Tanis keeps his face down and his posture submissive, but tastes bile at the back of his throat.

One day someone will relieve these vile excuses for people of the power they so clearly never deserved.

But that day is not today, and that someone would probably never be Tanis.

Petmailer’s mind is swirling as he watches the display with downturned eyes, head bowed in a posture of submission.  He thinks to himself, “The wand worked, a magical display in the cell.  Is is only our magic that is blocked?  Only spells, but wands, potions, etc work fine?  Hmm…”

[Ooc hint] The wand was fired from outside the cell. 

Phodoxia watches the drow from the ragged hole she tore in her hood, still hunched down on her knees. At first she feels only curious, but finds herself tense and cringing in revulsion as the priestess steps into the cell with the prisoners. Something about her proximity is very unpleasant, even before she speaks, and Phodoxia tries not to fidget. But the goblin quickly turns away when Ilvara shoves Topsy against the bars of the cell and glues her there.

"Bite them," she whispers to herself very quietly in Goblin, sniffling a bit under the hood.

Ilvara looks like she is about to go when she notices Phodoxia. "Will someone please tell me why this thing is wearing a hood." She snatches it off. "What is it? Is this a particularly hideous goblin or something? They all look the same to me. Shoor, what do you think? Oh wait, Jorlan, darling, you're the expert on disfiguration and ugliness. What's your opinion?"

She is looking at the drow fighter with the scars. His eyes burn with anger and shame, but he says nothing.  

She waits a moment, then says "Bah! Enough of this. I need to go bathe their stench off my skin." She throws the hood back to Phodoxia and strides out the gate. "Lock them up. No rations tonight. Perhaps they'll cause less trouble if they've been....productive. Make them all do something useful tomorrow, like... I don't know, stacking rocks or something."

She crosses the rope bridge without a backwards glance. "Shoor, meet me in my quarters once you have this sorted out." 

This is what your lovely host looks like in case you're wondering.

Shoowaa says nothing, and tries to hide his tail as much as possible from the intimidating drow.  He doesn’t want to die and follow the other prizoner’s leads and bows to her, hoping that would suit the drowess.

stealth: 23

Vrah seethes with rage as the priestess walks by, all I would need is a moment and I could snap her neck but then I would be pelted with bolts. Not worth it for now.

Then he looks at the older drow as she walks by, I might not have to do anything, he might take care of her for me.

Once the drow are gone, he will approached the one stuck to the bars, "Won't last long and you will be free, at least you can breath."

Once the drow have finished relocking the door, and things have returned more to normal, only then would Vethna turn back to the mushroom person. "Will you please release your spores so we can talk with you easier?" She asks the plant-creature. She is seathing inside at the rough treatment from the priestess, but doesn't let it show as she works to show the mushroom person she means them no harm.

[OOC: Going to do a little scene setting, then you guys will have a chance to talk with heightened communication abilities]

The Drow guards return to the watchtower, laughing amongst themselves at some of the cruelty Ilvara inflicted upon you. A nervous-looking Shoor gives a few orders, then hurries off to follow after Ilvara. Jorlan stays for a brief moment and looks over the new prisoners before turning to go. He appears to be assessing you and trying to determine your abilities, but not from a sense of worry or concern. It's more curiosity. He isn't joining in the laughter and he was the only Drow who didn't seem amused at Ilvara's antics.

Turvy rushes over to check on and comfort his sister, as do Jimjar and the fish-like Shuushar. If any of you start to try and pull her free, they will stop you and confirm what Vrah said, which is that the glue will dissolve on its own in about an hour. It won't be comfortable for Topsy, but trying to pull her free before then would, at best, peel off some layers of skin and do more harm than good. She is struggling and crying until Shuushar comes over and gently places his hands on her head. He breathes in long slow breaths. Slowly, her breathing calms and matches his. After a few moments she seems to relax. Derendil (the big Quaggoth) pats her on the head with a big meaty claw, then goes to sit against a wall.

[OOC: Surface dwellers would probably never have come across a creature like Shuushar. Those of you with experience underground could make a nature, survival or history check to see if you've ever encountered his kind before.]

Eldeth presses her face against the bars to watch the guards leave. You can tell she is studying them closely, trying to determine what weapons they have and assess their armor and abilities. She is looking for any chance to attack or escape (not in this moment, but she is preparing for whenever a chance arises). Buppido and Sarith go off toward opposite walls in the back of the cave. Buppido is mumbling and talking to himself. 

