Since nothing attacked or even moved toward Khessa, Xanrym's readied spell didn't trigger. He's surprised to see the dark cloud rise up from the altar and initially expects another Living Spell, but then the "Choke" speaks. As Khessa starts to reply, Xanrym tries to recall anything like this creature.
(OOC: Checking to see whether "Void Necromental" means anything to Xanrym. Not sure which skill to roll -- Religion might make sense if it's undead -- but Xanrym has the same bonus in all INT skills except for Arcana. INT check: 19, but if it should be Arcana, then it's 17.)
Since a rolled a 3 (+1 Bardic Inspiration = 4) I think it is almost hopeless, but you have a point: it is not expended if it's a failure so... Tactical Mind: 6
Since a rolled a 3 (+1 Bardic Inspiration = 4) I think it is almost hopeless, but you have a point: it is not expended if it's a failure so... Tactical Mind: 6
So it would be a total of 10. 10-15 = just patience go down?
Xanrym (OOC: Checking to see whether "Void Necromental" means anything to Xanrym. Not sure which skill to roll -- Religion might make sense if it's undead -- but Xanrym has the same bonus in all INT skills except for Arcana. INT check: 19, but if it should be Arcana, then it's 17.)
Even if Xanrym has not heard of a Void Necromental before, he apparently puts some pieces together. Void is an absence, and combined with necromental, it seems to indicate a creature associated with the negative energy. Possibly undead. Based on the creature's form, he suspects that "mental" is a reference not to its mind but to "elemental." He guesses that this dark cloud must be either some sort of elemental made of dark energy, the void, a lack of air. "Choke," he mutters as if in confirmation. Either that or -- an idea occurs to him -- is it possible for an elemental to die and be raised as an undead spirit? Maybe a Void Necromental is basically an undead Air Elemental! In any case, the things seems dangerous and intent on guarding the shrine.
"What do you say, Coriana, Xanrym?" the tall adventuress seeks support from the group's more eloquent members.
Xanrym is always happy when The Company meets a creature who will talk to them! He gets what Khessa is attempting to do, but he would not have started with the direction Khessa took the conversation, and he finds her lie about Fadheela rather clumsy. As Choke responds to Khessa, Xanrym glances toward Coriana with a pinched expression, wincing at the start of this negotiation. He assumes that he'll need to do a bit of a "reset" with Choke. He moves out from behind the font and walks toward the curtain so that he has a better view of the dark cloud with its burning purple eyes, but he is careful not to pass through the curtain or enter the shrine itself.
(OOC: I'll assume here that Choke actually responded unfavorably to Khessa's initial gambit.)
Xanrym says, "You have keen insight, Choke, and we will be more direct. We did not mean to disturb you. Please extend the same bargain to us, and we will leave your sanctum immediately!" He gestures to Khessa and Avery to try to get them to move back toward the door with the curtain and back toward the room with the font. He continues, "This mutant, Fadheela, is an intruder here and not a friend of Maroe, the necromancer and devotee of the Prince of Undeath who originally built your sanctum. We are 'Honored Guests' of the other Drow Elves who rule here, and we have come to confront Fadheela and remove her from this place. But here, the wise Choke has an advantage on us. We have not yet seen Fadheela with our own eyes, but you have! Would you tell us what you saw of Fadheela's nature and appearance? That would help us ensure that she will neither disturb your sanctum nor lure others here to do it for her."
Persuasion: 18, including min roll of 10 from the Silver Tongue Feature, to convince the Void Necromental to tell us about Fadheela
Theldrin looks around the room, he notices a few things about the place that seem slightly off. The statues have been resanctified in a way, with strange symbols drawn on them somewhat recently. He motions to Xanrym who comes to some correct conclusions about Choke, further intuiting that this is an undead being NOT traditionally associated with Orcus. Choke listens silently to Khessa’s deception, clearly expecting something like this. But when Xanrym comes clean the cloud bubbles with energy, clearly seeing an opportunity.
“Very well, I am willing to reveal to you the location and nature of the mutant… unless there was something else you wanted to say?”
Current Interest: 4 Current Patience: 2
Coriana, Avery, or Syllen could try and get the Interest up to 5 if you felt like pushing it. Or just call it here.
