Once it's clear there's no immediate threat there, Joren clears his echo out of the cramped chamber, leaving it standing just at the entrance so that Vilus, Ashley, Malachi, or anyone else who wishes to investigate, can do so.
Quietly, he agrees with Marion. "I too would like to know what it was we were just fighting. Regenerating undead reflections fighting in coordination with sentient tree roots? Somehow they were learning not to attack my echo and never attacking Silas..."
"if I was to take a guess, the watcher is about gathering knowledge, looking and learning. If they gained their abilities by absorbing the power leaking from this place then they would naturally become more inquisitive, as for the nature of what they were, perhaps echoes, reflections of past, like memories imbued with the need to keep watch, to look, to learn, to protect... I'm not sure" Vilus answers Joren but doesn't look at him directly, instead addressing the whole group, looking around the room as if looking through it, he takes a deep calm breath in.
In this small chamber Vilus takes a seat, crossing his legs in a meditative pose, "I don't need silence or stillness or anything, continue doing what you'd like, however if you could just keep an eye on me Marion? I don't know what might happen"
At first, Malachi searches his memory to figure out if he recognizes it as a coin from any currency he has seen trading hands in Madurst, but he comes up blank. But then he has a moment of realization. He has seen, not with this insignia but with others, art collectors hunting after these things on the market.
Hundreds of years ago, before Talmouth and Madurst had been built, when much of the western part of the continent was a lawless wild lacking any centralized form of government, various paladin-like factions formed to bring order to the lands. Though they typically had differing ideals, religions, laws, and punishments, their unofficial control over the surrounding regions fostered the stability out of which the more modern cities were able to develop.
And members of these factions started carrying around metal badges like the one Malachi now examines as a form of identification, proving membership to one of these groups.
Vilus gets into a settled position, and prepares to meditate. Though he can feel the presence of the watcher, he feels the stone pressing in on all sides of his senses. He may be too far underground to directly commune, even being so close to the 'tower.' On a hunch, he reaches out and grabs one of the severed roots before closing his eyes.
Vilus sinks into a vision and feels himself spreading out. Spreading thin. His body snakes through the earth in hundreds of places.
(Give me a charisma save)
Vilus sits still in his meditative posture for several minutes, leaving the group to discuss and do what they wish during that time.
While Vilus meditates on the floor, Ashley grabs the handful of coins and then reaches again for the tinderbox. The fact that the box itself has magic is so foreign to her that she doesn't even think beyond picking it up and investigating it.
If nothing happens, she will try and open it to check it out further.
As his imagined body fragments, so too does his mind. The feeling is not unlike when he connects with the watcher. He loses his own thoughts and language, being totally absorbed by this other consciousness.
There is something walking though his demesne. Something new. It only has two feet, but also no wings. Hairless but for the top of its head. He regards the new creature from many angles at once. It seems to hold a small metal container, gleaming in the dancing orange light it holds in another outstretched limb. From one of his many eyes, he makes eye contact with the creature and it startles, an odd expression on its soft features. It reaches toward one root, and that dancing orange light sprays forward.
Pain
Unimaginable searing pain fills all of his senses. He reaches forward with more roots to stop the creature, but it keeps burning and destroying. Stop. Stop. Stop. First stop it. Then... study it. Understand it. Yes...
He recalls other creatures he has come to understand. He remembers how quickly the winged creatures move. How he had to wait until they hung upside down and became very still for hours before he could take them. And he remembers the large furry one. How strong it was. How difficult it was to bring to a halt.
The memories take form as darkness and he sets them in pursuit of the creature of pain. The winged ones dodge and flit about, avoiding the burning light, while the large furry one bears right through it. The newcomer runs. Turns down a side passage. Finds itself trapped. The shadows follow.
He extends more of his body to firmly seal the only escape, and closes in on the odd creature. But it is tenacious. As his roots begin to twine around its legs, it screams in rage. A burning light appears in its other hand, engulfing the metal thing, and then in its open mouth. And then its eyes. Then the light is bursting through its skin.
Pain
Light
When both fade, much of him has been burned away. And all of the strange, angry creature of pain. A twinge of regret. Whatever it was, there was nothing left of it to study. But someday, maybe more will come.
Vilus comes back to himself, feeling hot. He recognizes the tinderbox in Ashley's hands as the thing that the creature... woman from his vision had been holding.
