Two of the creatures continue to follow Devs musical trail and he notes two other creatures in......sleep? stasis? crouched behind a coiled assemblage of serpent-like cables on the level above which remain insensate.
However one of the creatures that had initially followed the musical lure turns and cranes a too-long elvish neck back towards Udo, scenting through widening nostrils....it begins to move towards the stairs leading down that Dev and Udo are heading for.....
(Oops! I check this page every day. Still missed DM’s posts relating to Dev somehow.)
Dev is relieved when Udo agrees to take his hand and be led upstairs. But the relief is replaced by renewed fear when he realizes one of the shape-stealers has noticed the pair’s ascent. When Dev sees the creature coming down the stairs ahead of them, he quickly pulls Ubo aside behind some cabling near the base of the stairs, whispering, ‘Hide!’ Then, using Thaumaturgy, the bard creates another distraction, blowing a series of whispered notes on his pan-pipes which result in chilling laughter. The sound come from a spot he and Ubo have passed on their way up. The desired outcome: the shape-shifter continues moving down toward the laughter, passes Dev & Ubo in hiding, and then Dev & Ubo whisk themselves unnoticed up the stairs and away from harm.
Meanwhile, the Illusory music continues, unabated:
…your education ain't complete
teacher's gonna show you (she's gonna show you)
how to get an "A" (na, na, na, na, na, na)
(Stealth with advantage: 12 :()
The creature padded down the stairs on all fours in a decidedly un-elf-like manner, its head cocked as it focused on the laughter as it passed their hiding place, but as it moved its left eye flowed around to the side of its head and blinked languidly as it regarded their hiding spot with suspicion...........it began to turn towards them.....
Normont watches his doppelgänger kick out at Spider-Lokilia, sending her across the floor towards the drop but thankfully not over the edge.
"Nuts and bolts, that was close!", he exclaims, before once again training his pistol on his likeness. He pulls the trigger before moving onwards following Quinn, calling out to Amber to finish the job if necessary.
"Let's keep moving, who knows what trouble Dev has got himself into".
Normont
Action: Shoot Faux-Normont with pistol - To Hit: 13+3=16, Damage: 10+3=13 [magical piercing] Bonus Action: Command Amber Movement: 30ft after Quinn
Amber
Action: Force Strike on Faux-Normont- To Hit: 11+4=15, Damage 4+2=6 [force]
The creature padded down the stairs on all fours in a decidedly un-elf-like manner, its head cocked as it focused on the laughter as it passed their hiding place, but as it moved its left eye flowed around to the side of its head and blinked languidly as it regarded their hiding spot with suspicion...........it began to turn towards them.....
( Dev is up)
‘Oh, crud,’ thinks Dev, noticing his boot toes sticking out from under the cables, ‘it saw me.’
“Get ready to run, Mr Ubo,” he whispers, before quickly blowing another tune on his pan pipes. In answer to his call, the music suddenly stops mid-bar, and the shape-shifter will, with any luck, likewise stop in its tracks. Because immediately in front of it appears a 5-foot square painting of Mooren Lake, blocking its view forward (Minor illusion). While thus hidden from view, Dev hisses, “Now!,” and pulls Ubo out of hiding, up the stairs, and hopefully, out of sight.
Giant Spider Lokilia takes advantage of having been knocked back to fire a Web at the faux-Normont. (Web Attack: 12; if hit, the target is restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained target can make a DC 12 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage))
Regardless of the result, she will use her movement to continue moving along with Quinn and Normont - hopefully towards wherever Dev had ended up at.
Normont watches his doppelgänger kick out at Spider-Lokilia, sending her across the floor towards the drop but thankfully not over the edge.
"Nuts and bolts, that was close!", he exclaims, before once again training his pistol on his likeness. He pulls the trigger before moving onwards following Quinn, calling out to Amber to finish the job if necessary.
"Let's keep moving, who knows what trouble Dev has got himself into".
Normont
Action: Shoot Faux-Normont with pistol - To Hit: 13+3=16, Damage: 10+3=13 [magical piercing] Bonus Action: Command Amber Movement: 30ft after Quinn
Amber
Action: Force Strike on Faux-Normont- To Hit: 11+4=15, Damage 4+2=6 [force]
Giant Spider Lokilia takes advantage of having been knocked back to fire a Web at the faux-Normont. (Web Attack: 12; if hit, the target is restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained target can make a DC 12 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage))
Regardless of the result, she will use her movement to continue moving along with Quinn and Normont - hopefully towards wherever Dev had ended up at.