Coriana, Avery, or Syllen could try and get the Interest up to 5 if you felt like pushing it. Or just call it here.
Xanrym looks around to see whether anyone else is willing to try to influence this strange creature while responding to Choke: "That would be fantastic..."
If it looks like one of the others would like to say something, Xanrym gestures them over to him first while continuing to talk to Choke, "...but I beg you for just a moment to talk to my companion. Thank you for your patience!" When they reach him, he leans close to ask what they plan to do and casts Enhance Ability to boost whatever ability they plan to use. (If it's Coriana or maybe Avery, that'll presumably be CHA checks. If it's Syllen, he'll have to explain quickly what Xanrym can do to help.) Then he nods, squeezes their shoulder, and looks them in the eye while saying, "You've got this. Trust your skills and bring it home."Finally, Xanrym turns back toward Choke and says, "If you will humor us just a little longer, my companion here would also like to speak with you." Then he gestures, "presenting" them to the Void Necromental.
Action: Cast spell (LVL 2 slot) Enhance Ability on the party member, and they have advantage on ability checks in one ability for the duration. Bonus Action: Grant bardic inspiration to that party member. Once within the next 1 hour when they fail a D20 Test, they can roll a 1d8 and add the number rolled to the d20, possibly turning failure into a success.
Syllen attempts to gain insight into Choke’s feelings towards Fadheela to determine how the group will offer to deal with her. If his attitude is positive or neutral, offer to remove her from this tower so she can not return or if his attitude is negative, mention making her suffer before removing her from this plane of existence.
Choke laughs to itself as Syllen describes the ways in which he'll destroy her, "It seems you have some evil inside you elf, you might want to deal with that before it consumes you... like a rat in garbage." The smoke retreats back into the statue slightly as it goes on, "Your prey is a yuan-ti/medusa mutant hybrid. Formed by magic rivalling that of even the patron of this place. I know she has made the sanctum below her home, bringing back multiple victims to that place to break to her will; and consume. Perhaps in your mission you will have some use of this trinket, I have no use for it." From the top of the statue flies a smaller version of Orcus, a figurine. "The entrance is back two rooms, to the south... and beware of the stairs."
Do you take the figurine? And then any more questions for Choke, or on to the next area?
And then any more questions for Choke, or on to the next area?
(OOC: If Coriana or Avery want to ask anything else -- perhaps about the Room of Eyes? -- Xanrym's offer of Enhance Ability + Bardic Inspiration is still available. Since Syllen made a straight Insight check, I think that we can say that he spoke before Xanrym. That is, Choke offered to reveal information about Fadheela, then Syllen spoke, and Choke responded with the above information and the offer of the figurine of Orcus. I think that we can say that this action from Xanrym happens after that if either Coriana or Avery want to say anything to the Void Necromental.)
If it looks like one of the others would like to say something, Xanrym gestures them over to him first while continuing to talk to Choke, "...but I beg you for just a moment to talk to my companion. Thank you for your patience!" When they reach him, he leans close to ask what they plan to do and casts Enhance Ability to boost whatever ability they plan to use. (If it's Coriana or maybe Avery, that'll presumably be CHA checks. If it's Syllen, he'll have to explain quickly what Xanrym can do to help.) Then he nods, squeezes their shoulder, and looks them in the eye while saying, "You've got this. Trust your skills and bring it home."Finally, Xanrym turns back toward Choke and says, "If you will humor us just a little longer, my companion here would also like to speak with you." Then he gestures, "presenting" them to the Void Necromental.
Action: Cast spell (LVL 2 slot) Enhance Ability on the party member, and they have advantage on ability checks in one ability for the duration. Bonus Action: Grant bardic inspiration to that party member. Once within the next 1 hour when they fail a D20 Test, they can roll a 1d8 and add the number rolled to the d20, possibly turning failure into a success.
Theldrin is initially pleased that he is able to discreetly point out to Xanrym some discrepancies he notices in the room, and that the negotiation with Choke seems to be going surprisingly well given the circumstances.
But he doesn't trust the Void Necromental creature, and thinks to himself that the party should fall back and regroup before proceeding into Fadheela's headquarters. That would also allow some time for him to try to Identify the trinket. Meanwhile he stands by attentively, having relaxed his prepared spell, keeping his thoughts to himself as he listens.
