There's a fair bit of anticipation, but eventually all of you fall asleep, waiting to see what comes of the scarred drow's offer.
Lia:
You wake with a start when you realize you're unable to breathe through your nostrils. Raising your hands to your face, you feel something mucus-like on your face, the scent of wet rot filling your nose. You inhale through your feeding tube and the gaps around where your teeth are held against the block as you look around frantically, breath whistling in and out of your tube. Your fellow slaves are each encased in a glistening tube of green slime, a few still struggling weakly, limbs pushing against the restraining goo. Based on the sizes, you take in at a glance that the Prince and the deep gnome twins are the only ones consciously fighting back, but you have little time to do more than register this before the goo laps up your sides, over your eyes and mouth, and bears you down to the floor under its weight. You continue to struggle as your skin begins to burn, the feeding tube providing a snorkel to access air, but eventually it too is covered, and your next inhale meets resistance. Frantically your lungs struggle, and you feel it give, but halt as the acrid taste of the goo enters your mouth. You struggle, thinking of songs you could sing, hands frantically seeking out the buckles and locks restraining your voice, even if you could remove them only long enough to impore Her for help... only to have your fingers slip through the slime coating your head, fingernails catching and breaking on buckles, gouging your flesh, but not harming the slime. You grow weaker and weaker, and eventually it all fades to black....
...until you give a wheezing gasp as you come to consciousness, your fellow prisoners sleeping to varying degrees of soundly, Shuushar sitting in meditation stands and silently pads over to you, gesturing for you to calm yourself and regulate your breathing. You realize you must have been sleeping and rolled over on in a way that restricted your tube. You eventually get calmed and he gives you a gentle smile and pats your shoulder before padding back over and sitting down again.
Galingal:
They didn't stop at your eyes. After the finished there, they took your tongue, excised your nose from your face, and your ears from your head, fingers knuckle by knuckle, followed by toes. Your hair they burned off, everywhere. And when they were done, they removed... other... things. They poured something on all of the wounds that burned like fire, but seemed to have cauterized the wounds and halted blood loss. It's been two days, and there isn't a part of your body that doesn't hurt. Your eyes aren't even able to produce tears, and your body is wracked by pain if you give in to the sobbing, so you lie as still as possible, breathing shallowly. Just let it end. You'd sworn to yourself you were done with your Queen, that you'd accept the suffering of living among the mortal lands for your freedom.... but this, this is too much. Just let it end. Let her reclaim you and bend you to her purpose once again. Just let it end.
Wincing, you draw yourself up to a seated position. Slowly you loop a length of chain around your neck. Just let it end. Slowly, you lift a toe-less foot off the floor with finger-less hands, and slip it through the chain, releasing it as the weight of your leg pulls the chain tight. "Guuugh leeegg iiiiggg eeeengggg.", you manage to gurgle before the chain ends your life...
...and you wake up, fingers, toes, tongue, ears, eyes and... parts all still intact. You can hear others among your prisoners stirring in the mask imposed darkness. Fork. What a nightmare.
Thom:
The morning comes, and your woken by a drow voice yelling at you in Elvish. "Half-man! Who said you could remove your hat!"
You look up to see Shoor shaking the rabbit pelts at you from the other side of the bars. "Bring him out here, we'll show him what happens when you turn down gifts!"
The gate is opened and two drow enter and roughly drag you out, the gate slamming closed behind you. One of them is sent across to the guardpost and soon returns with a hammer and nails. Shoor grins as he has one of your captors hold the pelts to your head as you struggle. You feel the weight of his hand on your head, and the prick of the point of the nail as the hammer comes down, you can feel the shifting of bone as the nail is driven into your skull, a wet *thrucnch* accompanying it. Again, and again, and again. Your vision has gone hazy as blood runs down you face, dripping on the floor where it wriggles.... Wriggles? You try to focus through the pain to see, and are able to make out a blood red maggot writhing on the floor. As more blood drips down your face, the maggot is joined by another, and another... and another. There's a wrenching in your skull and you lose visual through your left eye as you collapse to the ground, falling on your right side as a wave of maggots crawl out of your skull. As you lose consciousness, the last thing you hear is the panicked yells of the drow as they attempt to flee from the maggots. A certain part of your dying mind can't help but be amused at their plight.
...and then you wake up, blood pulsing and head throbbing, but in a normal, maggot-free way. You look around to see Ront watching you curiously, but he rolls over and goes back to sleep.