Lokilias web holds the creature in place as Normont and Amber finish it off in a blast of gunpowder and magic...
The trio continues moving downwards, below they can hear magical bolts and explosions as the Dwendalians move downwards themselves....
The creature padded down the stairs on all fours in a decidedly un-elf-like manner, its head cocked as it focused on the laughter as it passed their hiding place, but as it moved its left eye flowed around to the side of its head and blinked languidly as it regarded their hiding spot with suspicion...........it began to turn towards them.....
( Dev is up)
‘Oh, crud,’ thinks Dev, noticing his boot toes sticking out from under the cables, ‘it saw me.’
“Get ready to run, Mr Ubo,” he whispers, before quickly blowing another tune on his pan pipes. In answer to his call, the music suddenly stops mid-bar, and the shape-shifter will, with any luck, likewise stop in its tracks. Because immediately in front of it appears a 5-foot square painting of Mooren Lake, blocking its view forward (Minor illusion). While thus hidden from view, Dev hisses, “Now!,” and pulls Ubo out of hiding, up the stairs, and hopefully, out of sight.
The creature moves straight through the illusion but Dev takes the opportunity to slip away, the thing claws at Ubo tearing his cloak to ribbons but missing his body.....
Dev and Ubo make it up to the next level but the creature is in pursuit, though it keeps glancing back at the painting as if confused....
Coming up onto this level Dev and Ubo see the two other creatures in the shadowed corridor that juts off from this level, they seem to still be moving in the direction Dev had placed the illusionary music before though it no longer sounds.....if they can get past them without them turning around it is clear to the next set of stairs...but Ubo is beginning to hyperventilate as he glances behind at their distracted pursuer.....
Lokilia, still keeping to Giant Spider form, would try to keep quickly moving downward. She'd keep an eye out for any sign of Dev, though she knows they'd not likely have reached him yet. She of course also keeps an eye out for any of these opponents roaming about.
“Mr. Ubo?,” Dev asks in a whisper. ‘That was a close call. I have to keep him... focused. So he doesn’t start wandering off, like, in the forest mists in his head,’ he thinks.
“Mr. Ubo, we’re getting closer. Just follow me okay? We’re gonna make it. And when you get out, you’ll… you’ll see your wife and little girl not long after. Come, Mr. Ubo, let’s go quick and quiet as a catfish at the still bottom of Lake Mooren.”
Lokilia, still keeping to Giant Spider form, would try to keep quickly moving downward. She'd keep an eye out for any sign of Dev, though she knows they'd not likely have reached him yet. She of course also keeps an eye out for any of these opponents roaming about.
"Nice", Normont exclaims as he and Amber combine to great effect with Spider-Lokilia, before heading onwards and downwards.
"Keep an eye out for more of those things between us and Dev. And keep your distance", he asks Amber in Gnomish, who swoops off to do as instructed.
He keeps a firm grip on his shield and his pistol at the ready for more trouble.
Amber Perception: 15+4=19
The trio continue down, Amber scouts ahead and reports the next three levels are clear and they are able to make good time. Another level down they begin coming across burned and blasted corpses from the Dwendalians battles with the denizens. As they pass a bank of screens one of them flickers to life, on the screen is an image of a badly beaten young woman with a number of human bodies and dead shape-shifters on the gantry behind her. A glyph on the screen pulses slowly....
“Mr. Ubo?,” Dev asks in a whisper. ‘That was a close call. I have to keep him... focused. So he doesn’t start wandering off, like, in the forest mists in his head,’ he thinks.
“Mr. Ubo, we’re getting closer. Just follow me okay? We’re gonna make it. And when you get out, you’ll… you’ll see your wife and little girl not long after. Come, Mr. Ubo, let’s go quick and quiet as a catfish at the still bottom of Lake Mooren.”
Against all odds Dev manages to keep them moving and slip past the two creatures, as they reach the stairs up the third comes up onto the level but it turns to see its two fellows and heads over to see what they are looking at leaving Dev and Ubo free to make their way two more levels up.
Suddenly, five levels above him Dev hears muttered words then sees a swarm of flying creatures appear out of nowhere and go into a frenzy tearing something apart on the gantry....