Ashley herself feels hot as well, but it is a different quality of heat. An energizing warmth floods through her, reacting to the tinderbox. Her hair flares up, and she feels the heat dancing in her chest and palm.
(It feels like anyone attuning to this item would feel an impact on their fire magic in some way.)
“This marker is old. Very old. Hundreds of years. I don’t know the exact symbol, but collectors are always on the hunt for artifacts of these old orders.”Malachi looks over at Marion and the others. “We may be able to flip this into some serious coin in Talmouth. People will pay a pretty penny for these.”
Malachi looks at Vilus as he comes out of this trance. “What did your Watcher show you?”
Vilus straightens up and wipes off his brow, "it seems this being.. erm I mean this person was trapped here, an aspect of the watcher wanted to study them, as it had studied the bats and the bear, the shadows are like um.. moving recollections, infused with the same curiosity, but this person hurt them, I think that's why they attacked you all, it learnt that bipedal beings are aggressive, it's been waiting for us.
But understand this is only an aspect, I don't think these things act under the direct will of the watcher" he looks across to the scorched remains "I'm too far under ground to reach the watcher proper, we should go. There might be a way to the surface nearby if this person made it here alone... But that was long ago, maybe.." again thought overtakes and distracts Vilus, he stands and waits for the group to decide what to do
Joren feels tired already. Of this whole situation. As he had been when Bernard Kryn and his band of trueborn shits had so casually run him out of the Khirian Echo Guard and into exile from his homeland in an exercise of petty vengeance against a perceived unworthy mongrel that had stood up to them.
He no longer feels annoyance at the goliath he calls Silas, who seems to be earnest enough in what he is saying here. But it is too much.
All of these ugly, self-important beings of supernatural power and the fanatical arseholes who are following them. Razmus and his vile cultists. Aspects of this Watcher killing living things to study them and then lying in wait for the bipedal kind that has the temerity to fight back when being killed. Calling it all 'curiosity' instead of evil.
"I will be following you all - visiting this Watcher or Talmouth or Tensmith. I am a simple soldier and claiming no great knowledge of such matters."
"But let us not be playing games with words. Killing living beings to study them and calling it 'curiosity,' then lying in wait with undead shadow thralls after the bipeds are having the gall to be defending themselves while being killed. Is it seeming so different to you from torturing and enslaving innocents and calling it 'for labor' as the Innkeeper Jon Shep was saying and doing for his Razmus? Apogee, Ebb, Flow, I am not knowing these words. Not truly. But it is all feeling evil to me, or coming so close to evil so the difference is finer than the edge of my greatsword."
"Of all these supposedly great beings, only Marion's blue lady is seeming worthy to me, even though I am not sharing her faith. The others are having great power too, I cannot be denying, but only as fiends that our world would be best rid of. Let us be naming them true for what they are."
Vilus listens and breathes, "we should likely rest, those things don't seem too interested in this alcove...
As for what they are, what these overseeing beings want, I don't disagree, it's just another form of control, but I can't help understanding the evil borne of ignorance" Vilus looks down to his hands, in thoughtful remembrance of something bad, he sighs, "I don't pity them by any means, but I also don't know if they truly know what they're doing, especially rogue aspects like those shadows... I suppose that only adds to how scary it is that they wield power."
Ashley listens as Vilus and Joren discuss the situation with the watcher. She doesn't fully understand the apparent argument, being a fire genasi from the Sands where the biggest argument is where water is going to be found during a particularly bad season. She thought, whether or not the shadows knew what they were doing, they still attacked them, so in her mind, definitely evil. They could have studied them from afar. She doesn't voice any of this, they are errant thoughts as she holds the tinderbox.
This box... it not only makes her hair flame up, she feels it, she almost doesn't feel in control of it. She likes it and is a bit scared of it. But wants to know more. She steps off to the side in the small cavern and looks the box over, enjoying the feel of it. Once she has finished examining the outside, she tries to open it up.
Samir sighs and takes a seat within the small chamber whole the others discuss,, watching the rest only half-heartedly. Most of his attention seems to be on the walls and ceiling, eyes flickering from here to there, searching and watching.
