((I'll wait for the result of the roll before responding to Ran, since I ooc have no idea how airships work in dnd))
"The way down should be to the southwest... which is..." He scans the city, looking for a direction to point to, but failing, "I do not know where."
"Now that we have arrived, it occurs to me, I have no idea where to begin. I have a thought, though... I could use magic to spell 10 words in the clouds, something like 'All airships return to basin immediately. Emergency. Full speed. Shadowmantle.' Perhaps the airships would simply up and leave for a while and we can get in and out while they are gone."
Mica kneels down and lets out a low whistle as he takes in the city spread before him. Meili was right, it was huge. “Bigger than I expected. How are we going to find the entrance, this obelisk down there? Especially with all these folks running around.” He pulls out the spyglass he borrowed from Danica back at the Dwarven camp and returns it to her carefully. “Here you go, Cap’n. You take this back now, see if you spot anything or anyone down there.”
He looks over at Ran and the others, “I don’t know, might be better not to draw attention to ourselves by causing a distraction. Maybe we can just sneak in and take a look around? Drop down the cliffside tonight?”
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Ran lets someone else figure out what powers the airships and instead focuses on the problem at hand.
"We can climb down, grab one of these snakehead blokes or red wizards and encourage them to show us the way in," Ran says.
He starts getting rope ready, putting knots in it.
Ran looks down the cliff to try and gauge the best route down and estimate the height, in case they may need to tie multiple ropes together (Survival: 20 )
You recall what you read on the subject of airships. Their contruction and the precise enchantments necessary to make them had always been a closely guarded secret of Halruaa, but their basic design and performance had been known to the magical world for some time.
Like traditional ships sailing on water, skyships required three masts with square sails for lateral navigation using wind currents.
Additionally, they had two or more steering panels that swung out on either side for guidance.
Their broad beam allowed for even landings on flat ground.
Underneath, at least ten magical plates (often made from Halruaan sea turtle shells) were attached. Larger skyships required more plates.
These plates were imbued with magic, granting the ship the ability to fly. They were connected to a control rod made of silver, capped with gold.
The control rod allowed the helmsman to control the skyship’s vertical movement, enabling it to ascend.
The steering panels facilitated horizontal navigation.
Remarkably, skyships could sail on water just like any sea-faring vessel and could not be sunk as long as their underlying magic remained intact.
Overhead, the sky has become overcast, and dark clouds rumble to the southwest. It seems the morning humidity was indeed a prelude to coming storms, which seem to be in the forecast within the hour.
Eligos gasps when Micadraws out the spyglass. "You have Kul's Eye?" He regains his composure and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Of course. You mentioned finding some of our corpses. I hope you didn't run into the big lizard that killed him... though that one we met on the trail last night was even bigger." He looks between Danicaand Mica. "House Kul still has kin in this world. If we survive this, they will very much like to get that back. I'm sure some sort of finder's fee can be worked out with his heirs."
Meanwhile, Ranis able to confirm the cliffside is more than 100' high at this point. It would take three ropes tied together, and then a long climb down.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Meili handed over to Ran her rope to add to the chain, and looked up into the sky. The idea of writing with the clouds sounded very amusing - the fact, she immediately voiced out.
"It would be surely impressive. Very magical."She could not help but add a cautious view to it, though, echoing Mica. "What if they don't believe the message? Or use some special code for communication? Would not we announce our presence this way?"
But with or without skywriting, they had to get down so, if Meili returned to preparation for the descent, like lining up backpacks for sending them down.
"As much as I would love to see the usurpers lackeys fall for such a trick, I think the chances of it succeeding are nil,"Eligos ventures. "They would have a number of communication methods that would be used prior to something like skywriting. That said... the Red Wizards are not the only players in this game. Perhaps we could trick them with a message from the Yuan-ti? Or bluff them with some message from the secret master of this place?"
He watches as Ranreadies the ropes. He looks about to criticize the idea, but then relents.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Idiot. That was foolish. Mica curses at himself silently for showing the spyglass, and right after the wizard spoke of the previous owner. He grunts at the wizard “One step at a time. Let’s see if it can help us get out of this hell hole first.”but moves to put himself between Eligos and Danica. He pulls his rope out of the pack and helps Ran tie the sections together along with Meili’s rope. “I still think we should wait for nightfall to descend under cover. Sneak in under their noses.” Preparations made, he scouts the nearby area for any sign of the previous group of scouts the wizards had sent ahead including Tobem.