With Vethna's coaxing, Sprout, the mushroom, seems to swell up for a second, then with a soft puffing sound, a 10-foot radius of spores extends from the myconid. They are small, dust like particles. Those of you within ten feet of Sprout cough for a moment as you feel your lungs fill with these spores. They smell musky and earthen. You feel a little light-headed and dizzy for a moment and start to worry that they might be harmful. Then, softly at first, but growing louder, you "hear" other thoughts  in your head also saying things like "I feel weird," "was that poisonous?", "what's going on?", "who said that?", "do they know?" You look around you and catch the eyes of your fellow prisoners. Regardless of what language you speak, you can understand and feel connected with everyone else in your immediate vicinity. 

Sprout presses up against Vethna's legs and gives off a sense of being happy to have new friends and proud to have helped them "connect."

Vethna thinks... "Bugbear, can you hear me?" She glances to the bugbear as she thinks this, seeing if he reacts. Making sure to hold his eyes for a long moment, she lets him know the communication was from her and on purpose. She would do the same to each other person, making sure they know she is purposefully doing this. Once she has contacted everyone individually this way, and I assume the others hear her doing each of them one at a time, then she will say, mentally. "This gives us he ability to talk without the guards knowing we are speaking. We should be able to plan things like this, without having to worry about being overheard." She looks smug as she finishes. She is sad the orc had to die, but he was likely too chaotic to have been much help in any escape attempt.

END OF DAY ONE    Days without food: 1   Days without water 0

Although it is dark down here (and especially in your cell), the Drow do stick to rhythms of day and night. You are moving into nighttime. Guards are watching most of the time from the tower. One will cross every few hours to look things over and make sure no one is messing with the gate, but otherwise you are left on your own. After an hour, Topsy will come free from the bars and will go collapse somewhere to rest with her brother.  

This will be a good time for you to talk amongst yourselves, get to know the other NPC prisoners or make any plans. 

There are pots in the back of the cave for going to the bathroom (we're not going to role play that!). The drow did leave a small barrel of water with a ladle just outside the bars where prisoners inside can reach it. So you have water. Not a lot, but enough to keep you from getting severely dehydrated. They gave you no food today. The other prisoners can tell you that there normally is just a weak mushroom broth provided in small clay bowls. Not enough to thrive on, but enough for subsistence. They don't want you strong, but they also don't want you so weak that you can't do work or march and become difficult to transport.

Under the rules from the player's handbook, you can go a number of days equal to 3 + your CON modifier without food. After that, you automatically suffer a level of exhaustion for each day without food. Each day you need a half gallon of water or you have to pass a DC 15 CON save or suffer a level of exhaustion. Once you are able to eat and drink a normal amount for a day, those levels of exhaustion reset. 

Petmailer looks around while sitting, earth smell and motes in the air, “Can anyone else hear me?  I have a spell for this, but these spores…. What do we do now?  Has anyone had thoughts of how to get out of here?  Is anybody.. out there?”

Shoowaa sees the mushroom about to explode and rushes to where the mushroom is.  He feels tingly and weird. Shoowaa thinks many questions and statements in quick succession, seemingly not been able to speak so much at one time before.  

 <Oooooooh fun!  Not as fun as some shrooms from the feylands, but still pretty good!  Oooh ooh I need to say sorry to the big blue guy, I thought he or she was going to attack us.  OOoh idea, now that the guards can't hear us we can think of escape plans!  I wonder what a spider thinks.>   Shoowaa goes to the wall and pulls of the tarantula <Can you hear me? Can I hear you?  If you can hear me can you get your other spider friends to not eat us??  Shoowaa doesn't stop for a reply and puts the tarantula back on the wall and walks back to the mushroom.  <Hi I'm Shoowaa!  How often can you do that, that's so cool!  Oh what can you do to help us escape?  What about the big blue creature, why is here with us?  Why are the drow with us?  If they use mushroom soup do they use part of you?  Maybe we should look for rats and spiders to eat.  Can we use magic outside of the cell?  I mean she was able to use a wand...oooh maybe we can steal the wand from her and stick her to the walls. If we get close to spiders maybe I can talk to them. I never seen a walking mushroom before!  Do you eat anything?  Is it considered cannibalism if you eat the broth? Can you grow food-no wait that's rude to ask. What is your name?>

After the reply, Shoowaa goes to the big blue creature. <I need to say sorry> "Hi um I'm Shoowaa, sorry about earlier I thought you were going to attack us...I thought you were one of the drow's pets to keep us in line. Sorry.  How did they capture a large creature such as you down here?"  <With his or her help we can probably escape this place>

Shoowaa:

The spider doesn't respond in any way to your thought questions. 

