AREA 17

As you walk farther away from the Fungal Forest down the path, it's warm, humid temperature comes to an end as the cutting cold of the Underworld blows out of the tunnel ahead of you. Looking back you see the massive stalks of the Fungi Forest reaching up towards the ceiling, backlit by plantlife that has never shared it's radiance with the light of day. As you approach the city of Holoth.

THE GATES OF HOLOTH

As you near the city of Holoth you view a sea of lights floating within a vast cavern bathed in jade and aubergine illumination, with flecks of azure emanating from the great stalagmites and stalactites towering over the great chamber. Access to the cavern ahead is blocked by walls over 50 feet tall and reinforced with thick black stones. A large force of drow soldiers are atop the ramparts. A spider seemingly the size of a small village rests before the main gates, waiting for something to happen. The gates themselves are 30 feet tall and made from solid black metal. Sharp barbs stick out in an orderly and purposeful manner, placed there to gore any would-be intruders and never let them go, as is apparent in the numerous bleached white skeletons still hanging from the spikes. A mechanism for a portcullis is also visible, although the portcullis and gate are currently open.

Daewen should be invisible, but she none-the-less is hiding as much as she can.  She'll spend a few minutes sitting absolutely still, checking out the entire entrance area for patterns of life.  Are there any roving patrols in the area outside the gate?  Do the sentries atop the ramparts move around any (causing temporary blind spots to appear)?  Do any of the sentries appear to be lazy, perhaps falling asleep at their posts?  And does the giant spider appear to be alive, or a fake to scare away intruders?

...just doing the soldiering thing!

Are there any roving patrols in the area outside the gate? Not at the moment.

Do the sentries atop the ramparts move around any (causing temporary blind spots to appear)? Not really.

Do any of the sentries appear to be lazy, perhaps falling asleep at their posts? No.

And does the giant spider appear to be alive, or a fake to scare away intruders? An insight check would answer that for you.

Neph looks up at the giant spider, trying to determine if alive or is it a big Halloween decoration.

Insight :  9 

After brushing his robes from the clumpy dirt filling this cavern, Zhi silently resigned to himself the arduous treks and physical activity of the party backtracking to the previous location. Zhi hates walking. At least the cave is warm. 

His cold, analytic gaze falls over the looming gates overhead. Zhi slowly catches up to the party, doing his best to hide his exhaustion and wheezing of breath. "Attempting an assault is suicidal. I am capable of casting illusions, though not quite enough to cover for all." Zhi pauses for breath, futilely attempting to play it off as a pause to let his words sink in. "I can, however, mold the earth in increments at a time. Provided I have one or two days to work, I can morph a tunnel beneath the gates."

Daewen's tingling spider sense insight: 11

Looks pretty real. 

"One or two days??!" Kasha exclaimed, flabbergasted. "What are we, digging it ourselves!?"

Daewen quietly settles in for a nice relaxing nap, curled up in a little ball, waiting for Zhi to 'dig' a nice tunnel for them to sneak under the fortress wall.

Zhi rolls his vertically pupiled eyes in annoyance, attention focused on the claws along one hand. Desk work back in the Orzhov was much simpler. Cleaner, too. Luxuries were affordable and plentiful. Field work like this annoyed him, though the company could be...tolerable at times. Zhi finds himself somewhat realizing why nobody in the Orzhov bothered to talk to him for anything beyond business purposes. Perhaps his attitude did need to change. The thought makes him roll his eyes once more. 

About the offer of digging - Zhi couldn't tell whether the ego inflation given by creating a solution would outweigh the menial, degrading task of digging a tunnel. So - he reshuffles his spell repertoire as a smug look slowly spreads over his features. "I am capable of disguising the appearances of everyone on this mission," he smarmily remarks. "We would simply walk in under my disguises of Drow." 

"Sounds great Zhi!  I like the idea, let's do it.  Daewen and Arora can sneak in, I will go in disguise with everyone else, and we will just casually walk inside.  Perhaps that will fool that gigantic spider."  Neph turns and Kasha had snuck up to him.  "Yes, Kasha, you got my nose!  I see it there wiggling - - no, it's just your thumb.  That's a good one.  Just don't try that as a Drow, I don't think they play that game..."  Neph smiles at Kasha and pinches her cheek.

"Good advice, there, professor!" she beams. Alright. Let's do this.

Arora nobs her head "Sounds like a plan, let's do this"

Zhi gives a smug look towards the other members of the party - they’d be hearing about this for a while - and snaps his claws with another muttered incantation under his breath. An illusory guise washes over everyone currently visible - while Zhi would have liked to impress (and perhaps made Nephvir look like an old hag), the party instead looks like a platoon of entirely nondescript Drow soldiers. They weren’t trying to draw attention - simply pass by undetected. Zhi switches to fluent Undercommon - he has prepared for this mission, after all. “There. I fixed the issue. I expect everyone to behave as if they are a Drow. No emotions. No smiling. No laughing. To the Tieflings, if you trip someone with your currently invisible tails, I will kill you before the Drow can.” It’s weird hearing Zhi speak in something besides an Abyssal-accented, raspy voice. 

Rest Portents: 9, 4

(Mobile) 

As soon as Zhi’s magic finished washing over him, Doc felt a powerful force of revulsion from his Patron.  Apparently, it was not particularly pleased that one of its champions had turned – even temporarily – into the thing it hated above all else.  Taking a long moment to suppress the powerful urging from Patron to dispel the magical effect upon himself, Doc looked to the party and said, “Let’s get this over with quickly shall we.” 

When everyone seemed ready to move out, Doc adjusted his stance and demeanor - like a method actor - to match those of the Drow they’d fought previously and lead the group on towards the gate (and hopefully not, he thought to himself, to their doom).

(OOC: Are level 8 or 9?  Also have we rested since our fight across the bridge earlier?)

Arora and Daewen stood to the side being unchanged as they could simply slip away into the shadows of the underworld.  She nods to Daewen "Not bad... we'll see how convincing it is when they meet a few drow"

She steps back and disappears into the shadows.

We are all level 9, and taking a rest is up to you guys. Unless someone calls for it, I assume no rest was taken.

"God damn, i'm a sexy ass *****!" Kasha said, looking herself over. She looked like a drow physically, except the colors were now different in her new form. White hair, purple skin, and green eyes.

Completely invisible, Daewen grins a cheshire grin at Kasha's newfound love of her physical form.  Daewen is no stranger to her physical self changing, as every time she leaves the Shadowfell, her soul's vessel takes on a new form (typically a form that appears MUCH younger than she really is, and typically much prettier than her decrepit Shadowfell self).

She creeps slowly forward, through the gate, ahead of her disguised teammates.

Mock takes a long few moments to spin in a circle and examine her new appearance. When Zhi starts talking, she turns to him, expecting to hear something probably important. Instead, she just blinks at him, not understanding a single word coming out of his - her? their? - mouth. Oh, well. Guess it couldn't be that important.

But she does understand Kasha. She grins at her and gives her a thumbs up. "Looking good, Kash." It's a little weird, seeing her own skin much lighter than usual, so she gets a little distracted by her new appearance again. Oh, right. Mission. Focus, Mock.

She looks to Doc and gives him a little nod, falling to the back of the group as usual. They might look like Drow, sure, but that didn't mean they didn't need to watch their six. She'd cover that for them.

"Mm mm!!" she agrees with Mock, hugging her around the waist and biting into her ribs. "I love your new look, but I miss the tail!" she gives your ass a playful slap. Then, she yells, "Let's do this! SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!"