Lokilia has nothing to say in Giant Spider form. She will continue to scout out ahead a bit on the path down towards Dev. But she slows to not get too far away from Normont and Quinn.
Dev continues upwards with Ubo, encouraged. He blows a quiet but complicated melody on his pan pipes. Magic results: another illusion, seeming to come from the center of the air shaft, one level above him. In his own voice, these words ring out like a trumpet.
“Hello Ms Mathilda and Mr Jurgen! This is Dev Hornd. I said hi on my way downstairs. I am coming up with your friend Mr Ubo! We are the real McCoys, not evil shape-shifters! So don’t fry us when you see us, please!”
Lokilia has nothing to say in Giant Spider form. She will continue to scout out ahead a bit on the path down towards Dev. But she slows to not get too far away from Normont and Quinn.
Looking below Lokilia sees Devs illusory face chatting with the Dwendalians some half dozen or so floors below, she also notes four or five slick-skinned forms on two of the levels below her taking note of the illusion as well and beginning to make their way downwards...
Normont looks up to Quinn, "That glyph could provide information. But it could be a trap. I am not sure I can survive the latter, so stick close".
With that he starts to approach the glyph, intending to press it with the barrel of his pistol, unless Quinn stops him.
Normont touches the screen and it clinks, there is a delay as if the screen is unsure whether or not to respond to the touch and then the young woman begins to move and speak, her voice panicked and her eyes terrified.
" I can't get out! I don't know why but the servitors have begun...killing....and not just killing...they've done...things....I can't trust my own senses...the way is shut above even if we could get past them..."
" Maybe if one of us can go below and find a way to shut down the library they will stop? I don't know......this was a place of safety....of learning.....why? What could we have done to deserve..."
A figure slowly walked into view behind the young woman...an old elf with silvery skin and a jewelled eye-patch...but as he drew closer his face began to flow and warp until it was an exact mirror of the young woman's...she seemed to catch the reflection in the screen of the figure approaching but was too terrified to turn around.
She began shaking uncontrollably as her doppelganger embraced her from behind and leaned its head against her cheek.
" Are they coming to help us?", it whispered in her voice.
" No....no one is coming.....", it grinned as too-long fingers reached passed the terrified woman and touched the screen.
Dev continues upwards with Ubo, encouraged. He blows a quiet but complicated melody on his pan pipes. Magic results: another illusion, seeming to come from the center of the air shaft, one level above him. In his own voice, these words ring out like a trumpet.
“Hello Ms Mathilda and Mr Jurgen! This is Dev Hornd. I said hi on my way downstairs. I am coming up with your friend Mr Ubo! We are the real McCoys, not evil shape-shifters! So don’t fry us when you see us, please!”
A familiar woman's voice speaks in Devs head, " Ja, You have my vord, I will not...fry...you, Herr Hornd. IF you indeed have our colleague mit you."
Dev- continues moving upwards, he can see the Dwendalians now fighting off a small number of creatures above as they move downwards...
There is a burst of lights above and what looks like a soldier in a foreign uniform tumbles over the railing into the shaft, but it manages to lash out as it passes the level Dev is on and pull itself over the railing.....as it crouches there gasping Dev notes they will need to pass very close to it in order to get to the next set of stairs.....when Ubo sees it his eyes go wide and he begins trying to tug away from Devs hand....
"Nuts and bolts, that is creepy", Normont remarks. "But it does give us some insight. Chances are we will also find the way out blocked, and perhaps we are best off finding this library".
After a moment he adds, "Unless that is a trick designed to lead us into a trap, of course. I guess it is a 50:50 chance we head in the right direction, and we still have to meet up with Dev, so down to the library makes sense".
He looks around to see if anyone heard his musings, before continuing down.
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The creature padded down the stairs on all fours in a decidedly un-elf-like manner, its head cocked as it focused on the laughter as it passed their hiding place, but as it moved its left eye flowed around to the side of its head and blinked languidly as it regarded their hiding spot with suspicion...........it began to turn towards them.....
( Dev is up)
Normont watches his doppelgänger kick out at Spider-Lokilia, sending her across the floor towards the drop but thankfully not over the edge.
"Nuts and bolts, that was close!", he exclaims, before once again training his pistol on his likeness. He pulls the trigger before moving onwards following Quinn, calling out to Amber to finish the job if necessary.