The next morning, you're all roused from sleep by the drow, with Mistress Ilvara at their head. "Good morning my slaves. Today might be the day you leave us.", she remarks as she paces in front of the bars. Many of your heartrates probably increase before she continues, "The contingent from the capital will arrive soon to transport you to the City of Spiders. I'm sure some of you will make fine, docile slaves, while others..."
She looks around, eyes lighting on a few of the 'troublemakers', "are likely to end up in the Spider Pits for the entertainment of the masses. Accept your fate, learn to obey, and you may survive. If not, at least put on a good show. We've plenty of work to be done here before we lose your services though. I don't want to see any shirking, if the caravan takes you away tomorrow, I want things in good order until we capture the next batch. Shoor, see to their work details, I have other things to attend to."
Shoor nods as Mistress Ilvara strides imperiously across the bridge.
"You heard the Lady. Line up, and we'll start your day. Work hard and you might be done by lunch. Well... our lunch anyway. Haaahaa!"
Work Details:
1. Lia, Jimjar, Topsy and Turvy - You are taken down the lift to the base of the waterfall and given nets to attempt to catch fish with. Give me a Survival check and a Con Save.
2. Io, Prince Derendil, Shuushar - You are put to work coiling lengths of spidersilk rope that has been braided by the quaggoth servants. Give me a Dexterity check.
3. Lex, Stena, Ront - The elite drow warriors want some pampering. You've been tasked with massaging their feet with scented oils, all with a hand crossbow to your temple. Give me a Performance check (if you can argue for something more suited, go for it!).
4. Thom, Buppido, Sarith - The quaggoth's cavern needs to be cleaned out. You're given shovels and put to work. Give me an Athletics check and a Constitution check (not a save).
5. Galingal, Eldeth, Stool - The drow barracks need a good scrubbing. You're given buckets and fungal sponges and put to work scrubbing floors. Give me an Athletics check.
((While on your work detail, if there are any other checks you want to make, or things you want to attempt, just ask/go for it!))
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM:Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
((@Spider, damn that's some great writing! Thanks for the detail in the dreams))
Thom wouldn't speak to anyone about his dream, but would say to everyone in common before we all left for our work "Hey. Y'all been having strange dreams since being here? I sure as hell have, yeah."
@Spider, is this where Thom would be then with the quaggoth pens? (the star)
"cavern to the North of the Slave Pen is where the quaggoth servants are housed"
Thom will likely speak more with Buppido and Sarith, but for now, here's the requested checks:
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Galingal speaks in Elvish and Common once at the barracks to try and figure out who he has been teamed with for the day.
"Who is there?" Galingal asks. "If have not met, I am named Galingal."
He begins scrubbing to keep up the pretense of work so he guards, if any don't take too much interest in them.
(Athletics Check: 9 )
"Are guards watching?" Galingal asks as he keeps scrubbing. After a moment he continues. "If something happen, will be today. Need be ready. Are you joining in escape?"
He scrubs around the room, using the act of scrubbing to cover his investigation and searching. If the barracks has chests, shelves, drawers, he searches them while scrubbing, looking for unattended weapons or sharp objects.
Perception: 26
If he finds anything small enough to hide, whether in the ragged clothing he still has or inside the mask on his face he will try to slip it in.
((@ Klein, thanks! The three of you got two nat 1's and a 2 on the rolls I made for dreaming... Yes, those are the Quaggoth pens))
Thom and crew:
Beyond the slave pen and down a set of stone steps, this cave is used as a den by the dozen quaggoths that serve the drow of Velkynvelve. The interior is littered with nest-like mounds of debris and the scattered bones of the quaggoths' past meals. As you enter, there are four resting, the closest of which stand up and barks something at you in what you think is Undercommon. They settle when the drow guards appear behind you.
There are buckets that the quaggoth use for their bodily waste that you're made to haul out and tip over the edge, the drow escorting you across the rope bridges to rinse them in the waterfall, and then put to work collecting the cracked bones and tossing them over the edge near what looks to be some sort of watch post. There are no webs directly under this portion, though from the bones clattering on rock far below, it would not be a good place to try to escape by jumping.
The quaggoth seem to really dislike Sarith, and his lowly status has given them a means to do minor things to make his work harder, but collectively you manage the task just fine. (Using your rolls to represent the group effort.)