Survival (to scout for tracks or sign of the wizards:) 18.
"The ships fly with magical plates on the bottom of the hull. We could disable it by removing the control rod, if we could manage to board the ship."
After the red wizard attests that these mercenaries likely have alternative communication, Nalomanterys gives up his original idea of skywriting. However, the thought of pretending to be the snakemen had some merit. "Perhaps we could goad them into assaulting the snakemen and then we could join the fight and finish both sides off."
Nalomanterys prepares to descend the cliffside, but he appeals to Ran one last time. "You know, a magical descent would be much safer than this, and would not leave any evidence of our passage behind..."
While they wait for darkness, Ran finds a suitable place to anchor the rope - looking for a solid boulder or tree that can both act as anchor and that whoever stays up at the top to go last can help support those going down from.
He also looks or a place that everyone can see and gets Eligos to go sit there so he can't just run off.
As he tests the ropes again, he looks over Nalomanterys.
"You can get us all down safely?" Ran asks before looking over at Eligos. "You alone?"
Ran nods at the practicality of that but then when he looks over the side and back up to where they are looks back to the wizard. "Can you get us back up too?"
The wizard sighs. "As I recall, the plan was to descend after nightfall, with the young lady there using her... equipment... to fly down and the rest of descending courtesy of my feather fall spell. If I understood correctly, she is not able to fly at night... Meaning descending in the day would require two castings of my spell. It would also mean being plainly visible. If we want to gamble that no one is looking, well," he says with another sigh, "then there is nothing stopping us from jumping now."
"As for getting back out of the ruins," he finishes, "that will require walking. Or some other means of extraction that has yet to show itself to us."
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
"Let's just wait for the darkness."Placatingly noted Meili. "It will hide the rope too until morning at least, so no one will be after us immediately. And while we are waiting, studying the site's layout would not hurt either."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Mica nods at Meili’s words. “Be good to get a look at what we are getting into. Anyone have any idea where we are going when we get down there?” After scouting the nearby area for any sign of Tobem on the other wizards, he returns and lays prone by the cliff edge. He watches the city below for any sign of regular patrols or guards, either from the mercenaries or Yuan-Ti. He makes special note of the buildings where they plan to descend. Are they complete ruins or can they be used as a hiding space? He will also study noticeable landmarks to help them navigate while they are in the city. Is there any sign of a black obelisk from the vision? He borrows Danica’s spyglass if she is not using it.
You don't find any fresh sign, though you see evidence of tracks leading back and forth from this spot to the cave area where you sheltered for the night. It appears Eligos and his companions were coming to this spot to surveil the city before you encountered him.
Other than that, there is no tracks to suggest others have been through recently.
There is sign of someone passing along the edge, but it is a week or more old. All around the perimiter of the chasm, there are statues every 50' or so. They have all been smashed. It looks like a platoon of booted persons came through and destroyed them all, breaking them into pieces.
Mica(Using the glass to scout the city):
The city is ruins, yes, but it was a marvel of fine stone construction. Most of it stands, still, and will likely stand centuries longer. There should be ample places to shelter and hide... though there are also many places where foes could lay an ambush.
He notices three interesting locations near to the little point where they are waiting:
Almost immediately below their lookout, there is an abandoned campsite. Though the spyglass, he can see torn backpacks and old gear littering the ground around three moldering tents.
Beyond the abandoned camp, a flat temple sits nearby. It is flanked by cracked and broken obelisks.
To the south, about halfway to the canyon that forms the natural path down into the rift, this is a large stone-walled encampment. It looks like at one time it may have been a military barracks or a monastery. Now, you can see multiple plumes of smoke drifting lazily above the walls. It seems that encampment is currently occupied.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
“It looks like you and the others have come here often to view the city, Eligos. No sign of the others though, is there a chance they could have used a different path?” Mica mentions the tracks and points out the broken statues along the cliff wall “Did your group do that? What were they?”
Mica quietly points out the areas of the city he identified “Empty camp below. Lots of broken obelisks over by the temple, not sure if any are what we are looking for, and the walled camp over there is occupied, not sure if the snake-folk or mercenaries. What do you all think, what’s our move?”