When you go up to Sprout and start asking all those questions, it tries to run from you and hide behind some of the other prisoners, mostly Vethna. It repeats "I want to go home. I want to go home." and you see beautiful visions of a grove with amazing growths of mushrooms and phosphorescent fungus. As you continue to fire off questions, it says "Too many questions. I don't know answers. I want to go home."

The Quaggoth says "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met." He bows low. "I am Prince Derendil" He explains that he is not, in fact, a quaggoth, but a gold elf prince polymorphed into quaggoth form by a curse. He is a ruler of the kingdom of Nelrindenvane in the High Forest. His crown was usurped by the evil wizard Terrestor, who trapped him in this form and exiled him from his people. He expresses concern that his new form is slowly overtaking his mind with savagery and he fears losing his sanity. As to how he got here, he can't remember. He thinks maybe Terrestor drugged him or put him to sleep and sold him to the Drow, but he can't remember any specifics. 

Tanis tries to do multiple things, though not all at the same time of course.

1.  Most immediately, Tanis joins Eldeth next to the bars trying again to gain any extra information he can on the drow, their weapons, armor and abilities.  Continuing his previous Perception check unless he should roll again.  Also a signal of solidarity with Eldeth.  Can Tanis tell if the crossbow bolts the guards had trained on them were poisoned ("greenish liquid glistening on the crossbow bolts")?  He would wonder that out loud to Eldeth.  Besides that, he thinks he saw that the standard guard equipment is Leather, Shortsword, Hand Crossbow.

2.  Assuming Tanis also has telepathy from Sprout, he would quietly greet all his fellow prisoners in turn mentally and introduce himself.  Or do so verbally if the telepathy wears off after an hour - Tanis would try Common/Undercommon/Elvish/Gnomish/Dwarvish as appropriate.  Probably waiting until Topsy recovers in her case so as not to intrude on her trauma.  The one he doesn't trust is Buppido based on the derro's earlier threat to kill the bugbear in his sleep.  (When Tanis does sleep, his back will be to a wall).

3.  He would reach out mentally to Shuushar, humbly thanking them for their kind act towards Topsy.

4.  More immediately, answering Petmailer but addressing everyone respectfully, Tanis would send telepathically:  "I hear you Petmailer.  No immediate thought on means of escape.  I think the disfigured drow lieutenant, Jorlan, may harbor animosity towards Ilvara.  He is clearly not the mistress' favorite (that may be the other lieutenant Shoor).  We should consider how to further drive a wedge between Jorlan and the others to our benefit.  Beyond that, we need to think how to procure some of their weapons, armor, food, water and ropes to climb down to the cavern floor away from the spiders if the lift is inaccessible.  A few hand crossbows and shortswords, along with supplies could drastically increase our otherwise small chances of survival, both during immediate escape and later once we get away from this cavern.  Of course, finding some of our original gear from when we were captured would help too, if it is still here.  Has anyone seen where they keep these things during a work detail?"

 5.  (Edited to add):  Telepathically, Tanis would also continue:  "I believe it is very difficult, but possible, to squirm free of the manacles without making noise and drawing attention as smashing them would.  Does anyone else wish to try squirming free as I am?  If any of us frees ourselves, it goes without saying we should try to keep our freedom concealed.  Of course, after a work detail, they will just chain us up again, so I'm thinking the best time to do it is right after a work detail and inspection, like the one some of you just had."

"Please do not upset Sprout." Vethna says, soothing the mushroom person. Once the chaos of the first moments of telepathic communications dies down, she would address the group mentally. "Yes, we need to scout the place as we do our work details. Anyone who has seen anything please speak up and let us know what you have seen. Anyone who goes out needs to keep their eyes open and report back. We need to know where our own gear is stored, where the drow keep supplies, and any way to get down to the cavern floor." She pauses as she lets the others take this in. "Then we need to start working on how to get out of here. Our first issue is the manicles, but, of equal importance, is the cage door. Some of us may be able to squirm out of the cuffs, but the cage door is a barrier we cannot get past without a key. Second, I don't think we should plan on fighting the Drow, that would only end in us getting killed or captured. We need to plan on escaping and running. We would want to grab what we can on the way, for supplies and gear, but we dare not engage the drow any more than is absolutely needed for us to get away." She ends there, waiting for responses.

1.  Most immediately, Tanis joins Eldeth next to the bars trying again to gain any extra information he can on the drow, their weapons, armor and abilities.  Continuing his previous Perception check unless he should roll again.  Also a signal of solidarity with Eldeth.  Can Tanis tell if the crossbow bolts the guards had trained on them were poisoned ("greenish liquid glistening on the crossbow bolts")?  He would wonder that out loud to Eldeth.  Besides that, he thinks he saw that the standard guard equipment is Leather, Shortsword, Hand Crossbow.