"Let's keep moving, who knows what trouble Dev has got himself into".
Normont
Action: Shoot Faux-Normont with pistol - To Hit: 13+3=16, Damage: 10+3=13 [magical piercing]
Bonus Action: Command Amber
Movement: 30ft after Quinn
Amber
Action: Force Strike on Faux-Normont- To Hit: 11+4=15, Damage 4+2=6 [force]
‘Oh, crud,’ thinks Dev, noticing his boot toes sticking out from under the cables, ‘it saw me.’
“Get ready to run, Mr Ubo,” he whispers, before quickly blowing another tune on his pan pipes. In answer to his call, the music suddenly stops mid-bar, and the shape-shifter will, with any luck, likewise stop in its tracks. Because immediately in front of it appears a 5-foot square painting of Mooren Lake, blocking its view forward (Minor illusion). While thus hidden from view, Dev hisses, “Now!,” and pulls Ubo out of hiding, up the stairs, and hopefully, out of sight.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Giant Spider Lokilia takes advantage of having been knocked back to fire a Web at the faux-Normont.
(Web Attack: 12; if hit, the target is restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained target can make a DC 12 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage))
Regardless of the result, she will use her movement to continue moving along with Quinn and Normont - hopefully towards wherever Dev had ended up at.
Rabbit Sebrica, Sorcerer || Skarai, Monk || Lokilia Vaelphin, Druid || Liivi Orav, Barbarian || Vanizi, Warlock || Britari / Halila Talgeta / Jesa Gumovi || Neital Rhessil, Wizard
Iromae Quinaea, Cleric || Roxana Raincrest, Rogue || Meira Dheran, Rogue || Qirynna Thadri, Wizard || Crisaryn Melkial, Sorcerer
Lokilias web holds the creature in place as Normont and Amber finish it off in a blast of gunpowder and magic...
The trio continues moving downwards, below they can hear magical bolts and explosions as the Dwendalians move downwards themselves....
6
4
7
The creature moves straight through the illusion but Dev takes the opportunity to slip away, the thing claws at Ubo tearing his cloak to ribbons but missing his body.....
Dev and Ubo make it up to the next level but the creature is in pursuit, though it keeps glancing back at the painting as if confused....
Coming up onto this level Dev and Ubo see the two other creatures in the shadowed corridor that juts off from this level, they seem to still be moving in the direction Dev had placed the illusionary music before though it no longer sounds.....if they can get past them without them turning around it is clear to the next set of stairs...but Ubo is beginning to hyperventilate as he glances behind at their distracted pursuer.....
Lokilia, still keeping to Giant Spider form, would try to keep quickly moving downward. She'd keep an eye out for any sign of Dev, though she knows they'd not likely have reached him yet. She of course also keeps an eye out for any of these opponents roaming about.
Rabbit Sebrica, Sorcerer || Skarai, Monk || Lokilia Vaelphin, Druid || Liivi Orav, Barbarian || Vanizi, Warlock || Britari / Halila Talgeta / Jesa Gumovi || Neital Rhessil, Wizard
Iromae Quinaea, Cleric || Roxana Raincrest, Rogue || Meira Dheran, Rogue || Qirynna Thadri, Wizard || Crisaryn Melkial, Sorcerer
"Nice", Normont exclaims as he and Amber combine to great effect with Spider-Lokilia, before heading onwards and downwards.
"Keep an eye out for more of those things between us and Dev. And keep your distance", he asks Amber in Gnomish, who swoops off to do as instructed.
He keeps a firm grip on his shield and his pistol at the ready for more trouble.
Amber Perception: 15+4=19
“Mr. Ubo?,” Dev asks in a whisper. ‘That was a close call. I have to keep him... focused. So he doesn’t start wandering off, like, in the forest mists in his head,’ he thinks.
“Mr. Ubo, we’re getting closer. Just follow me okay? We’re gonna make it. And when you get out, you’ll… you’ll see your wife and little girl not long after. Come, Mr. Ubo, let’s go quick and quiet as a catfish at the still bottom of Lake Mooren.”
(OOC: Persuasion: 12+5=17 // Stealth [w/advantage] 18+2=20)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
The trio continue down, Amber scouts ahead and reports the next three levels are clear and they are able to make good time. Another level down they begin coming across burned and blasted corpses from the Dwendalians battles with the denizens. As they pass a bank of screens one of them flickers to life, on the screen is an image of a badly beaten young woman with a number of human bodies and dead shape-shifters on the gantry behind her. A glyph on the screen pulses slowly....
