorn's clothes/armor. The snake seems to be getting a knack for not revealing too much emotion, just like his new master.
Without facing his companions, Maldorn then agrees with Erric: "Yes, we should give Master Ebokk a proper burial." Though likely not consciously, this is the first time Maldorn correctly pronounces the dwarf's name.
Anafrey would put the flail back on her belt and watch the scene unfold... Erric and Meldorn both seemingly blaming themselves for what had happened. Anafrey however would pull out her flask and quickly drain all the liquid inside... before pulling out another and doing the same. Only after realizing she had no more booze on her person would she bother to say anything. "It's... It's no use blaming yourselves... I failed to connect with that box monster with a couple of attacks as well... that.... could have been enough to.. " She stops and looks at the ground.. wiping her nose and her white hair out of her face. "It's... It's eaiser if you tell yourself that he was a bad guy... that he was going to double cross us... " She would say as she turned and started heading back to the room containing Ebokk's father. She would sway a little as she walked after having downed all the alcohol on her person in such a short time but was trying her best to keep herself together. "Just keep telling youself..." She would say quietly as she moved towards the old corpse.
Jambiya comes up behind the group, watching numbly as they drag Ebokk's lifeless body out of the goo. Then she turns and runs back, past the body of Ebokk, Sr., into the mud room, where she slides down the wall to the (dry part) of the floor and puts her head between her knees in the darkness.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. Here's my D&D stuff. I love it so.
Campaign links for Game Log access because DDB has abandoned the forum dice roller, apparently.
Radiant Citadel by cbaer8 ~•~ Stormwreck Isle by Rforrest14 ~•~ Wildspace by Rhanloi ~•~ Rise of Tiamat by SteveThaiBinh ~•~ The Long Road currently by me
Wow. Please continue playing here and discussing in PM. But I wanted to add this:
As Jambiya is running away from the scene, she can see and hear — though she doesn't really care — the winged lizard take flight from just a little ways down the tunnel ahead of her, fleeing her charge. After she has been sitting in silent remorse for about 30 seconds, at the same time Anafrey is slowly making her way toward the old dwarf corpse, Jambiya hears the creature nearby, moving toward her slowly. Inexplicably, the image of Erric pulling Ebokk's body from the remains of the blob flashes in her mind along with the strong feeling of an unspoken question.
Jambiya turns her head to look towards the creature. In her numbed state, she’s not so surprised at feeling the creature’s thoughts. After all, she can talk to animals, who know what other weird stuff there is in the world.
She sniffs a little, though she hasn’t cried yet. “Yes, our friend died in there,” she says to it, out loud. “He was always trying to protect us, with that shield of his. He came looking for his father, and now it looks like he might just stay here. At least they’ll be together. I think maybe that’s the way Ebokk would have liked it.”
She pulls out one of her good berries. “Here, you seemed pretty hungry earlier,” and she rolls it in the direction of the lizard.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. Here's my D&D stuff. I love it so.
Campaign links for Game Log access because DDB has abandoned the forum dice roller, apparently.
Radiant Citadel by cbaer8 ~•~ Stormwreck Isle by Rforrest14 ~•~ Wildspace by Rhanloi ~•~ Rise of Tiamat by SteveThaiBinh ~•~ The Long Road currently by me
The creature snatches up the goodberry and chomps it, raising its head to swallow. It blinks at Jambiya, turning its head to gaze at her curiously.
After swallowing whatever emotion he was feeling at that moment, Maldorn helps Erric clean Ebokk's body as best as he can. Not letting the halfling embarrass himself in a foolish attempt to carry a body that is bulkier than his own, the ranger volunteers to do so himself (not that he is that strong, actually). He carries the dwarf to the other chamber where Jambiya and Anafrey are and stops for a moment, noticing the lizard (assuming that he can).
Although he does not say it out loud, it is clear Maldorn is waiting for some sort of agreement on what to do with the two dwarven bodies at this point.
Before the others have cleaned the goo off of Ebokk, Jambiya keeps talking to the little lizard. “My name Is Jambiya, but my fathers told me to pick a middle name that could be all mine since I’m a foundling, so I picked Saxifragicae, it’s a plant, and you can use the root to make a drink that’s smooth but has a little bite to it. I always liked that. I miss my dads a lot right now. Do you have a name?”
Now there are some tears rolling down her green cheeks.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. Here's my D&D stuff. I love it so.
Campaign links for Game Log access because DDB has abandoned the forum dice roller, apparently.
Radiant Citadel by cbaer8 ~•~ Stormwreck Isle by Rforrest14 ~•~ Wildspace by Rhanloi ~•~ Rise of Tiamat by SteveThaiBinh ~•~ The Long Road currently by me
When Maldorn speak, Erric says, "no, Maldorn, it's my fault." He doesn't even react when Anafrey tries to lose herself to drunkenness.
Does Erric find the beard ring? He'll take that and all the rest of the loot and put it in their bags, quietly. He'll use his bedroll and maybe Maldorn's if it's still being used to wrap up Flindbar's remains, and then he will offer to help the big folk carry Ebokk's body out. He's ready to go. The bard's almost silent. If asked about what he thinks should happen to the remains, all he says is, "This is a bad place and they shouldn't have to stay here. They should go home."
He'll help carry, as much as he's able, the body, and the bags, to the rowboat.
Jambiya sees in her head a brief image of three more winged lizards clustered together. Two are the same red and orange coloring, but the third is more yellow and orange. As the labored and slightly uneven footfalls of Maldorn carrying Ebokk approach, the creature scurries back into the mud room and up the wall.