Galingal:
You're led at a slow pace to where you're put to work, and when you introduce yourself, you hear a female voice with a bit of a dwarven tone to it reply in Common. "I'm Eldeth, a dwarf out of Gauntlgrym."
You feel a bit of an odd tingle in your lungs.
<And I'm Stool! Now we can talk without you softers moving your sound flaps!>, an exuberantly young voice sounds through your mind.
((Spoiler got weird for Galingal, continuing post here.))
They are able to tell you telepathically when the guards are watching or not, the scrubbing goes fine, but you're not all that lucky at grabbing anything useful.
<If you're doing what I think you're trying to do, you want me to try? I can at least see what I'm doing, no offense.>, Eldeth asks.
:lol:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM:Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Stena nods to the twins,
"Aye think we all are. Be ready, seems things are in motion."
Stena moves back to be near to Eldeth and to listen and wait.
((Any other things to follow up on before a long rest, and we see what tomorrow brings?))
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
((Nothing from Stena))
((Nothing from Thom.))
((Nothing from Lia))
GILLAIN OF ATHKATLA - Human Paladin - Into the Mists PHILLIP THE GRUNG - Grung Eldritch Knight - Tomb of Annihilation
ROBWIN WINDROBE - High Elf Wizard - Dragon of Icespire Peak EVE DARKSHORE - Tiefling Warlock - Rime of the Frost Maiden
ASH OF THE FIRE - Tabaxi Rogue - Ghosts of Marshswamp LIA STARBORN - Aasimar Bard - Out of the Abyss
(Nothing from Galingal)
((Nothing from Lex))
Iris - Tiefling Cleric | Cassandra - Elf Warlock | Solace - Tiefling Monk | Tempest - Hexblood Monk | Lex - Fire Genasi Barbarian
Lilyn - Triton Ranger | Candor - Changeling Bard | Echo - Changeling Warlock/Bard | Rowan - Fairy Wizard
((nothing from Io))
There's a fair bit of anticipation, but eventually all of you fall asleep, waiting to see what comes of the scarred drow's offer.
Lia:
You wake with a start when you realize you're unable to breathe through your nostrils. Raising your hands to your face, you feel something mucus-like on your face, the scent of wet rot filling your nose. You inhale through your feeding tube and the gaps around where your teeth are held against the block as you look around frantically, breath whistling in and out of your tube. Your fellow slaves are each encased in a glistening tube of green slime, a few still struggling weakly, limbs pushing against the restraining goo. Based on the sizes, you take in at a glance that the Prince and the deep gnome twins are the only ones consciously fighting back, but you have little time to do more than register this before the goo laps up your sides, over your eyes and mouth, and bears you down to the floor under its weight. You continue to struggle as your skin begins to burn, the feeding tube providing a snorkel to access air, but eventually it too is covered, and your next inhale meets resistance. Frantically your lungs struggle, and you feel it give, but halt as the acrid taste of the goo enters your mouth. You struggle, thinking of songs you could sing, hands frantically seeking out the buckles and locks restraining your voice, even if you could remove them only long enough to impore Her for help... only to have your fingers slip through the slime coating your head, fingernails catching and breaking on buckles, gouging your flesh, but not harming the slime. You grow weaker and weaker, and eventually it all fades to black....
...until you give a wheezing gasp as you come to consciousness, your fellow prisoners sleeping to varying degrees of soundly, Shuushar sitting in meditation stands and silently pads over to you, gesturing for you to calm yourself and regulate your breathing. You realize you must have been sleeping and rolled over on in a way that restricted your tube. You eventually get calmed and he gives you a gentle smile and pats your shoulder before padding back over and sitting down again.
Galingal:
They didn't stop at your eyes. After the finished there, they took your tongue, excised your nose from your face, and your ears from your head, fingers knuckle by knuckle, followed by toes. Your hair they burned off, everywhere. And when they were done, they removed... other... things. They poured something on all of the wounds that burned like fire, but seemed to have cauterized the wounds and halted blood loss. It's been two days, and there isn't a part of your body that doesn't hurt. Your eyes aren't even able to produce tears, and your body is wracked by pain if you give in to the sobbing, so you lie as still as possible, breathing shallowly. Just let it end. You'd sworn to yourself you were done with your Queen, that you'd accept the suffering of living among the mortal lands for your freedom.... but this, this is too much. Just let it end. Let her reclaim you and bend you to her purpose once again. Just let it end.