(Avery you’re at max interest now anyway, so the negotiation is over)
Choke responds to Coriana, “It grants some power from the demon prince himself. I believe one must simply have it and open themselves to Orcus to use it. Beware though, the more you use the figurine, the closer one becomes to him.”
Once the party leaves Choke's room, Khessa, upon discovering the Orcus Figurine's powers, comments: "It seems like having it with us is more of a disadvantage than an advantage... It might be better to leave it hidden somewhere for now, returning for it once we're sure we won't have to face any more undead here. And once we're back in the Free City, sell it."
"As for Fadheela," the blonde arcane warrior muses aloud, "if she really is part medusa, that explains the stone-turned enemy we encountered at the beginning of our journey... and it suggests me we might want to bring along the divining mirrors we found earlier—for hey, they're still mirrors... if we can get Fadheela to look in them, we might be able to petrify her."
"Hmm, you have an interesting point about the mirrors, I wonder if we can remove them easily..." Theldrin nods as he frowns thoughtfully, then adds, "Should we rest up before we seek her out?"
Choke laughs to itself as Syllen describes the ways in which he'll destroy her, "It seems you have some evil inside you elf, you might want to deal with that before it consumes you... like a rat in garbage." The smoke retreats back into the statue slightly as it goes on, "Your prey is a yuan-ti/medusa mutant hybrid. Formed by magic rivalling that of even the patron of this place. I know she has made the sanctum below her home, bringing back multiple victims to that place to break to her will; and consume. Perhaps in your mission you will have some use of this trinket, I have no use for it." From the top of the statue flies a smaller version of Orcus, a figurine. "The entrance is back two rooms, to the south... and beware of the stairs."
Do you take the figurine? And then any more questions for Choke, or on to the next area?
(OOC: @drumdigby, I don't know how obscure the mention of "Yuan-Ti" is. I rolled a check for Xanrym (in the game log) - History: 18. I'm going to assume that that's sufficient for Xanrym to at least recognize that Choke is referring to a legendary race of "snake people.")
Khessa sends a disembodied hand to take the figurine; there will be time to identify it, hopefully.
"Yuan-ti?!", Xanrym quietly exclaims in shock. He explains briefly to his companions: "A rumored race of snake people, ancient and supposedly corrupted by the blood of their serpent god."
Xanrym grimaces at the noxious-smelling figurine, but he bows his head respectfully to Choke and thanks the creature for the information and the "gift." He assures Choke, "We will leave your sanctum now. A medusa hybrid is powerful indeed! We must go and make plans so that we may be sure to have victory over her when we find her." He doesn't want to press their luck with such a strange guardian.
Xanrym backs out of the sanctum, not turning around and keeping an eye on the Void Necromental. Presumably the rest of The Company also moves out of the room. Since they don't know what the Room of Eyes does, and the room with the font is open to the sanctum, Xanrym heads all the way back S25, where they can close the double doors against the dark shrine and its evil guardians.
Once they make it safely back there, The Company of the Grey Chain needs to decide their next step.
Using Heroic Inspiration to reroll Deception: 3
Bardic Inspiration, if needed, is still +1
OK, I guess she is a really bad liar.
You can use Tactical Mind if you want
Xanrym
Since nothing attacked or even moved toward Khessa, Xanrym's readied spell didn't trigger. He's surprised to see the dark cloud rise up from the altar and initially expects another Living Spell, but then the "Choke" speaks. As Khessa starts to reply, Xanrym tries to recall anything like this creature.
(OOC: Checking to see whether "Void Necromental" means anything to Xanrym. Not sure which skill to roll -- Religion might make sense if it's undead -- but Xanrym has the same bonus in all INT skills except for Arcana. INT check: 19, but if it should be Arcana, then it's 17.)
Since a rolled a 3 (+1 Bardic Inspiration = 4) I think it is almost hopeless, but you have a point: it is not expended if it's a failure so...
Tactical Mind: 6
So it would be a total of 10.
10-15 = just patience go down?
