Gnome's OOTA Story Thread [CLOSED]

"You think she is familiar?" Katryl asks, pointing at Lulu. "Or both of us?  You think you have seen us before?  As for why we are here, we are seeking out how to deal with a demon invasion of the Underdark."

The creature continues floating by slowly, as if somewhat preoccupied. "Your togetherness sounds familiar...ah the demon invasion...how fascinating! That's where...mmm...very fascinating indeed..."

Lulu looks to Katryl, white brows quirking curiously, then to the echo. "Where..?" she prompts, hoping they might finish the thought.

"Do ye ken anything about it? We'd be glad to assist ye or... exchange information. We've all come to Gravenhollow seeking knowledge, have we no'?" 

The creature garbles something unintelligible before you hear, "Cannot say...looking for a cure for the elder...Cyrog..." It looks at you both for a brief moment, "Curious time that was..." And the echo then moves off and disappears around another corner.

Katryl looks at the firbolg, confused. "What even was that creature Lunaria? And what could it mean that out 'togetherness' was familiar?" She pauses a moment, still looking off in the direction that the echo disappeared before finally looking back to Lulu. "Should we continue on?" Unless Lulu has another suggestion, she returns to focusing on finding Traydark, Khessa, and Horkas. 

(Feel free to make an arcana, history or insight check for the encounter with the echo)

“To…getherness?” she murmurs, also looking off after the echo with a rather indiscernible expression.  “An echo of the future perhaps? And they’ve… met us before?” She scratches her head, nonplussed as she follows after Katryl.

((Insight: 14))

(Lulu can indeed gather that the echo is probably from the future, and it does seem like they made a connection about you, but hard to say what it was.)

(Insight: 27)

As Katryl tries to comprehend the echo encounter they just had, she continues to move along to find a way back to their other companions. 

(Katryl gets the same as Lulu, and could piece together that it was a mind flayer from the future, perhaps seeing you both as echoes, perhaps there were other records of you two being together in the future. Also, it spoke of an elder which most likely meant it's elder brain, the monstrous overlord for mind flayer colonies.)

(Do Katryl and Lunaria move on? If WIS Check is needed: 4 or 13 if Advantage is allowed.) 

(No, it is easy enough for you all to find each other again now. :) )

"That mind flayer must have been from the future. I wonder how it will meet us?" Katryl says to Lulu as they traverse the library. "And the whole 'togetherness' still has me confused. Such an odd thing for it to say. But it must have meant it was looking for a cure for the elder brain. But that all must happen in the future?"  She shakes her head. "It's all rather confusing." 

When the group is reunited, Katryl tells the others about finding the giant and obtaining another crystal. "We decided to learn about the whereabouts of Juiblex and I had a vision about that."  She tries to relate the tale. "We weren't sure," here she glances at Lulu, "whether this was the Pudding King we already met or yet another gnome the demon has ensnared."  She then goes on to tell them about their encounter with the ghost. "It seems this ghost was from the future. A mind flayer! It said... well, strange things. But as you can imagine, talking to someone from the future is odd."  

"Odd indeed..." Khessa comments "considering that the future is ours to shape! However, who knows? Let's try to remember this thing... If in the future we meet a non-hostile mind flayer perhaps we will be able to make agreements with him. If If we were able to help him, perhaps he too could then make himself useful to us".

"I sure hope Juiblex isn't already corrupting a new innocent soul..." the blonde arcane warrior sighs "I would have expected him to have a wedding to take care of! Maybe it was a vision of the recent past... It's possible that even if this section is dedicated to the 'present', what we see may also be relevant to events of the recent past. After all, the mountains are eternal... What does 'present' mean for the rock?... Maybe it means 'in this century', forexample... And indeed, we too have seen an event from the recent past".

The tall adventurer reports Gromph's vision of the ritual in detail, as she has done before her to those with her. "So," she concludes "we now know that Gromph gave the Demon Lords access to the Underdark without meaning to. He was either sabotaged or tricked. He could therefore perhaps help us undo what he did. Unfortunately, however, we were unable to see where it's time... so we don't know exactly where to find him. Maybe the library only pins down events of particular importance - if Gromph wasn't involved in other important events, then, maybe that's why we couldn't locate him".

As the two groups reconvene, the noble Drow gives Katryl a pleased nod as she mentions having another crystal now to use in their investigation. "I'm not sure these echoes from past and future has any significance to our mission. Let us focus on finding out more about the Demon Lords and their plans before we seek out Vizeran DeVir again." He suggest with a hint of impatience in his tone.

Lulu nods along with Katryl's explanation, she herself still a bit distracted by the echo's words. Glancing at the others, she shifts her weight into a hip and folds her arms over her chest. "I do agree, Lord Duskryn. And, being that we'll only have access to two visions a day, might I suggest we take the evenings to do research of a more personal nature?"

She looks to Katryl, remembering their conversation about what information they would seek here if they could. Then to Traydark, wondering if he might wish to search for any records on the wellbeing of his House or, at the very least, his youngest sister. And lastly to Horkas and Khessa, who may very well wish to uncover some secrets of engineering or magic. "Ye've each earned it a thousand times over."

"I'm not so sure the mind-flayer would be non-hostile outside of this place," Katryl notes in response to Khessa's comment. "And if we see it in the future, it won't have met us here yet! So, I think we'd best tread carefully if we see it again at some moment in the future!" 

“Good point, Katryl” Khessa agrees. "In fact," she jokes "if I meet him, I will avoid taking his good intentions for granted and let myself be embraced by his tentacles".

"And using the evening for personal research seems like a great advice!" the blonde arcane warrior smiles at Lunaria "This place is definitely among the most fascinating I've ever been to".

"Coming to the next visions to look for..." the tall adventurer tries to focus on the main task again "Since we haven't found anything else in the present, neither on Gromph, nor on Juiblex... Shall we look for something about them in the future? Or do you think it's better to further investigate the present, perhaps focusing on other Demon Lords we know about, such as Yeenoghu, Demogorgon and Zuggtmoy? Or even Lolth, if possible, since something tells me she has a big role in all this?"

Horkas merely shrugs. "I haven't been able to make heads nor tails of this confounded place! I will continue to look for anything useful on my own time, but nothing is organized in any way that makes sense to me... Maybe we should do one more day here but if we can't get anything useful get back out to fight the demons." 

The noble Drow nods in agreement with the gentle Firbolg, having no real thoughts on how to use the crystals beyond what he already mentioned, ready to spend the time not used to draw visions of the team's two Stonespeaker Crystals to explore the current state of Menzoberranzan and particular his own House of Duskryn.

Wis check: 14 + Luck: 10