Wincing, you draw yourself up to a seated position. Slowly you loop a length of chain around your neck. Just let it end. Slowly, you lift a toe-less foot off the floor with finger-less hands, and slip it through the chain, releasing it as the weight of your leg pulls the chain tight. "Guuugh leeegg iiiiggg eeeengggg.", you manage to gurgle before the chain ends your life...
...and you wake up, fingers, toes, tongue, ears, eyes and... parts all still intact. You can hear others among your prisoners stirring in the mask imposed darkness. Fork. What a nightmare.
Thom:
The morning comes, and your woken by a drow voice yelling at you in Elvish. "Half-man! Who said you could remove your hat!"
You look up to see Shoor shaking the rabbit pelts at you from the other side of the bars. "Bring him out here, we'll show him what happens when you turn down gifts!"
The gate is opened and two drow enter and roughly drag you out, the gate slamming closed behind you. One of them is sent across to the guardpost and soon returns with a hammer and nails. Shoor grins as he has one of your captors hold the pelts to your head as you struggle. You feel the weight of his hand on your head, and the prick of the point of the nail as the hammer comes down, you can feel the shifting of bone as the nail is driven into your skull, a wet *thrucnch* accompanying it. Again, and again, and again. Your vision has gone hazy as blood runs down you face, dripping on the floor where it wriggles.... Wriggles? You try to focus through the pain to see, and are able to make out a blood red maggot writhing on the floor. As more blood drips down your face, the maggot is joined by another, and another... and another. There's a wrenching in your skull and you lose visual through your left eye as you collapse to the ground, falling on your right side as a wave of maggots crawl out of your skull. As you lose consciousness, the last thing you hear is the panicked yells of the drow as they attempt to flee from the maggots. A certain part of your dying mind can't help but be amused at their plight.
...and then you wake up, blood pulsing and head throbbing, but in a normal, maggot-free way. You look around to see Ront watching you curiously, but he rolls over and goes back to sleep.
The next morning, you're all roused from sleep by the drow, with Mistress Ilvara at their head. "Good morning my slaves. Today might be the day you leave us.", she remarks as she paces in front of the bars. Many of your heartrates probably increase before she continues, "The contingent from the capital will arrive soon to transport you to the City of Spiders. I'm sure some of you will make fine, docile slaves, while others..."
She looks around, eyes lighting on a few of the 'troublemakers', "are likely to end up in the Spider Pits for the entertainment of the masses. Accept your fate, learn to obey, and you may survive. If not, at least put on a good show. We've plenty of work to be done here before we lose your services though. I don't want to see any shirking, if the caravan takes you away tomorrow, I want things in good order until we capture the next batch. Shoor, see to their work details, I have other things to attend to."
Shoor nods as Mistress Ilvara strides imperiously across the bridge.
"You heard the Lady. Line up, and we'll start your day. Work hard and you might be done by lunch. Well... our lunch anyway. Haaahaa!"
Work Details:
1. Lia, Jimjar, Topsy and Turvy - You are taken down the lift to the base of the waterfall and given nets to attempt to catch fish with. Give me a Survival check and a Con Save.
2. Io, Prince Derendil, Shuushar - You are put to work coiling lengths of spidersilk rope that has been braided by the quaggoth servants. Give me a Dexterity check.
3. Lex, Stena, Ront - The elite drow warriors want some pampering. You've been tasked with massaging their feet with scented oils, all with a hand crossbow to your temple. Give me a Performance check (if you can argue for something more suited, go for it!).
4. Thom, Buppido, Sarith - The quaggoth's cavern needs to be cleaned out. You're given shovels and put to work. Give me an Athletics check and a Constitution check (not a save).
5. Galingal, Eldeth, Stool - The drow barracks need a good scrubbing. You're given buckets and fungal sponges and put to work scrubbing floors. Give me an Athletics check.
((While on your work detail, if there are any other checks you want to make, or things you want to attempt, just ask/go for it!))
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
((@Spider, damn that's some great writing! Thanks for the detail in the dreams))
Thom wouldn't speak to anyone about his dream, but would say to everyone in common before we all left for our work "Hey. Y'all been having strange dreams since being here? I sure as hell have, yeah."
@Spider, is this where Thom would be then with the quaggoth pens? (the star)
"cavern to the North of the Slave Pen is where the quaggoth servants are housed"
Thom will likely speak more with Buppido and Sarith, but for now, here's the requested checks:
Athletics: 20
Constitution: 13
Galingal speaks in Elvish and Common once at the barracks to try and figure out who he has been teamed with for the day.
