Crimson Sands of Time

So not opening the door. Check. Well then, all the other pcs are up.

Chadderlay will have Mister Fancy, his black and white, tuxedo pattern cat familiar, scout ahead.

Chad will first move across the room and exit, exploring what lies beyond and transfer his senses of sight and hearing to Mister Fancy.

Mister Fancy will use his movement (speed of 40) and take the Dash action for another 40 feet to explore as far as he can. Since I am sharing senses and have telepathy when within 100 feet I should be able to guide him through open doors and navigate him through the building as far as possible.

"Hello! I have gained access to the building!" Chadderlay will shout (unless there is a telepathic bond, I thought someone used this but I might be mistaken, if so then he just shares it telepathically).

"Wait... I hear someone in pain coming from the door. Is there someone locked inside there or something? Or is it just a trap? Should we even risk a peek?" Ethan asks whoever is remaining. He fidgets constantly, thinking that there might be someone needed to be rescued but also imagines something terrifying behind the door, and he knows that without the others, they might be in serious trouble if he takes the chance.

Mister Fancy runs past Sam and the stairs, passes sever al vacant rooms (With the exception of plant growth and an occasional pile of troll or kobold excrement, these rooms are empty) and at the far end of the hall, a closed door, from behind which comes a potent noxious odor.  Turning right at the end of the hall he sees more stairs leading down, and another door beside that.

(Although Chad is blind and deaf while using Mister Fancy's senses (I did move before I did that by the way) can I make a sort of 'mental map' since I am going to follow the direction Mister Fancy went (just slower) to navigate similar to the way a blind person can navigate their own home as they are so used to where everything is?)

I was going to post the map, but time.. it's like a horseshoe around the main room. there's 1 room with a closed door, pretty much the south side version if the room Chad's in, rhe one with the smell.  Collectively, you'd all guess the two stairs meet at the bottom.  That's the whole place.

Once Mister Fancy has made his way to the bottom of the two sets of stairs where the double doors are Chad will stop using his familiar's senses and hurry to meet any others who have already gathered here.

"Is anyone good at picking locks?"

<You can just open it>

Does this look about right? Evryone here who's supposed to be?

Anyone want to open the door? It's an object interaction, so no cost; make it part of your preceding move if you like.

Chad opens the door and moves into the room using as much of his 30 feet of movement as needed to roughly reach the middle. (If the room is overly large then he will use his action to Dash to get to the middle of the room.

"Let's go guys! I've entered the double doors at the bottom of the two sets of stairs!" Chad will shout, or use telepathy if we have that telepathic bond spell going?

<Room Description :: Bowels of the Black Bull>

This dark room is lit by three dimly-glowing braziers distributed among a half dozen tables in the room. Cage bars are set into the floors and are occupied by emaciated people in various stages of neglect. A half-dozen shackles hang from the far wall, their occupants moaning in pain and delirium. A QUARTET of kobolds are here and, upon noticing you, one of them grabs a cauldron from a nearby table and hurls its steaming contents onto the shackled prisoners who howl in pain. The howls of pain quickly to turn to those of rage and fury as they stand and--with what seems to be the slightest effort--yank the chains from the wall before charging in your direction.

There is no light here save for a few braziers used for brewing. The 10-foot-radius around a brazier is dimly lit, while the rest is dark.

The overpowering smell of blood and excrement is strong here, but is all but overwhelmed with a sharp, acidic tang--it almost hurts to breathe.

Dripping water, cracking and falling stone. Whimpering. Rattling chains. Screams of agony.

There are eight, 10-foot-by-10-foot cages in this room with bars set into the bare stone floor. Each of the cages are occupied by 2 or 3 emaciated humanoids (mostly human with a couple representatives of the other common races). Only one of them has a single occupant. That cage contains a single, old woman.

Additionally, a plethora of cages fill the shelves that line the walls--all full of poisonous animals. (Velvet takes pride in his collection of snakes, centipedes, scorpions and other venomous pets).

Six sets of shackles are set into the far wall of the room. They are occupied by various humanoid creatures.

Mud has oozed up through cracks in the floor in some spots, creating patches of difficult terrain.

<see map plus update in next post>

**IF YOUR PC CANNOT SEE IN THE DARK, YOUR VISION IS LIMITED TO THE DIM LIGHT INDICATED PLUS THE BRIGHT LIGHT OF RANDY'S ARMOR, OLI'S TORCH AND TETREVESS'S DAGGER and MANIFEST MIND (some pending updates for light sources I forgot).

IF YOUR PC HAS DARKVISION OR CAN OTHERWISE SEE IN THE DARKNESS,YOU SEE EVERYTHING OF NOTE ON THE MAP**

In response to the scuffle between Randy and the now unconscious kobold in the cistern, a kobold cultist casts shield of faith on the Kobold Berserker who consumes the contents of the vial he wears around his neck.  The other cultist prepares to cast spiritual weapon causing a cruelly serrated spectral ritualistic blade to appear near the center of the room.

The first cultists cast sacred flame (DC11 DEX save) 3 radiant damage.

The other cultist will attack with the spiritual weapon when another kobold comes within melee range of the intruder 17 (AD from pack tactics)

Two kobolds who were looking (unsuccessfully) for Oli after following him down the wells and who have not engaged him in combat, move to make contact with Chadderlay when they see him dash into the prison.

20 for 4 piercing, 23 for 4 piercing

Two kobolds follow Chadderlay down the stairs and finding Tetrevess (I think) and Sam there, sling pebbles at them 8 for 4 bludgeoning, 11 for 4 bludgeoning.

 <placeholder for updated image, (though its already up to date in owlbear if you want to check it out there>

Samogri 21 ✅️✅️

Oli 17 ✅️ ✅️

Monster 16 ✅️✅️

Alistar 15 ✅️▶️

Randy 12 ✅️✅️

Chadderlay 7 ✅️✅️

Ethan 6 ✅️✅️

Tetrevess 5 ✅️▶️ (I'm not listing the galven magen, players take care of the pets initiatives.  sometimes they get their own, sometimes it's always right after the PC, sometimes the PC needs to use an action.  Im not tracking all of that. Also, as far as I know, it's still topside outside the temple with Alistar.)

Chad's DEX save: 12 

Chad will also use his reaction to cast Shield so he is only hit by one kobold.

"Alright fine. I suggest we come back to this place though at some point." Ethan decides to leave the door shut and come back for it when the group has finally been reunited; Standing where Sam is except behind, he... creeps up to the kobolds that are following his teammates and decides to get rid of them, seeing that they're nothing but nuisances at most for now.

Action: casually throws two Eldritch Baseballs at the two kobolds point blank, but holds the third one in his free hand for now.

Throw 1: 13 to hit, 6 force

Throw 2: 29 (bro), 11 force

"If you're name's not Xenia, move. You're in our way."

Ethan takes out both kobolds.

<they're still in this image, I was about to post it before I saw thr post above. Otherwise up to date.>

Alistar and Tetrevess are up, then Sam and Oli.

Oli and Randy can post in the main thread again. The PM has served its purpose.

Randy, do have something to take out these 4 kobolds, or do you need me to help? I would like to stay invisible to make getting the book easier, but I can take a couple out if you need me to. Oli asks through the Telepathic Bond.

I was thinking of wiping all of them out with a single fireball or thunderwave from long range, but I realized you're in my line of sight. And besides, I'm pretty sure Ethan would hammer my skull if he finds out you're injured. Randy responds in his head as he gets into his usual kneeling infantry pose. You decide whether you want to strike first or move out of the way. Either way once that's done I'll make my move got it?

Sam moves down the stairs going into the hatchery “why hello their”