As the group seems to start settling into this small area free of roots to catch their breath, Ashley continues to admire the tinderbox. Opening it up, she feels a warmth radiate from the flint and fire steel within. She pulls them out and gives the firesteel an experimental strike with the flint. Sparks fly out, as expected, but where they hit the stone floor beneath her, but they cause the stone floor to smoke and smolder wherever they land. Ashley is no expert, but she suspects the firesteel used in it may even be made from iron deposits in her homeland, and the whole box feels designed to have magic channeled through it.
(Ashley wonders if she could use it as a focus if she attunes to it.)
Joren keeps watch during the rest with his echo active.
To Vilus, he simply shakes his head and says "If the roots and shadows are learning, they can learn that they are killing and causing pain. If they are continuing to do so, as they were doing just now, it is cruelty, not curiosity. Ironic that we are calling it The Watcher. Studying can indeed be done by just watching, not hurting or killing or turning victims into undead thralls. Nor is such for necessity and sustenance as being for a natural predatory animal. It is evil, being nearly as bad as the Razmus cultists."
"Linking to it, you are, I know, Silas. Maybe Malachi too. Perhaps not by choice. I am not blaming you for that. But do not be explaining away this evil with innocent words like curiosity."
Malachi leans by the door of the small chamber, looking out in the passageway as the group catches their breath. He looks up sharply at Joren’s comments “No, I am not linked with this Watcher, at least I don’t think I am.”He rubs the mark on his forehead thoughtfully “I am marked by Razmus, but I don’t know what that means. I don't feel his presence. No, I carry my own burdens.”
He pauses before continuing “All of these beings meddle to their own ends, the Ebb, Flow, Apogee. Whoever they are. Even the Watcher, using others to do his will by what he shares and what he leaves unseen. What are we to do against forces such as these?”
"there's nothing I can really do but follow the visions and hope I don't turn out like The shadows, doing evil for unnecessary gain. I suppose you're right Joren, being the exertion of will of a being dedicated to observation makes me walking contradiction, i shouldn't trust the visions so much, as for right now I don't think I've been shown anything false, not yet."
Vilus asks Samir once again for the puzzle cube and settles in clacking away with it, still very much not getting it, it seems that resting even in this site if power for Vilus makes him fidgety
Ashley hears her name as she is sitting with her new toy, trying to figure it out, "Huh? Oh, I'm not sure yet, give me a bit and hopefully I'll know."she goes back to it, not inviting any more conversation as she attempts to attune to the item during the short rest.
"That would stand to reason, I suppose." Samir's response to Joren's inquiry is muted, quiet. His eyes follow Silas' fingers as they manipulate the metal cube, simply watching distractedly. He allows the rest of the conversation to flow past him without input, thinking his thoughts and allowing the others to do the same. Certainly, he has some opinion on the state and reality of such beings as the Watcher and these others, entities with an entirely alternate frame of reference for existence itself in which things like the life and death of people like he and his friends are almost incomprehensible subjects, as far removed from their understanding as the mechanics of arcane clockworks are from that of the average field mouse. Such far reaching and abstract conversations were not unusual back at the Academy and amongst those others for whom the broadening of one's knowledge and understanding was the ultimate goal of life. Theorizing and hypothesizing about the unsual facets of the universe were the sort of hobby they often went in for.
But for now, he kept those to himself. Watching Silas's fingers, listening for the scrape of root on stone and earth. Missing the freedom of the open sky.
A little while passes, while everyone recovers and collects their thoughts. So many of their discoveries over the last few days have been uncomfortable ones.
But soon enough, everyone prepares to head back out, even if mainly to hasten a return to the surface. Proceeding down the tunnel, they find no roots in front of them. But occasionally, upon looking back, one or two can be seen watching them. From a distance. A large distance. It isn't long though before the tunnels are no longer dotted with holes, and the roots no longer follow them.
Several hours pass quietly and uneventfully before they come across another fork in the path. The first one since before the roots. But when Samir looks for a marking to indicate the correct path, he sees that a large chunk of the rock wall has broken away and lies shattered on the ground. And the wall is faintly glistening in the dim light.
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Once it's clear there's no immediate threat there, Joren clears his echo out of the cramped chamber, leaving it standing just at the entrance so that Vilus, Ashley, Malachi, or anyone else who wishes to investigate, can do so.
Quietly, he agrees with Marion. "I too would like to know what it was we were just fighting. Regenerating undead reflections fighting in coordination with sentient tree roots? Somehow they were learning not to attack my echo and never attacking Silas..."