"Who is there?" Galingal asks. "If have not met, I am named Galingal."
He begins scrubbing to keep up the pretense of work so he guards, if any don't take too much interest in them.
(Athletics Check: 9 )
"Are guards watching?" Galingal asks as he keeps scrubbing. After a moment he continues. "If something happen, will be today. Need be ready. Are you joining in escape?"
He scrubs around the room, using the act of scrubbing to cover his investigation and searching. If the barracks has chests, shelves, drawers, he searches them while scrubbing, looking for unattended weapons or sharp objects.
Perception: 26
If he finds anything small enough to hide, whether in the ragged clothing he still has or inside the mask on his face he will try to slip it in.
Sleight of Hand if needed: 15
(Not that it matters with those rolls, but the Sleight of Hand should be 8 not 5 - didn't add his modifier).
((@ Klein, thanks! The three of you got two nat 1's and a 2 on the rolls I made for dreaming... Yes, those are the Quaggoth pens))
Thom and crew:
Beyond the slave pen and down a set of stone steps, this cave is used as a den by the dozen quaggoths that serve the drow of Velkynvelve. The interior is littered with nest-like mounds of debris and the scattered bones of the quaggoths' past meals. As you enter, there are four resting, the closest of which stand up and barks something at you in what you think is Undercommon. They settle when the drow guards appear behind you.
There are buckets that the quaggoth use for their bodily waste that you're made to haul out and tip over the edge, the drow escorting you across the rope bridges to rinse them in the waterfall, and then put to work collecting the cracked bones and tossing them over the edge near what looks to be some sort of watch post. There are no webs directly under this portion, though from the bones clattering on rock far below, it would not be a good place to try to escape by jumping.
The quaggoth seem to really dislike Sarith, and his lowly status has given them a means to do minor things to make his work harder, but collectively you manage the task just fine. (Using your rolls to represent the group effort.)
Galingal:
You're led at a slow pace to where you're put to work, and when you introduce yourself, you hear a female voice with a bit of a dwarven tone to it reply in Common. "I'm Eldeth, a dwarf out of Gauntlgrym."
You feel a bit of an odd tingle in your lungs.
<And I'm Stool! Now we can talk without you softers moving your sound flaps!>, an exuberantly young voice sounds through your mind.
<Really?! That's amazing!>, Eldeth replies.
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
((Spoiler got weird for Galingal, continuing post here.))
They are able to tell you telepathically when the guards are watching or not, the scrubbing goes fine, but you're not all that lucky at grabbing anything useful.
<If you're doing what I think you're trying to do, you want me to try? I can at least see what I'm doing, no offense.>, Eldeth asks.
:lol:
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
((Hmm. A proper foot massage is all about hand movement. You can put on a show, but that isn't getting the job done! So how about sleight of hand?))
Stena raises a brow at the Drow picking an orc for foot rubs and hopes this goes as well for him as she thinks it will.
She'll give Lex a small nod.
Roll: 7
(+3 if the SoH argument won you over!)
While she is in the room that the rubs are occuring she'll look to see if there is anything she could potentially snatch, like a dagger or the like.
Perception:6
"And here I thought the worse that the Quaggoths could do was look that ugly" she almost pukes but stops herself
Dex save((hoping it's a bad one so that Io doesn't complete get grossed out to death, seriusly if it's a good one i might be angry at the dices)): 11
Ront rub feet real good: 4
((What happens if the elite guards are unable to walk due to the terrible, terrible foot rubs?))
((Io, it's just a check, not a save, no worries!))
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
((I know.. but... it's sooo disgusting!!! LIKE HAVE YOU SAW THEIR FACES??? It's a save for me! a save of phisical and mental estability!!))
Whether intentionally or not, Lex also takes the 'extra deep tissue' foot massage approach.
Athletics: 8
While she's in the room, she looks for any useful equipment or something she could use to form some sort of sling/papoose for Stool.
Perception: 16
Iris - Tiefling Cleric | Cassandra - Elf Warlock | Solace - Tiefling Monk | Tempest - Hexblood Monk | Lex - Fire Genasi Barbarian
Lilyn - Triton Ranger | Candor - Changeling Bard | Echo - Changeling Warlock/Bard | Rowan - Fairy Wizard