Even if Xanrym has not heard of a Void Necromental before, he apparently puts some pieces together. Void is an absence, and combined with necromental, it seems to indicate a creature associated with the negative energy. Possibly undead. Based on the creature's form, he suspects that "mental" is a reference not to its mind but to "elemental." He guesses that this dark cloud must be either some sort of elemental made of dark energy, the void, a lack of air. "Choke," he mutters as if in confirmation. Either that or -- an idea occurs to him -- is it possible for an elemental to die and be raised as an undead spirit? Maybe a Void Necromental is basically an undead Air Elemental! In any case, the things seems dangerous and intent on guarding the shrine.
Xanrym is always happy when The Company meets a creature who will talk to them! He gets what Khessa is attempting to do, but he would not have started with the direction Khessa took the conversation, and he finds her lie about Fadheela rather clumsy. As Choke responds to Khessa, Xanrym glances toward Coriana with a pinched expression, wincing at the start of this negotiation. He assumes that he'll need to do a bit of a "reset" with Choke. He moves out from behind the font and walks toward the curtain so that he has a better view of the dark cloud with its burning purple eyes, but he is careful not to pass through the curtain or enter the shrine itself.
(OOC: I'll assume here that Choke actually responded unfavorably to Khessa's initial gambit.)
Xanrym says, "You have keen insight, Choke, and we will be more direct. We did not mean to disturb you. Please extend the same bargain to us, and we will leave your sanctum immediately!" He gestures to Khessa and Avery to try to get them to move back toward the door with the curtain and back toward the room with the font. He continues, "This mutant, Fadheela, is an intruder here and not a friend of Maroe, the necromancer and devotee of the Prince of Undeath who originally built your sanctum. We are 'Honored Guests' of the other Drow Elves who rule here, and we have come to confront Fadheela and remove her from this place. But here, the wise Choke has an advantage on us. We have not yet seen Fadheela with our own eyes, but you have! Would you tell us what you saw of Fadheela's nature and appearance? That would help us ensure that she will neither disturb your sanctum nor lure others here to do it for her."
Persuasion: 18, including min roll of 10 from the Silver Tongue Feature, to convince the Void Necromental to tell us about Fadheela
Theldrin looks around the room, he notices a few things about the place that seem slightly off. The statues have been resanctified in a way, with strange symbols drawn on them somewhat recently. He motions to Xanrym who comes to some correct conclusions about Choke, further intuiting that this is an undead being NOT traditionally associated with Orcus. Choke listens silently to Khessa’s deception, clearly expecting something like this. But when Xanrym comes clean the cloud bubbles with energy, clearly seeing an opportunity.
“Very well, I am willing to reveal to you the location and nature of the mutant… unless there was something else you wanted to say?”
Current Interest: 4 Current Patience: 2
Coriana, Avery, or Syllen could try and get the Interest up to 5 if you felt like pushing it. Or just call it here.
Xanrym looks around to see whether anyone else is willing to try to influence this strange creature while responding to Choke: "That would be fantastic..."
If it looks like one of the others would like to say something, Xanrym gestures them over to him first while continuing to talk to Choke, "...but I beg you for just a moment to talk to my companion. Thank you for your patience!" When they reach him, he leans close to ask what they plan to do and casts Enhance Ability to boost whatever ability they plan to use. (If it's Coriana or maybe Avery, that'll presumably be CHA checks. If it's Syllen, he'll have to explain quickly what Xanrym can do to help.) Then he nods, squeezes their shoulder, and looks them in the eye while saying, "You've got this. Trust your skills and bring it home." Finally, Xanrym turns back toward Choke and says, "If you will humor us just a little longer, my companion here would also like to speak with you." Then he gestures, "presenting" them to the Void Necromental.
Action: Cast spell (LVL 2 slot) Enhance Ability on the party member, and they have advantage on ability checks in one ability for the duration.
Bonus Action: Grant bardic inspiration to that party member.
Once within the next 1 hour when they fail a D20 Test, they can roll a 1d8 and add the number rolled to the d20, possibly turning failure into a success.
Concentration: Enhance Ability (CHA?)
Syllen attempts to gain insight into Choke’s feelings towards Fadheela to determine how the group will offer to deal with her. If his attitude is positive or neutral, offer to remove her from this tower so she can not return or if his attitude is negative, mention making her suffer before removing her from this plane of existence.
