Gnome's OOTA Story Thread [CLOSED]

Khessa's Athletics: 24

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Khessa's Athletics: 24

If the roll is good enough and nothing prevents her, she goes on with her originary idea to questions him

Question 1: I'm sorry for your death, elf adventurer. What killed you?

Meanwhile, Thora Nabal shakes her head (and consequently her blonde braids), commenting (jokingly?): "Khessa is truly incorrigible... Not content to constantly talk to the living, look what she is willing to do, to do so even with the dead..."

1. I was weak, and fell.

Question 2: This place looks dangerous... why were you here?

2. Looking for purple worm eggs

DEX Saves: 

Katryl and two of the scouts make it up the slippery slope without issue. She asks the others to stay and make sure the other scout makes it. In the meantime, she walks over to see what Khessa is up to.  'Of course, talking to the dead. Again.'  She takes a quick glance at the deep pit. them simply waits for the human woman to finish.

Additional DEX Save: 

Lulu smiles at the makeshift slide, the ones sliding back down looking quite like toddlers on a slippery slope. She directs her mount up onto the wall in an attempt to bypass the slope with Hestr's spiderclimb, then joins the group at the edge of the chasm. As Khessa speaks of the all going down into the gaping maw of darkness, the cleric offers to scout it out first using her supernatural Darkvision (can see 300 feet in darkness), as it could be a great risk to descend for a dead end.

When she dismounts, it's not onto the ground but into the air as a pair of wings seemingly made from pure moonlight unfurl from her back with wisps of night billowing off her feet. She flies gracefully down into the darkness and lands next to Khessa on the edge, trying not to disturb her conversation. Then the firbolg crouches to inspect the remains for anything that might help them avoid a similar fate, asking her Goddess to provide Guidance to both herself and the elf across the Veil as she does so. 


((Perception or Investigation to find anything useful on the body? If Perception: 12 or if Investigation: 16
Using the class feat Steps of Night to fly.))

Khessa, seeing Lunaria descend towards her flying with a pair of wings that seem to be made of pure moonlight, remains open-mouthed for a moment, suspending her flow of questions.

'Oh, Lulu, you really must teach me how to do this!' the blonde arcane warrior is about to exclaim, her blue eyes already sparkling with excitement, but eventually she forces herself to refocus on the supernatural interrogation she's conducting - and which, for once, seems to be of some use! The poor deceased elf adventurer had come here looking for purple worm eggs! This means the party is probably on the right track!

Question 3: We are also looking for the same thing! What steps should we take from here to find them?

Traydark suggests the drow girl uses her lizard steed to scale the wall to avoid the slippery slope and as she reaches the top ask her to send the steed back. It will then be used to carry the noble drow and then the zhentarim mercenaries up to the others in the same manner.


Meanwhile Grax'xt would fly lower into the chasm to see where it leads.

Grax'xt perception: 17

The ledge is not big enough to hold everyone. The dead body takes up most of the space, Khessa can perch there, but Lulu is too much for the small shelf, but if she can stay aloft with her wings she's welcome to hover over the vast dark chasm and do her investigation of the talking corpse.

Assuming she is able to do so (or if Khessa wants to help search the corpse after she's done asking questions), they can see a unique looking ring on one bony finger ([Tooltip Not Found])

3. Get out of this hole and keep your eyes open. They've got to be around here somewhere, right?

Using the mounts to get over the slipper slope certainly makes the job easier, albeit a bit slower. Even at 300 feet, Lulu is unable to see anything resembling the bottom of the chasm. Does Traydark tell Grax'xt to keep going down further? It appears to be a long...long...long way down.

Traydark sighs and orders his familiar to return up. "I doubt we will find any purple worm eggs down this chasm, and I highly doubt the purple worms have any secret passages that we wouldn't have noticed, as far as I can see we should simply return whence and proceed." The noble drow says dryly, ready to depart these disappointing caverns.

 Khessa notices the ring... but since [Tooltip Not Found]-items usually make her suspicious, she puts off examining the item until later, perhaps with the help of magic.

Question 4: Oh, it seems you don't have very precise directions... yet you came here, in this passage. Based on what information did you choose it?

4. It's the wormwrithings, everyone knows this is where purple worms come. I don't know exactly where here.

Lulu will hover then, indeed! And use her firbolg magic to Detect any arcane essence entangled with the object. Assuming there is no enchantment magic upon it, she gently slides the ring off the corpse's finger. "May the Mistress of Moonlight protect your eternal peace," she whispers in thanks, then puts a light hand on Khessa's shoulder in silent encouragement of her questioning before flying back up to join the others. 

She hands the ring to Horkas in case he might be able to detect anything special about the ring then adds to Traydark's report of the depth of the tunnel. "Aye, I worry it's far too dangerous to rappel such a distance. If a bottom is to be found at all and no' simply the core of the world itself," she chuckles. 

(Ugh, sorry, it's a Ring of Free Action. I don't know why it borked like that.)

(No worries lol! Figure our resident artificer is our best Identifier of Things in any case haha!)

Katryl shakes her head with a grin. "Bravo! Once again you've learned that these worm caverns seem likely to have worms and worm eggs."  She then calls out to the firbolg. "Lunaria, are there any signs of other passages connecting to this pit? Perhaps there's another route down there?" Having made the suggestion though, she's not sure how their whole entourage would make that passage if there was.  

Khessa realizes that she has deluded herself: This poor elf adventurer was as ignorant as she and her companions about the location of the eggs and it was by pure chance, apparently, that he ended up in this tunnel (just like her and her companions).

She sighs anyway, determined to do something for him, even though he hasn't done anything for them...

Question 5: I understand; you were wandering around at random, hoping to find what you were looking for. It doesn't seem like the best strategy to follow, to me, but I certainly won't be the one to criticize you - since I'm following it too. It seems you can't do anything for us; however, perhaps I can do something for you. I could inform your family of your fate and bring them your bones to bury - provided you give me detailed enough directions. How can I find your family?

5. The directions the moon elf corpse gives may or may not be immediately recognizable to Khessa, but if she shares it with the others, Katryl would realize that the directions lead toward her home above.

As Khessa finishes interrogating the corpse, which slumps and falls off the edge (you never hear it hit the ground) you all feel and hear that familiar rumble. It's faint, but there is definitely a worm in the general area, and it's getting closer.