Barn(Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5): Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1): Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian(Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia(Sorcerer2): BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1): Culuril's Strixhaven
"if I was to take a guess, the watcher is about gathering knowledge, looking and learning. If they gained their abilities by absorbing the power leaking from this place then they would naturally become more inquisitive, as for the nature of what they were, perhaps echoes, reflections of past, like memories imbued with the need to keep watch, to look, to learn, to protect... I'm not sure" Vilus answers Joren but doesn't look at him directly, instead addressing the whole group, looking around the room as if looking through it, he takes a deep calm breath in.
In this small chamber Vilus takes a seat, crossing his legs in a meditative pose, "I don't need silence or stillness or anything, continue doing what you'd like, however if you could just keep an eye on me Marion? I don't know what might happen"
At first, Malachi searches his memory to figure out if he recognizes it as a coin from any currency he has seen trading hands in Madurst, but he comes up blank. But then he has a moment of realization. He has seen, not with this insignia but with others, art collectors hunting after these things on the market.
Hundreds of years ago, before Talmouth and Madurst had been built, when much of the western part of the continent was a lawless wild lacking any centralized form of government, various paladin-like factions formed to bring order to the lands. Though they typically had differing ideals, religions, laws, and punishments, their unofficial control over the surrounding regions fostered the stability out of which the more modern cities were able to develop.
And members of these factions started carrying around metal badges like the one Malachi now examines as a form of identification, proving membership to one of these groups.
Vilus gets into a settled position, and prepares to meditate. Though he can feel the presence of the watcher, he feels the stone pressing in on all sides of his senses. He may be too far underground to directly commune, even being so close to the 'tower.' On a hunch, he reaches out and grabs one of the severed roots before closing his eyes.
Vilus sinks into a vision and feels himself spreading out. Spreading thin. His body snakes through the earth in hundreds of places.
(Give me a charisma save)
Vilus sits still in his meditative posture for several minutes, leaving the group to discuss and do what they wish during that time.
Cha save 25
While Vilus meditates on the floor, Ashley grabs the handful of coins and then reaches again for the tinderbox. The fact that the box itself has magic is so foreign to her that she doesn't even think beyond picking it up and investigating it.
If nothing happens, she will try and open it to check it out further.
Vilus:
As his imagined body fragments, so too does his mind. The feeling is not unlike when he connects with the watcher. He loses his own thoughts and language, being totally absorbed by this other consciousness.
There is something walking though his demesne. Something new. It only has two feet, but also no wings. Hairless but for the top of its head. He regards the new creature from many angles at once. It seems to hold a small metal container, gleaming in the dancing orange light it holds in another outstretched limb. From one of his many eyes, he makes eye contact with the creature and it startles, an odd expression on its soft features. It reaches toward one root, and that dancing orange light sprays forward.
Pain
Unimaginable searing pain fills all of his senses. He reaches forward with more roots to stop the creature, but it keeps burning and destroying. Stop. Stop. Stop. First stop it. Then... study it. Understand it. Yes...
He recalls other creatures he has come to understand. He remembers how quickly the winged creatures move. How he had to wait until they hung upside down and became very still for hours before he could take them. And he remembers the large furry one. How strong it was. How difficult it was to bring to a halt.
The memories take form as darkness and he sets them in pursuit of the creature of pain. The winged ones dodge and flit about, avoiding the burning light, while the large furry one bears right through it. The newcomer runs. Turns down a side passage. Finds itself trapped. The shadows follow.
He extends more of his body to firmly seal the only escape, and closes in on the odd creature. But it is tenacious. As his roots begin to twine around its legs, it screams in rage. A burning light appears in its other hand, engulfing the metal thing, and then in its open mouth. And then its eyes. Then the light is bursting through its skin.
Pain
Light
When both fade, much of him has been burned away. And all of the strange, angry creature of pain. A twinge of regret. Whatever it was, there was nothing left of it to study. But someday, maybe more will come.
Vilus comes back to himself, feeling hot. He recognizes the tinderbox in Ashley's hands as the thing that the creature... woman from his vision had been holding.
Ashley herself feels hot as well, but it is a different quality of heat. An energizing warmth floods through her, reacting to the tinderbox. Her hair flares up, and she feels the heat dancing in her chest and palm.
