Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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"Those vapors really took their toll on me..." admits Khessa, while investigating with Traydark "...even more than the fire! I wonder if we'll find samples of that mist... maybe in vials... they could make for good weapons to weaken enemies before finishing them off!"
"I also wonder what business Droki had with the alchemist" the blonde arcane warrior goes on. "I hope at least it is something less mind-shattering than selling names of victims for an unholy ritual! Gosh, I really felt Demogorgon knocking on my mind's door, before. But, lucky me," she looks at her companions, then, a bit longer, at the noble drow in particular, smiling "I had strong motivations to resist".
There is a door up in the area where the alchemist was, but it appears to be barred from the other side. However there is a small peephole that allows you to see a ladder on the other side of the door that goes up, but impossible to see where it goes up to. The rest of the area is filled with all manner of debris, trinkets, papers and such. Nothing of particular value seems to be laying about, but it is clearly not organized. If you want to go through it all it will take some time.
In a desk drawer though you find a letter written in Dwarvish on lizard hide:
I don’t need your poison anymore. I’ll deal with Werz Saltbaron myself. Bring me an elf blade, one with the swirlies carved on the steel, and I’ll forget you failed me. And I don’t want to see any of your goons near my post. The captain is poking around, and I could use a scapegoat.
– Gorglak
In the pit by the nozzle that sprayed the mist there is an abundance of mushrooms to forage from if you so wish. Among them you can pull:
2 barrelstalks
6 bluecaps
1 Nilhogg’s noses
8 sheets of ripplebark
4 timmasks
2 torchstalks
7 trillimacs
4 bigwigs
2 pygmyworts
The duergar comes to after about another 15 minutes, but immediately begins raging and frothing at the mouth.
Khessa can't read the letter, so she passes it to her duergar friend, Ebzer: "Can you read this aloud for us all, my friend? Maybe it is something of interest..."
After the duergar barbarian translates for all, the blonde arcane warrior reflects aloud: "No idea who Werz Saltbaron or Gorglak are, but I'm pretty sure the 'captain' mentioned is our dear Errde... She will know for sure who those two are - and I think she will be very pleased to discover the plot of this 'Gorglak'!"
As far as fungi are concerned, Khessa would like to keep the 7 trillimacs (to make parchments) if nobody else is interested in them; and Traydark, as our chef, might be interested in the Barrelstalks (if not, Khessa will collect them also).She would also like to take 2 Bigwigs and 2 Pygmyworts (unless someone else is interested in them - else she will leave them to the others).
We already know of Bigwigs (enlarge), Pygmyworts (reduce), Barrelstalk (7 gallons of water, 8lbs of food), Nilhogg's Nose (Adv on perception checks using smell, DisAdv on saving throws that rely on smell), Torchstalk (Can be lit to provide light for 24 hours (standard torch), chance to explode when lit) and Trillimacs (you can make parchments out of them - Khessa used them, before having a proper spellbook).
What about Bluecaps, Sheets of ripplebark and Timmasks? Do we know something about them?
Khessa lets the raging duergar tied hand and foot fall heavily to the ground; then he looks him up with her own blue eyes, at the bottom of which there is an unusual coldness.
The blonde arcane warrior asks, very calmly, without taking her eyes off the prisoner on the ground: "Rumpadump, do you mind letting me communicate with this poor fellow? I'd like to be sure he understands..."
As soon as she is certain that she can telepathically communicate with the other (and therefore be understood), the tall (at the moment, very tall) adventuress brings one of her gigantic feet on the prisoner's testicles and begins to gradually apply pressure (although, for now, she refrains from placing all her increased weight - which could probably reduce the 'endowment' of the duergar to a pulp that is no longer usable - she limits herself to making him feel a strong pain): "You see, Mr Furious Insect, you and your already deceased comrades first refused to talk to us, then tried to set us on fire, then tried to poison us. Since, in order to question you, I have faced all this... do you think there is something I am not willing to do, now, in order to have you answer my questions? You will answer me... But if you do it now, of your own free will, then you will be let go without me doing you anything more harm. If, on the other hand, you don't speak now... harm you I will - and a lot. Until you speak. But by then, you probably won't be (and can never be again) the same duergar you were before. If you need proof, I can always put my full weight on my foot..." she still increases pressure a little "you have enough imagination, I think, to understand what the consequences would be - and consider that this would only be the beginning. Well, so the choice is yours, now, Mr Furious Insect... Let's start the interrogation and see what do you prefer: what did Droki come to your place for?"
(Make an Intimidation check)
(Well... you are the DM and I'll do everything you say, but... Are you sure that a simple check does justice to the situation? The poor fellow is about to have his balls crushed by a giant... If you were in such a situation, would you have enough doubts to force the giant to do an intimidation check? And, well, let's say the check is not that very good and you have any doubts... would you be willing to risk the definitive loss of your manhood to see if you guessed right or not? Anyway, here comes the check... Up to you whether to use it or not)
Intimidation: 13
Khessa presses into the duergar, but as you lean in to apply pressure both verbally and physically, you begin to see the same crazed, mad look that has taken hold of others before, someone who is no longer in full control of their mind. The duergar begins to laugh maniacally. "Even if I knew I wouldn't tell the likes of you! It's too late! Ha ha ha!!!"