Answer: Some were wearing studded leather. Others had a chain shirt. A few had a small shield strapped on their back. The weapons of choice seem to be hand crossbows and shortswords. Shoor had the wand of viscous globs (actual name) and Ilvara was carrying the strange rod with tentacles, but you don't know what that does. You're certain the crossbow bolts were coated with something and you can confer with Eldeth that the Drow use poison on their crossbow bolts. It doesn't do additional damage, but it causes the poisoned condition and can knock you out (useful for subduing prisoners that you may want to keep alive).

Shuushaar acknowledges your thanks with a simple bow.

4.  More immediately, answering Petmailer but addressing everyone respectfully, Tanis would send telepathically:  "I hear you Petmailer.  No immediate thought on means of escape.  I think the disfigured drow lieutenant, Jorlan, may harbor animosity towards Ilvara.  He is clearly not the mistress' favorite (that may be the other lieutenant Shoor).  We should consider how to further drive a wedge between Jorlan and the others to our benefit.  Beyond that, we need to think how to procure some of their weapons, armor, food, water and ropes to climb down to the cavern floor away from the spiders if the lift is inaccessible.  A few hand crossbows and shortswords, along with supplies could drastically increase our otherwise small chances of survival, both during immediate escape and later once we get away from this cavern.  Of course, finding some of our original gear from when we were captured would help too, if it is still here.  Has anyone seen where they keep these things during a work detail?"

Answer: Jimjar pipes up in response. "I've seen what I think were prisoners' belongings in two places. One is the upper floor of that guard tower. I haven't been up there, but I caught a glimpse of it. One of the guards walked me through there as some of the drow were handing stuff up. I don't think I was supposed to see. They closed the trap door pretty quickly when I came in. I think there's an armory up there and some kind of space for secure storage. The other place I've seen prisoner possessions is in Lady Ilvara's chamber. I think they take anything that looks particularly valuable to her to review and decide if she wants any of it. Her chamber would be trickier to get to. It's in the biggest stalactite." (The guard tower across from your cell is the northernmost. Jimjar is referring to the next one down moving south.) 

<Sorry sorry sorry! I didn't mean to upset you, I got excited, and I think many things at once, no need to answer!  I also want to go home.>  Shoowaa thinks of the forest, where there are pixies and woodland creatures, and his mentor the centaur, the centaur telling Shoowaa what to use for an herbalistic medicine, the centaur yelling at Shoowaa for about to eat something he shouldn't have, the centaur showing him how nature magic works.  <I miss that place... Sorry we were saying something?  Oh right, what is your name?>

Shoowaa looks at the quaggoth in wonder. "A prince?  I didn't know we had royalty here.   

Whoooaaa!  I saw some shape changing magic, but I didn't know it can be that powerful! I saw my mentor change into a bear once but he got better.  Maybe maybe maybe if we get you out of here I can lead you to my mentor and he can change you back?  But we need to get out first."

Shoowaa thinks to Tanis <Ooh good idea.  I hope we can use magic out of this cell, because I can maybe try to talk to the spiders for help, I don't know what to say to them though.>

Eldeth comes over and begins sketching something out in the dirt of the cave floor (she basically draws out the map I showed you, but in less detail. She is trained as a scout and is good at noticing details and remembering them). "They've tried to insult my pride by making me empty chamber pots and wash dishes for hours. Little did they realize that let me map out the whole outpost."

She points out that the first stalactite tower is the guard outpost. She also believes there is an armory or storage area above the ground floor, accessible by a trap door in the ceiling. The cavern north of yours (down the stone steps) is where a bunch of Quaggoth servants live when they aren't working. She thinks there are around a dozen of them. There is a small alcove next to it where 2 drow are always on watch for any disturbances.

She confirms what Jimjar said. Ilvara lives in the second tower. The top floor of it is a shrine to Lolth where a junior priestess named Asha also has living space. Ilvara's quarters are below that and now Shoor has quarters below hers. The other two towers are barracks for the more elite guards. 

The next cavern to the left past the waterfall is the main hall for dining, cooking, etc. It has a well stocked pantry that could provide plenty of rations for a journey, but it is right in the middle of the outpost. At this point, Eldeth also notes that it's a long journey from this outpost to any other civilized settlement. There isn't much in the way of food that can be found along the way. 

The two southern most caverns are where the other drow soldiers have barracks. They have personal belongings and store weapons and armor there when they aren't on duty, but there isn't a lot of valuable stuff there. Finally, there is another small alcove at the far end of the outpost like the one at the North end. 

When she finishes with the map and her mental description, she gives you a second to study it, then wipes it out of the dust.