(feel free to read the spoilers above for more detail, he would have shared it all.)
"Getting down to the places already smashed up might be the safest," Ran suggests. "If the agro-blokes down there have already trashed a place they might not return there any time soon."
He looks back to the jungle.
"Then we can figure out next steps of this little adventure from there."
Arcana: 24
((I'll wait for the result of the roll before responding to Ran, since I ooc have no idea how airships work in dnd))
"The way down should be to the southwest... which is..." He scans the city, looking for a direction to point to, but failing, "I do not know where."
"Now that we have arrived, it occurs to me, I have no idea where to begin. I have a thought, though... I could use magic to spell 10 words in the clouds, something like 'All airships return to basin immediately. Emergency. Full speed. Shadowmantle.' Perhaps the airships would simply up and leave for a while and we can get in and out while they are gone."
Mica kneels down and lets out a low whistle as he takes in the city spread before him. Meili was right, it was huge. “Bigger than I expected. How are we going to find the entrance, this obelisk down there? Especially with all these folks running around.” He pulls out the spyglass he borrowed from Danica back at the Dwarven camp and returns it to her carefully. “Here you go, Cap’n. You take this back now, see if you spot anything or anyone down there.”
He looks over at Ran and the others, “I don’t know, might be better not to draw attention to ourselves by causing a distraction. Maybe we can just sneak in and take a look around? Drop down the cliffside tonight?”
Ran lets someone else figure out what powers the airships and instead focuses on the problem at hand.
"We can climb down, grab one of these snakehead blokes or red wizards and encourage them to show us the way in," Ran says.
He starts getting rope ready, putting knots in it.
Ran looks down the cliff to try and gauge the best route down and estimate the height, in case they may need to tie multiple ropes together (Survival: 20 )
Nalomanterys:
You recall what you read on the subject of airships. Their contruction and the precise enchantments necessary to make them had always been a closely guarded secret of Halruaa, but their basic design and performance had been known to the magical world for some time.
Overhead, the sky has become overcast, and dark clouds rumble to the southwest. It seems the morning humidity was indeed a prelude to coming storms, which seem to be in the forecast within the hour.
Eligos gasps when Mica draws out the spyglass. "You have Kul's Eye?" He regains his composure and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Of course. You mentioned finding some of our corpses. I hope you didn't run into the big lizard that killed him... though that one we met on the trail last night was even bigger." He looks between Danica and Mica. "House Kul still has kin in this world. If we survive this, they will very much like to get that back. I'm sure some sort of finder's fee can be worked out with his heirs."
Meanwhile, Ran is able to confirm the cliffside is more than 100' high at this point. It would take three ropes tied together, and then a long climb down.
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Ran decides that if there's no other plan that he'll just start tying the ropes together to get the required length.
Meili handed over to Ran her rope to add to the chain, and looked up into the sky. The idea of writing with the clouds sounded very amusing - the fact, she immediately voiced out.
"It would be surely impressive. Very magical." She could not help but add a cautious view to it, though, echoing Mica. "What if they don't believe the message? Or use some special code for communication? Would not we announce our presence this way?"
But with or without skywriting, they had to get down so, if Meili returned to preparation for the descent, like lining up backpacks for sending them down.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
"As much as I would love to see the usurpers lackeys fall for such a trick, I think the chances of it succeeding are nil," Eligos ventures. "They would have a number of communication methods that would be used prior to something like skywriting. That said... the Red Wizards are not the only players in this game. Perhaps we could trick them with a message from the Yuan-ti? Or bluff them with some message from the secret master of this place?"
He watches as Ran readies the ropes. He looks about to criticize the idea, but then relents.
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Idiot. That was foolish. Mica curses at himself silently for showing the spyglass, and right after the wizard spoke of the previous owner. He grunts at the wizard “One step at a time. Let’s see if it can help us get out of this hell hole first.” but moves to put himself between Eligos and Danica. He pulls his rope out of the pack and helps Ran tie the sections together along with Meili’s rope. “I still think we should wait for nightfall to descend under cover. Sneak in under their noses.” Preparations made, he scouts the nearby area for any sign of the previous group of scouts the wizards had sent ahead including Tobem.
Survival (to scout for tracks or sign of the wizards:) 18.
.
((Nalomanterys reveals post 2625))
"The ships fly with magical plates on the bottom of the hull. We could disable it by removing the control rod, if we could manage to board the ship."
