Since Crispy didn't seem keen on answering, Eldreth would chime up, about ready to get on the ledge herself, after making sure she had a good hold on the rope. She said Ah, well.. the best way to answer that is it was Tymora's luck is all. We landed pretty close tae the darklakes shore. A little more one way and we'd be bloody hotcakes and food for the first thing tae come along... So essentially, we took a very very large belly flop. With that, she stepped out onto the ledge.... 17 

Making her way comfortably across it. 

Now, Hemeth started, carefully putting his feet over it before saying I don't know why you're all so nervous about'it I've crossed this chasm more times than me granny can count her corns! His foot coming out to the ledge as he grabs the rope. 20

Also very comfortably making his way across.

It takes you all about 20 minutes to get to the other side, and just as you do, a squad of twenty Myconids (like stool) barrel past you. They're all wearing modified versions of leather armor and they seem to ignore you. Even if called out to, they simply seem to not care about anything but their current mission, they go out on the ledge with ease, seeming to grip right onto the ground beneath them. Even if Evrik brings mention of Stool, they simply slow down, look back, and then continue on. Atleast they were not hostile....

DM Rolls: 2 - 12 12 hours have passed since you left Sloobloodop. The cave you all land on this time, is a larger medium. You can walk abreast in a two-line single file, and it seems to branch off in twenty different directions. After a moment's deliberation...

DM Rolls: 4 - 18

 Hemeth points to the largest of the caves, and starts heading that way, saying it's the one they want, 

DM Rolls: 6 - 13

 You all continue walking through the massive cave, that seems to have been dug out by a purple worm at some point in the past, it rises and falls, in undulating patterns before eventually settling on rising high, the trek arduous and tiresome as it's difficult terrain, it took you 6 more hours to pass what would have otherwise only taken 3. You finally reach the top and at the far end, you see two people.

5

One of them is a very large Bugbear, who seems to be holding a conversation with a Kou-Toan archpreist, who is very tall for a kou-toa, his robes flow freely, and he seems highly brilliant. They are both talking about something but you can't tell what it is... Neither of them have noticed you yet.

If not for the great size, orangatan-like arm length, and fur poking out between gaps in his clothing and armor, one might second guess themselves discerning the race of the figure. They also probably should get their eyes checked too. With exception to a silken, patchwork scarf of varying blues (most were brilliant in tone) wrapped tightly about a bicep, he is garbed head-to-toe in hard-boiled leathers and cloth reminiscent of some sort of military uniform. All of it was varying shades of monochrome as if to aid in blending in with the Underdark surroundings. The metallic scale mail, greaves, bracers, and helmet have been similarly coated or tarnished to prevent catching the light. At the moment, the facial guard is open. 

He has a handsome face... for a bestial humanoid. Which might not say much other than he does keep himself well-groomed from what little can be seen. He also appears either extremely at ease, or perpetually half-asleep. As he swept back a portion of his cloak to rest his hands at his hip, one can see more clearly  what looked like it should be a one-sided Battle Axe of gnomish design, a warhammer of [gold]dwarf craft, and a well-worn buckler.

  At some point during the conversation, a dark form glides and gently lands onto the bugbear's  broad shoulders. Those with sharp eyes probably noticed it before hanging off the ceiling, but now others can clearly see a flying monkey. Though one that obviously had adapted to underground life, judging from its bat like wings, ears, pitch black eyes, and darker fur coloring. At soon as it finds a settles in, it brings the pipe it had been carrying up to this point to his lip, and casually takes a drag from it.

But otherwise, if it can talk, it doesn't cut into conversation. "I don't suppose there is really no other way then, right?" The bugbear in questions with his shoulders sagging in defeat. "I know things have felt rough out there of late, but... this feels like a pretty big assignment for an initiation." In spite of his words, he still appeared at ease.

Seeing the mushrooms reminded Evrik of Stool. I'll get to your home sometime my friend and tell your tale.  He momentarily thought of the little guy and how briefly he knew him.

Upon seeing the two souls ahead, Evrik stops in his tracks and sheaths the sword before the light is noticed. He whispers to Immo who was right behind him, "What do you suppose those two are up to? Think you or Crispy could get closer and listen in?"

"I'll see what I can find out," Immotichey whispers to everyone, then seemingly from nowhere, Immotichey turns into a furry spider resembling... Taevi! 

Evrik recalls his spider with fondness and gives a short glance over towards the warlock.

But it wasn't Taevi of course, it was their druid associate. Immotichy-spider scampered off towards the the bugbear and fishpriest.  It finds a spot near enough to be within earshot (for a spider) and listens in, trying to get an understanding of what they are discussing. (Perception: 11)

Immotichey manages to get near the group before once again, the grip takes hold. Murderous intent flowing through him, trying to overtake his mind. DC 15 CHR save.