(It feels like anyone attuning to this item would feel an impact on their fire magic in some way.)
“This marker is old. Very old. Hundreds of years. I don’t know the exact symbol, but collectors are always on the hunt for artifacts of these old orders.” Malachi looks over at Marion and the others. “We may be able to flip this into some serious coin in Talmouth. People will pay a pretty penny for these.”
Malachi looks at Vilus as he comes out of this trance. “What did your Watcher show you?”
Vilus straightens up and wipes off his brow, "it seems this being.. erm I mean this person was trapped here, an aspect of the watcher wanted to study them, as it had studied the bats and the bear, the shadows are like um.. moving recollections, infused with the same curiosity, but this person hurt them, I think that's why they attacked you all, it learnt that bipedal beings are aggressive, it's been waiting for us.
But understand this is only an aspect, I don't think these things act under the direct will of the watcher" he looks across to the scorched remains "I'm too far under ground to reach the watcher proper, we should go. There might be a way to the surface nearby if this person made it here alone... But that was long ago, maybe.." again thought overtakes and distracts Vilus, he stands and waits for the group to decide what to do
Joren feels tired already. Of this whole situation. As he had been when Bernard Kryn and his band of trueborn shits had so casually run him out of the Khirian Echo Guard and into exile from his homeland in an exercise of petty vengeance against a perceived unworthy mongrel that had stood up to them.
He no longer feels annoyance at the goliath he calls Silas, who seems to be earnest enough in what he is saying here. But it is too much.
All of these ugly, self-important beings of supernatural power and the fanatical arseholes who are following them. Razmus and his vile cultists. Aspects of this Watcher killing living things to study them and then lying in wait for the bipedal kind that has the temerity to fight back when being killed. Calling it all 'curiosity' instead of evil.
"I will be following you all - visiting this Watcher or Talmouth or Tensmith. I am a simple soldier and claiming no great knowledge of such matters."
"But let us not be playing games with words. Killing living beings to study them and calling it 'curiosity,' then lying in wait with undead shadow thralls after the bipeds are having the gall to be defending themselves while being killed. Is it seeming so different to you from torturing and enslaving innocents and calling it 'for labor' as the Innkeeper Jon Shep was saying and doing for his Razmus? Apogee, Ebb, Flow, I am not knowing these words. Not truly. But it is all feeling evil to me, or coming so close to evil so the difference is finer than the edge of my greatsword."
"Of all these supposedly great beings, only Marion's blue lady is seeming worthy to me, even though I am not sharing her faith. The others are having great power too, I cannot be denying, but only as fiends that our world would be best rid of. Let us be naming them true for what they are."
Barn(Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5): Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1): Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian(Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia(Sorcerer2): BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1): Culuril's Strixhaven
Vilus listens and breathes, "we should likely rest, those things don't seem too interested in this alcove...
As for what they are, what these overseeing beings want, I don't disagree, it's just another form of control, but I can't help understanding the evil borne of ignorance" Vilus looks down to his hands, in thoughtful remembrance of something bad, he sighs, "I don't pity them by any means, but I also don't know if they truly know what they're doing, especially rogue aspects like those shadows... I suppose that only adds to how scary it is that they wield power."
Ashley listens as Vilus and Joren discuss the situation with the watcher. She doesn't fully understand the apparent argument, being a fire genasi from the Sands where the biggest argument is where water is going to be found during a particularly bad season. She thought, whether or not the shadows knew what they were doing, they still attacked them, so in her mind, definitely evil. They could have studied them from afar. She doesn't voice any of this, they are errant thoughts as she holds the tinderbox.
This box... it not only makes her hair flame up, she feels it, she almost doesn't feel in control of it. She likes it and is a bit scared of it. But wants to know more. She steps off to the side in the small cavern and looks the box over, enjoying the feel of it. Once she has finished examining the outside, she tries to open it up.
Samir sighs and takes a seat within the small chamber whole the others discuss,, watching the rest only half-heartedly. Most of his attention seems to be on the walls and ceiling, eyes flickering from here to there, searching and watching.
As the group seems to start settling into this small area free of roots to catch their breath, Ashley continues to admire the tinderbox. Opening it up, she feels a warmth radiate from the flint and fire steel within. She pulls them out and gives the firesteel an experimental strike with the flint. Sparks fly out, as expected, but where they hit the stone floor beneath her, but they cause the stone floor to smoke and smolder wherever they land. Ashley is no expert, but she suspects the firesteel used in it may even be made from iron deposits in her homeland, and the whole box feels designed to have magic channeled through it.