After the red wizard attests that these mercenaries likely have alternative communication, Nalomanterys gives up his original idea of skywriting. However, the thought of pretending to be the snakemen had some merit. "Perhaps we could goad them into assaulting the snakemen and then we could join the fight and finish both sides off."
Nalomanterys prepares to descend the cliffside, but he appeals to Ran one last time. "You know, a magical descent would be much safer than this, and would not leave any evidence of our passage behind..."
While they wait for darkness, Ran finds a suitable place to anchor the rope - looking for a solid boulder or tree that can both act as anchor and that whoever stays up at the top to go last can help support those going down from.
He also looks or a place that everyone can see and gets Eligos to go sit there so he can't just run off.
As he tests the ropes again, he looks over Nalomanterys.
"You can get us all down safely?" Ran asks before looking over at Eligos. "You alone?"
Ran nods at the practicality of that but then when he looks over the side and back up to where they are looks back to the wizard. "Can you get us back up too?"
The wizard sighs. "As I recall, the plan was to descend after nightfall, with the young lady there using her... equipment... to fly down and the rest of descending courtesy of my feather fall spell. If I understood correctly, she is not able to fly at night... Meaning descending in the day would require two castings of my spell. It would also mean being plainly visible. If we want to gamble that no one is looking, well," he says with another sigh, "then there is nothing stopping us from jumping now."
"As for getting back out of the ruins," he finishes, "that will require walking. Or some other means of extraction that has yet to show itself to us."
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
"So we might need these ropes to get back up if there's no other way," Ran says.
Ran takes Nalomanterys to the side and asks about this spell feather fall. "Can you cast it too? I don't trust that one."
"Let's just wait for the darkness." Placatingly noted Meili. "It will hide the rope too until morning at least, so no one will be after us immediately. And while we are waiting, studying the site's layout would not hurt either."
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Mica nods at Meili’s words. “Be good to get a look at what we are getting into. Anyone have any idea where we are going when we get down there?” After scouting the nearby area for any sign of Tobem on the other wizards, he returns and lays prone by the cliff edge. He watches the city below for any sign of regular patrols or guards, either from the mercenaries or Yuan-Ti. He makes special note of the buildings where they plan to descend. Are they complete ruins or can they be used as a hiding space? He will also study noticeable landmarks to help them navigate while they are in the city. Is there any sign of a black obelisk from the vision? He borrows Danica’s spyglass if she is not using it.
Perception: 18.
.
Trusting Mica to spot anything of interest in the city, Ran watches the jungle in case any roaming mercs or yuan-ti stumble across them.
Mica (scouting up top):
You don't find any fresh sign, though you see evidence of tracks leading back and forth from this spot to the cave area where you sheltered for the night. It appears Eligos and his companions were coming to this spot to surveil the city before you encountered him.
Other than that, there is no tracks to suggest others have been through recently.
There is sign of someone passing along the edge, but it is a week or more old. All around the perimiter of the chasm, there are statues every 50' or so. They have all been smashed. It looks like a platoon of booted persons came through and destroyed them all, breaking them into pieces.
Mica (Using the glass to scout the city):
The city is ruins, yes, but it was a marvel of fine stone construction. Most of it stands, still, and will likely stand centuries longer. There should be ample places to shelter and hide... though there are also many places where foes could lay an ambush.
He notices three interesting locations near to the little point where they are waiting:
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
“It looks like you and the others have come here often to view the city, Eligos. No sign of the others though, is there a chance they could have used a different path?” Mica mentions the tracks and points out the broken statues along the cliff wall “Did your group do that? What were they?”
Mica quietly points out the areas of the city he identified “Empty camp below. Lots of broken obelisks over by the temple, not sure if any are what we are looking for, and the walled camp over there is occupied, not sure if the snake-folk or mercenaries. What do you all think, what’s our move?”
(feel free to read the spoilers above for more detail, he would have shared it all.)
"Getting down to the places already smashed up might be the safest," Ran suggests. "If the agro-blokes down there have already trashed a place they might not return there any time soon."
He looks back to the jungle.
"Then we can figure out next steps of this little adventure from there."
Nalomanterys nods. "That sounds wise to me." And he follows the others.
((Apologize for the super short post. Super busy. I hope to post a normal post in a few days.))