Tests and Trials Game Thread

((Pulling back to the intersection seems good, yeah.  And before pulling back, it seems like Lurn would have needed to make it clear that he's not asking if Jaq's willing because he thinks little of him, but because he understands it's dangerous and won't just assume to push others into danger.))

(You didn't really hurt his feelings...he's just being....sensitive! )  He nods and winks, "I understand"

With the others keeping guard at the mouth of the tunnel in the library Jaq and Joe head in. Joe from the mouth of the cavern and around a stone spots the location indicated by Mikram and lit up by Lurn. She lets Jaq know she is ready and hits the spot with a shatter. The sound of cracking stone echoes all the back up the tunnel to those waiting but quickly subsides. After a tense, long minute of nothing else Joe hits the same spot. Again the cracking of stone fills the air, but this time the cracking doesn't stop and large pieces of ceiling start falling and the air rapidly fills with dust. Joe turns to hop into Jaq's waiting arms.

Jaq begins heading out as walls begin sliding and boulders drop.

((Give me three dex saves @Row! You are around 140 ft from where the rest of the party are. Your total movement is 90ft, right?))

(Yes, double movement in dash and cunning action, 90 ft) 

(Dex Saves?  We're good at those!)

21 

19 

27 

When indicated by Joe he gets ready to grab and run at the first sign of falling rocks.  He waits, sweating a bit, as the first spell does nothing.  But after the second casting and the sound of cracking tunnel, he scoops up Joe under one arm and starts to hightail it back towards the others.

Kroshav is waiting anxiously, holding up a torch as he peers down the tunnel, hoping the first face he sees isn't a drow.

Jaq easily dodges ceiling blocks, spinning, ducking and jumping as he needs. Joe sees nothing in the dark but feels more than a bit disoriented as they close on the light.

The rest of the party see some dust coming but can't hear or see anything.

((One last dex save Jaq!))

Dex:

19 

Those waiting at the mouth of the tunnel see Jaq running full out ahead of a wall of dust with Joe in his arms. Just a few dozen steps from clearing the tunnel a slab of ceiling falls ahead of the elf, leaving on a narrow gap between it and thew all. As Jaq skids to a halt the wall of dust catches up and swallows both elf and halfling. The sound of crashing stones are felt as much as they are heard as the dust washes around the waiting party members, leaving them coughing and blinded while their friends' fates are unknown.

Cladmir gets hit by someone running full speed and stumbles back and shortly after Lurn feels someone short grabbing his knees and using his knee hair to stand.

The dust clears relatively quickly leaving the party standing and coughing, covered in dust but all together, the tunnel behind them is filled will stone.

Then Sword asks,

<What is going on? Why are you all just standing here looking at those rocks? Oh, more spiders.>

Then Eula yells,

<The EARTH IS MOVING! What is happening!>

The party is too busy coughing to react when the spiders first arrive, a single large one accompanied by a wave of small ones. The spiders move to where the tunnel was and begin running over the rubble doing who knows what. For now they completely ignore the party members.

Mikram, eyeing the spiders says,

"Well that's done." *HACK*

((Okay! Tunnel appears to be collapsed. I didn't have Joe attack the spiders immediately, let's say she has too much dust in her eyes to see them yet.

What is the plan now? You haven't explored this floor at all, there are spiders nearby, the floor above is partially explored and likely home to the spiders, the horses up top say it was snowing heavily when they came down and you've done what you said you'd do for the Librarian.))

(Wave of small spiders?   How many does he see?)

(( The spiders are completely ignoring the party you say?  In that case slowly draw rapier but stand as still as possible!  :D )) 

((They range in size from dots to fist size but easily a few hundred.))

Cladmir casually and slowly draws his rapier which draws no response from the spiders.

Jaq, still carrying Joe, will slowly walk her away from the spiders and around a corner, before she sees them.

The spiders don't react to the halfling and elf leaving, and Joe is around the corner in the darkness before she can clear the dust from her eyes.

Probably best for all involved.

Lurn observes the spiders for a moment, then starts heading to group up with Jaq and Joe again, "They'll probably leave us alone.  From what I've seen, they don't really care about our existence unless we attack them or the drow tell them to attack us.  Like dogs, really." 

(We've not explored these floors, that's the tunnel fully collapsed, right?  Any other branching paths that we didn't explore, or were we back to the main structure?)

<We couldn't see, it'll be alrigh though.>

<Eula! Are you and Charlie alright? Joe dropped the ceiling in a tunnel to block off the drow, I didn't think it would shift up where you are!>

((Kroshav would want to head back up an check on the horses, they've been left to their own devices for... 2-3 days now?))

((@Forever, back in the main library structure. This floor is completely unexplored.

@Spider, More than three days at this point. They came down two days ago because of the storm so they haven't eaten, and Charlie has expressed how hungry he was getting. They are on the first floor, near way down, Eula said.))

<See what? The rocks falling? You aren't going to do something about those spiders?>

<I'm good, but Charlie is getting hungrier and is thirsty. He doesn't like eating the snow from the tunnel. It is too cold. Joe? The little one? How did she reach the ceiling?>

As the party move away from the now filled tunnel and dust they spot some new, very evident cracks in the walls and floors. Mikram looks at them but just shrugs if anyone asks.

"Let's first find a way up to the horses.  We left them inside thinking we'd not be gone long, so they'll have had little feed.  So long as we get to them, I can conjure goodberries for them to recover their strength.  After that, we report to the librarian, so she can send golems out to search for any straggler drow and clear them out.  Or, should we go to her first so that the golems will be of help ensuring we can reach the horses?"  ((Unfortunately, Lurn doesn't have Create Food and Water prepared, so we'll have to make do with boiling some snow to get him clean water, unless we want to get a bucket of water from the librarian...  Then again, the drow must have had a water supply somewhere?))

((Horses can eat snow, but in my experience they don't all like it. Also yes, the drow were getting water from somewhere and the Librarian has water on her level as well.))

((The spiders are heading into the collapsed tunnel? Do we think we need to investigate/wait to make sure that it's truly collapsed this time?))

((Mikram is confident and it looks thoroughly filled in. Probably okay to leave it, at least for the time being.))