(Ashley wonders if she could use it as a focus if she attunes to it.)
Joren keeps watch during the rest with his echo active.
To Vilus, he simply shakes his head and says "If the roots and shadows are learning, they can learn that they are killing and causing pain. If they are continuing to do so, as they were doing just now, it is cruelty, not curiosity. Ironic that we are calling it The Watcher. Studying can indeed be done by just watching, not hurting or killing or turning victims into undead thralls. Nor is such for necessity and sustenance as being for a natural predatory animal. It is evil, being nearly as bad as the Razmus cultists."
"Linking to it, you are, I know, Silas. Maybe Malachi too. Perhaps not by choice. I am not blaming you for that. But do not be explaining away this evil with innocent words like curiosity."
Barn(Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5): Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1): Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian(Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia(Sorcerer2): BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1): Culuril's Strixhaven
Malachi leans by the door of the small chamber, looking out in the passageway as the group catches their breath. He looks up sharply at Joren’s comments “No, I am not linked with this Watcher, at least I don’t think I am.” He rubs the mark on his forehead thoughtfully “I am marked by Razmus, but I don’t know what that means. I don't feel his presence. No, I carry my own burdens.”
He pauses before continuing “All of these beings meddle to their own ends, the Ebb, Flow, Apogee. Whoever they are. Even the Watcher, using others to do his will by what he shares and what he leaves unseen. What are we to do against forces such as these?”
"there's nothing I can really do but follow the visions and hope I don't turn out like The shadows, doing evil for unnecessary gain. I suppose you're right Joren, being the exertion of will of a being dedicated to observation makes me walking contradiction, i shouldn't trust the visions so much, as for right now I don't think I've been shown anything false, not yet."
Vilus asks Samir once again for the puzzle cube and settles in clacking away with it, still very much not getting it, it seems that resting even in this site if power for Vilus makes him fidgety
Joren grunts. Then nods in respectful, though non-committal acknowledgement. And a helpless shrug at Malachi's final question. Dropping the matter.
"What were you finding, Ashley? And everyone, are thinking now indeed that we are below the First Wood? Halfway traveling to Tensmith?"
Barn(Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5): Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1): Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian(Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia(Sorcerer2): BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1): Culuril's Strixhaven
Ashley hears her name as she is sitting with her new toy, trying to figure it out, "Huh? Oh, I'm not sure yet, give me a bit and hopefully I'll know." she goes back to it, not inviting any more conversation as she attempts to attune to the item during the short rest.
"That would stand to reason, I suppose." Samir's response to Joren's inquiry is muted, quiet. His eyes follow Silas' fingers as they manipulate the metal cube, simply watching distractedly. He allows the rest of the conversation to flow past him without input, thinking his thoughts and allowing the others to do the same. Certainly, he has some opinion on the state and reality of such beings as the Watcher and these others, entities with an entirely alternate frame of reference for existence itself in which things like the life and death of people like he and his friends are almost incomprehensible subjects, as far removed from their understanding as the mechanics of arcane clockworks are from that of the average field mouse. Such far reaching and abstract conversations were not unusual back at the Academy and amongst those others for whom the broadening of one's knowledge and understanding was the ultimate goal of life. Theorizing and hypothesizing about the unsual facets of the universe were the sort of hobby they often went in for.
But for now, he kept those to himself. Watching Silas's fingers, listening for the scrape of root on stone and earth. Missing the freedom of the open sky.
A little while passes, while everyone recovers and collects their thoughts. So many of their discoveries over the last few days have been uncomfortable ones.
But soon enough, everyone prepares to head back out, even if mainly to hasten a return to the surface. Proceeding down the tunnel, they find no roots in front of them. But occasionally, upon looking back, one or two can be seen watching them. From a distance. A large distance. It isn't long though before the tunnels are no longer dotted with holes, and the roots no longer follow them.
Several hours pass quietly and uneventfully before they come across another fork in the path. The first one since before the roots. But when Samir looks for a marking to indicate the correct path, he sees that a large chunk of the rock wall has broken away and lies shattered on the ground. And the wall is faintly glistening in the dim light.