Against all odds Dev manages to keep them moving and slip past the two creatures, as they reach the stairs up the third comes up onto the level but it turns to see its two fellows and heads over to see what they are looking at leaving Dev and Ubo free to make their way two more levels up.
Suddenly, five levels above him Dev hears muttered words then sees a swarm of flying creatures appear out of nowhere and go into a frenzy tearing something apart on the gantry....
Normont stops briefly, not getting too close but taking a moment to try and identify the glyph.
"Truth or another deception", he mumbles.
Arcana: 5+5=10
He's unsure as to the meaning...perhaps.....'Tell' or ' Reveal"....
Lokilia has nothing to say in Giant Spider form. She will continue to scout out ahead a bit on the path down towards Dev. But she slows to not get too far away from Normont and Quinn.
Rabbit Sebrica, Sorcerer || Skarai, Monk || Lokilia Vaelphin, Druid || Liivi Orav, Barbarian || Vanizi, Warlock || Britari / Halila Talgeta / Jesa Gumovi || Neital Rhessil, Wizard
Iromae Quinaea, Cleric || Roxana Raincrest, Rogue || Meira Dheran, Rogue || Qirynna Thadri, Wizard || Crisaryn Melkial, Sorcerer
Normont looks up to Quinn, "That glyph could provide information. But it could be a trap. I am not sure I can survive the latter, so stick close".
With that he starts to approach the glyph, intending to press it with the barrel of his pistol, unless Quinn stops him.
Dev continues upwards with Ubo, encouraged. He blows a quiet but complicated melody on his pan pipes. Magic results: another illusion, seeming to come from the center of the air shaft, one level above him. In his own voice, these words ring out like a trumpet.
“Hello Ms Mathilda and Mr Jurgen! This is Dev Hornd. I said hi on my way downstairs. I am coming up with your friend Mr Ubo! We are the real McCoys, not evil shape-shifters! So don’t fry us when you see us, please!”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Looking below Lokilia sees Devs illusory face chatting with the Dwendalians some half dozen or so floors below, she also notes four or five slick-skinned forms on two of the levels below her taking note of the illusion as well and beginning to make their way downwards...
Normont touches the screen and it clinks, there is a delay as if the screen is unsure whether or not to respond to the touch and then the young woman begins to move and speak, her voice panicked and her eyes terrified.
" I can't get out! I don't know why but the servitors have begun...killing....and not just killing...they've done...things....I can't trust my own senses...the way is shut above even if we could get past them..."
" Maybe if one of us can go below and find a way to shut down the library they will stop? I don't know......this was a place of safety....of learning.....why? What could we have done to deserve..."
A figure slowly walked into view behind the young woman...an old elf with silvery skin and a jewelled eye-patch...but as he drew closer his face began to flow and warp until it was an exact mirror of the young woman's...she seemed to catch the reflection in the screen of the figure approaching but was too terrified to turn around.
She began shaking uncontrollably as her doppelganger embraced her from behind and leaned its head against her cheek.
" Are they coming to help us?", it whispered in her voice.
" No....no one is coming.....", it grinned as too-long fingers reached passed the terrified woman and touched the screen.
The screen in front of Normont went black.
A familiar woman's voice speaks in Devs head, " Ja, You have my vord, I will not...fry...you, Herr Hornd. IF you indeed have our colleague mit you."
Dev- continues moving upwards, he can see the Dwendalians now fighting off a small number of creatures above as they move downwards...
There is a burst of lights above and what looks like a soldier in a foreign uniform tumbles over the railing into the shaft, but it manages to lash out as it passes the level Dev is on and pull itself over the railing.....as it crouches there gasping Dev notes they will need to pass very close to it in order to get to the next set of stairs.....when Ubo sees it his eyes go wide and he begins trying to tug away from Devs hand....
"Nuts and bolts, that is creepy", Normont remarks. "But it does give us some insight. Chances are we will also find the way out blocked, and perhaps we are best off finding this library".
After a moment he adds, "Unless that is a trick designed to lead us into a trap, of course. I guess it is a 50:50 chance we head in the right direction, and we still have to meet up with Dev, so down to the library makes sense".
He looks around to see if anyone heard his musings, before continuing down.