Insight Roll: 20
Choke laughs to itself as Syllen describes the ways in which he'll destroy her, "It seems you have some evil inside you elf, you might want to deal with that before it consumes you... like a rat in garbage." The smoke retreats back into the statue slightly as it goes on, "Your prey is a yuan-ti/medusa mutant hybrid. Formed by magic rivalling that of even the patron of this place. I know she has made the sanctum below her home, bringing back multiple victims to that place to break to her will; and consume. Perhaps in your mission you will have some use of this trinket, I have no use for it." From the top of the statue flies a smaller version of Orcus, a figurine. "The entrance is back two rooms, to the south... and beware of the stairs."
Do you take the figurine? And then any more questions for Choke, or on to the next area?
(OOC: If Coriana or Avery want to ask anything else -- perhaps about the Room of Eyes? -- Xanrym's offer of Enhance Ability + Bardic Inspiration is still available. Since Syllen made a straight Insight check, I think that we can say that he spoke before Xanrym. That is, Choke offered to reveal information about Fadheela, then Syllen spoke, and Choke responded with the above information and the offer of the figurine of Orcus. I think that we can say that this action from Xanrym happens after that if either Coriana or Avery want to say anything to the Void Necromental.)
Khessa sends a disembodied hand to take the figurine; there will be time to identify it, hopefully.
But just in case, the blonde arcane warrior asks Choke: "Thank you for the trinket; do you know what it does? Or how it gets activated?"
Avery will roll for interest: 13
(OOC: @Aaggie - the dice roller's tooltip isn't working. What skill was Avery attempting there?)
Theldrin is initially pleased that he is able to discreetly point out to Xanrym some discrepancies he notices in the room, and that the negotiation with Choke seems to be going surprisingly well given the circumstances.
But he doesn't trust the Void Necromental creature, and thinks to himself that the party should fall back and regroup before proceeding into Fadheela's headquarters. That would also allow some time for him to try to Identify the trinket. Meanwhile he stands by attentively, having relaxed his prepared spell, keeping his thoughts to himself as he listens.
(Avery you’re at max interest now anyway, so the negotiation is over)
Choke responds to Coriana, “It grants some power from the demon prince himself. I believe one must simply have it and open themselves to Orcus to use it. Beware though, the more you use the figurine, the closer one becomes to him.”
(It is an Orcus Figurine )
Once the party leaves Choke's room, Khessa, upon discovering the Orcus Figurine's powers, comments: "It seems like having it with us is more of a disadvantage than an advantage... It might be better to leave it hidden somewhere for now, returning for it once we're sure we won't have to face any more undead here. And once we're back in the Free City, sell it."
"As for Fadheela," the blonde arcane warrior muses aloud, "if she really is part medusa, that explains the stone-turned enemy we encountered at the beginning of our journey... and it suggests me we might want to bring along the divining mirrors we found earlier—for hey, they're still mirrors... if we can get Fadheela to look in them, we might be able to petrify her."
"Hmm, you have an interesting point about the mirrors, I wonder if we can remove them easily..." Theldrin nods as he frowns thoughtfully, then adds, "Should we rest up before we seek her out?"
(OOC: @drumdigby, I don't know how obscure the mention of "Yuan-Ti" is. I rolled a check for Xanrym (in the game log) - History: 18. I'm going to assume that that's sufficient for Xanrym to at least recognize that Choke is referring to a legendary race of "snake people.")
"Yuan-ti?!", Xanrym quietly exclaims in shock. He explains briefly to his companions: "A rumored race of snake people, ancient and supposedly corrupted by the blood of their serpent god."
Xanrym grimaces at the noxious-smelling figurine, but he bows his head respectfully to Choke and thanks the creature for the information and the "gift." He assures Choke, "We will leave your sanctum now. A medusa hybrid is powerful indeed! We must go and make plans so that we may be sure to have victory over her when we find her." He doesn't want to press their luck with such a strange guardian.
Xanrym backs out of the sanctum, not turning around and keeping an eye on the Void Necromental. Presumably the rest of The Company also moves out of the room. Since they don't know what the Room of Eyes does, and the room with the font is open to the sanctum, Xanrym heads all the way back S25, where they can close the double doors against the dark shrine and its evil guardians.
Once they make it safely back there, The Company of the Grey Chain needs to decide their next step.