"Bad choice" comments Khessa, applying her full weight until the inevitable happens.
Since there is not much more of value left under her foot, the blonde arcane warrior look the prisoner up and down, looking for the next target. When she gets to look the prisoner in the eyes, she seems satisfied: "Yeah, the eyes are the next thing you're in danger of losing. You know, they say that by pressing your thumb properly," and she brings her thumb to the duergar's right eye "you can take the eyeball out... Are you sure you really don't want to help us? Because, mind you, on the one hand it's true that I won't kill you... but on the other, you can rest assured that what I will leave with, it cannot properly be called 'life'. Castrated, blinded, without tongue, without teeth, without limbs, with a thousand fractures to the bones specially badly welded... For you, existence will become only one loooong endless night, filled only with pain. It will be painful to breathe. It will be a pain to eat. It will be a pain to try in vain to move - but bed sores will make also standing still a pain. I almost think that, when the Abyss claims you one day, its eternal torment will almost feel like a welcome change to you".
"Just in case I've convinced you," the tall adventuress seems poised to poke her giant thumb into the other's eye at any moment "I'm going to try to ask you a few new questions. You say you don't know what Droki has come to do.. . and I'd like to ask you then why he had the key to the door. But I'm more interested in the second thing you said. You said it is 'too late'. Too late for what?"
(OOC: Now, I probably wouldn't want to describe terrifying tortures in detail, because I wouldn't want to impress some player by exhibiting too much of the 'dark side' that Khessa can show when she has in her hands a villain on whose cooperation the fate of one or more innocents may depend - but I wanted to give an idea of what the prisoner risks suffering if he doesn't change his attitude. The blonde arcane warrior will continue to 'try to convince him' by gradually putting into practice what she has threatened. Does the duergar - fanatic or mad as he may be - at some point decide to cooperate? Or does he stoically accept being slowly and painfully transformed into a caricature of a living being? Does he really not respond until… until he gets through the whole 'treatment' he's been threatened with?)
(Make an Insight check)
Insight: 1
It's hard to read the stoic but clearly mad duergar. The second attempt to cull information from him only elicits the word "errand" before muttering off into a mad laugh again. He eventually returns your gaze but his eyes are dark and wild, blood beginning to seep from the corners of his eyes. You suspect there is only time for one more try with him before he passes.
Khessa consults with Traydark: "Do you think you can influence his mind in any way? This wretch seems inexplicably willing to meet a horrible fate, rather than cooperate with us. If you think your magic can convince him, well... if not, I'll keep trying to convince him the hard way".
Katryl will take a look at the mushrooms and try to determine what they might be. (Using her Background Feature: 'You’re also well acquainted with foraging and survival in the Underdark, and can determine when sources of food and water are safe to consume.'; Survival if needed: 9)
Rabbit Sebrica, Sorcerer || Skarai, Monk || Lokilia Vaelphin, Druid || Britari / Halila Talgeta / Jesa Gumovi || Neital Rhessil, Wizard || Iromae Quinaea, Cleric
Meira Dheran, Rogue || Qirynna Thadri, Wizard || Crisaryn Melkial, Sorcerer
Bluecap spores can be harvested to make a bland but filling bread (1 cap per loaf)
Ripplebark is edible, despite is disgusting appearance, and is usually roasted. Each sheet will give you about 5lbs of food
Timmask is known as the "devil's mushroom" and when uprooted or destroyed released poisonous spores that cause confusion
Edible fungi are always great, but Timmask is really cool... There are vials (or glass containers) big enough to hold one? Thinking about putting one in a container to use its spores like an alchemical weapon, a 'confusion bomb'... There is a container that Khessa could use in that way?
The noble drow smiles approvingly as Khessa mentions using the foul poison against their enemies. Humans definitely had a certain aptitude for ruthlessness.
Traydark later watches with amusement as the blonde arcane warrior starts to torture their prisoner, an evil smile tugging at his lips, although less impressed with her actual skills at extracting information. "I have ways to turn his weak mind into mush if needed but I'm not sure we will notice much difference, still, taking his precious beard off and sending him back to his kin for their ridicule might be a suitable punishment for not cooperating with us, and I'm sure Captain Blackskull will find a way to make him suffer properly for his insolence, well, unless he tells us what he knows of course." The noble drow says slowly, his purple eyes glaring evilly at their duergar prisoner.
Intimidation: 21 Another roll in case help action is given: 19
(To be clear, Traydark is not a chef in any meaning of the word, it is simply his player that has been keeping track of supplies, for immersion purposes let's not mix that up.)
(OK... then I hope his player will add all these supplies we have just found to the count 😉. As far as intimidation is concerned, Khessa will help... but, well, if losing his manhood and an eye - note: not being threatened to lose, but actually losing - didn't intimidate him, I don't know what could. That's why I was placing my last hopes in magic).
The duergar cackles wildly while still frothing at the mouth, jabbering nonsense and the word "errand" a few times, before you see his eyes go wide and blood begin to run out the corner of his eyes and out his ears, slumping over, lifeless.