If the save fails, Immotichey will be once again mind controlled by the unseen force, driven into a bloodlust to kill, murder, and drain Arthasis of his lifesblood.

(CHR ST: 7)

Immotichey finds a quiet spot and begins listening to the conversation between the kuo-tao and the bugbear. Just as he begins hearing the discussion though an overwhelming urge to strike down the warlock overtakes him. He turns, venom dripping from his fangs and rushes back toward the explorers with his eyes set on Arthasis. The click-click-click sound drums closer to the group as the spiders momentum continues to increase. Knowing something is wrong Immotichey just cannot contain himself, when he gets within a few feet of the man the spider launches itself towards his head hissing as it flies through the air with venom spraying around him as his fangs are set out in front of the small beast.

(Surprise Attack: 4 Damage: 1     If Hit: Poison DC:9  Damage: 1)

Catching Arthasis by surprise, the spider gets inches away from landing on his neck but misses as Arthasis suddenly stopped and the spider misjudged where the warlock would be. The spider slams into the wall beyond, shakes it's head, turns again and continues toward the warlocks leg hissing all the way.

Crispy whispers urgently. "What the hell is he doing?!" 

“Moronic Creatue!”, Arthasis shouted in contempt after the Druid turned into a spider. “I just can’t believe you did it again after what happened last time. I EVEN TOLD YOU SO.”, the warlocks anger was beginning to overwhelm him and he came close to smite Immotichey with his magic. At the last possible moment though, Arthasis decided that he would try to get him out of this form for one last time. “Priest!”, he shouted towards Evrik while he removed the three gems from his backpack, which he and Jimjar had stolen from the Drow outpost. “Lift the curse from this stones! Fast!”

With all the commotion and yelling suddenly taking place with regards to Immotichey-Taevi, Chubby is worried that the two characters they came upon would notice them hiding there, watching them.  When Arthasis started yelling, Chubby belly crawled away to the side (Stealth: 11) under cover, in hopes of using the commotion as cover to flank around the two mystery men.

Crispy was confused. First there was a random bugbear and kuo-toa in a cave talking among themselves, then Immo turned into a spider to listen in on them. While that part wasn't confusing, the fact that he was suddenly attacking Arthasis was.

She couldn't see much anyways, but i'm sure they would all alert the new humanoids with their behavior pretty soon. She considered stealthing but was literally blind in this darkness, and instead just stood there trying to figure out what was going on.

She hated spiders, so she wasn't about to butt in unless absolutely necessary. She did make a snarky remark along the lines of "Oh this is great. Great first impression, guys. Hey! Immo! Stop! What are you doing?!"

(For the sake of noticing Chubby)

Perception: 19 (Advantage from Mr. Pops. Help. If allowed to use Investigation instead, add +5 to the results)
(Original Score: 15 in case of errors)

Mr. Bigz casually turns to towards the source of the noise, squints, and then says casually after a brief pause, "Pardon me sir. But it looks as if we have guests." The Bat-Monkey on his shoulders gently knocks the side helmet before pointing to the slowly crawling dwarf off to the side. "Ah, yeah. Good job, Mr. Pop. Almost mistook him for a Galeb Duhr I did." He says as the monkey took another drag on its pipe.

"I think there are some type trouble, sir." Captain obvious states to the fishman again as he brings the face-plate down leaving only his eyes remotely exposed. "I will go ask." On that note, he starts casually making his way over to Chubby first, offering him a hand up. "It is not good to crawl of purple worm ground. Sometimes they trail, uhm, ickiness. Yeah, that's the word. Not many like ikiness, Sir Dwarf." Whether Chubby takes his hand or not, so as long the dwarf doesn't get violent with him, he moves on to approach the remaining group with Chubby possibly in tow. Namely, he heads to Cora, though not too close as to be directly looming over anyone if it can be helped.

All the while, Mr. Bigz never goes for a weapon.

"Is everything alright over here?" He finally notices the spider (or would be Lizardfolk at that point?) and cant his head to the side. "That's... not normal -- I'm sorry. Did someone a curse?"

Chubby accepts his offered hand up, and has a very confused look on his face as a result.  "Who ARE you, good sir?!"  (Perception: 21)

The Kou-Toa is unsure of the situation, and he 'Readies' what appears to be a very high level frost spell, as chilled winds begin to encircle his hands while he approaches the group. However the kou-toa doesn't seem the least bit afraid.

As he approaches, he begins berating the Bugbear You fool! This is why we're setting the bar where we are for you! You just approached a random group of people without preparing yourself for the worst! What next? GOing to give Demogorgon a hug when he finally makes his way into the Underdark?! Which I know will happen soon!

He then turns to the group, Crispy only able to see the magical blue wind, and the dim dim light it cast upon the kou-toa's face, lending him that campfire-story scare look. State your business here, and I may not yet shatter your frozen corpses! his voice sounds much like Sean Connery.

Chubby literally shoves his nose into Bigz's nose, staring directly into his eyes, they share a 'moment' as he literally see's all there is to see about the Bugbear.

"I'm not sure this will work, but I'm willing to try. But you may have to deal with the spider another way," Evrik says to Arthasis. Then as he asks the gods for their help, he walks towards Arthasis and touches the three stones. (Remove Curse)  Evrik was already beginning to look tired. "I may need a rest before we happen upon any foes, my friends."

The spider continues hissing and turns and leaps back toward Arthasis' thigh, fangs bared and dripping... (Attack: 10 Damage: 1     If Hit: Poison DC:9  Damage: 1)

The bloodlust leaves Immotichey's mind, he hears cackling in the back of his mind telling him 'you will be mine..' but aside from this, the curse seems to be broken. and the gemstones are now inert.

Crispy walks towards the Kuo-toa, carefully, her hand on her blade hilt but making no other hostile movements. Her eyes squint in the darkness.

She walks in the direction of Chubby and speaks out loud to everyone.

”Hold your spell. I am Crispy. This is Chubby.” she says. “We are not your enemy. We are lost travellers in this underdark realm.” She slowly gestures to Immo, Artha, and Evrik. “These are my friends. The spider is a druid. He’s a little confused.”

Hells, another fish person? Be cool, *****. Easy. No sudden movements. Calmly. Not like you can see anyways. Or how many there are. Better play it safe. Don’t get all angry and attack.

”Everyone be cool.” She says. “Chubby what do you see?” 

As soon as Evrik worked his spell, the warlock saw that the spiderling finally relented from attacking him. The situation with this curse had to be dealt with sooner or later and Arthasis was glad that Lolth’s taint at last wouldn’t cause any more problems for him. “You are one lucky druid.”, he said to Immotichey. “Thank the priest for saving your life.”

The warlock then turned his attention towards the two new figures in their way that started to approach the group. “The women is right, no need for hostilities. You might regret them.”, he stated in a tone as cold as the spell that the kuo-toa prepared to cast. Intimidation with Guidance : 25

“We are heading towards the next settlement in hope to find shelter there. We just had an unpleasant encounter with a demon prince wading out of the dark lake.”, maybe this creature knew something about what was going on down here.

The Kou-Toa looked you over as he hesitated, and it took him a moment before he noticed your eye. He still held his spell but he seemed to falter beneath your withering gaze. He could tell there was something evil about you, something dangerous, so he stayed where he was as both you and Crispy spoke to him and the bugbear. 

I-I see.. but you said... Wait..... Demogorgon has arisen already?! It is too soon.... Do you know who or what may have sped his coming? Do you know who is to blame for bringing him into this world?

Hemeth remained silent. Eldreth looked to the rest of the group to see how they wanted to handle this...

he would stay there to listen to whatever explanation was provided, and then...

He seemed panicked now, not just due to your scary ass, but the fact the Demon Prince was alive...... I must inform the others....... Quickly.....  Bigs.. you know your mission......Magic sworled around him as the background seemed to warp in on itself, and with a whoosh, and a pop, he was gone, having teleported himself

"Ohhh, right. My name is--" Annnd that's about all the Bugbear gets out before visibly wincing at being called out. He gently pushes Chubby back from his faceplate after the dwarf sees that the Bugbear seems little maybe too chill at the moment. It is more than possible he took a hit from the same pipe currently being held by the Mr. Pots at the moment.

Then, with a nervous chuckle and while rubbing the back of his helmeted head, he looks back to the Kuo-Toa and bows his head. "Sorry boss." He mutters during the brief pause, sounding genuinely sorry. In spite of the scolding and threats being thrown about one way or another, the Bugbear merely motion for his monkey to pass him the pipe for another hit as he watched things proceed. That, and after giving Chubby some room seeing Crispy approach the dwarf, he kept a close eye out for anyone approaching within ten feet of the Kuo-Toa. Then and only then, does he seeming carefreeness slip away as a stern look, and a warding raised hand as if he were some sort of bodyguard.

The Bugbear nods in a sagely matter, passes the pipe back to his monkey, and closes the face-plate back in place. "Oh... wait, what?" He glances over just in time to see nothing standing in the Kuo-toa's place. "Oh... huh... well, this awkward." He turns to the others and chuckles again. "Sort of at least... so... as the boss said. Names Mr. Bigs. This here Pops. Or Fluffy. I forget sometimes." The bat-monkey nods solemnly before taking another drag. "Anyways, nice to you meet you all. Let's, uh, let's walk and talk I guess? If you don't mind of course. Ain't much of a guide, guide, per se. But I can probably point you in the right direction if that fella over there's been given you any trouble." He points in the direction of the duergar. 

He looks to Evrik's glowing sword and adds, "Oh, and.. you might wanna snuff that out too." 

Chubby, shaking his head: “You’re a strange little fellow.”