If it's any consolation, I was hoping for a fight.

Hildigrim grumbles to himself something about undead half-elves not respecting the value of money. He quickly moves into the next chamber before the elementals have a chance to realize they've been tricked.

The party travels 40' south from the Xorn trio ("X" on the map), and comes to a stop at the river. A little under 40' to the south is another passage on the other side of the river, but that is all you can see from this side.

The river is flowing quite rapidly from west to east. Despite that, the rocks near the water and the surface of the river has a considerable amount of slime and scum. The smell is off-putting, like the chemical run-off from shops of leather workers and blacksmiths. Another oddity is that the scum gets thicker as you look downstream. (The difference is slight, but you wouldn't think a fast-flowing river would show that much change over a short distance.)

There are no signs of rafts or barges. (You could perhaps make a craft using the wood-like materials from the massive zurkhwood mushrooms, given enough time and tools to work with, but those mushrooms are in the caverns far to the north.)

“Hm,” says Quillary, looking back the way they came.

“I can cross on the ceiling,” she says, “And I can make three of you as ghosts, and you can float across... but that leaves one.”

"I can have Volo —" Hildigrim begins, then stops, turning on his heel to face Quillary. "You can turn us into ghosts?!"

Quillary nods solemnly. “I can make you *as* ghosts, and only one at a time, and it is not ideal with a strong breeze, but it should be fine here.” She licks a finger and holds it up. “And I believe I only have the strength to do it for three of you.”

OOC: Actually, you could do it four times, because you could use your 4th-level slot ... if it comes to that.

Hildigrim appears to consider Quillary's words, but it isn't clear whether he is impressed, wary or offended by the revelation. Finally, he continues with his thought: "I could send Volo to scout up and down the river as well as across to see if this is even the way we want to go. As we have bypassed some other options, I would hate for us to assume this is the most logical direction."

OOC > oh, duh, yeah. <smacks head>

Jorin's jaw drops at the mention of being made, at least to some degree, incorporeal.  "Let us have the bird look first, before we take on the clothes of the dead."

"I could stretch and do a fourth, perhaps," she looks at Pascal's bulk. "Let us see what Good Volo can find."

For good measure, Hildi sits down and sends Volo forth to scout around as he watches through his eyes and listens through his ears.

Stealth for Volo: 22

Perception for Volo: 14

What are the odds?! So, here is a question: As a halfling, Hildi normally rerolls 1s. If you're rolling with advantage and you roll two 1s, do you get to roll a third time?

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

What are the odds?! So, here is a question: As a halfling, Hildi normally rerolls 1s. If you're rolling with advantage and you roll two 1s, do you get to roll a third time?

(OOC: I had to do a web search for it. Yes, you get to roll a 3rd time. In the section on "Advantage and Disadvantage" (PHB, page 173), the second-to-last paragraph specifically discusses the halfling Lucky trait. If a halfling rolls a pair of 1s with disadvantage, Lucky won't help because only one of the rolls can be redone, not both.)

Spear throw vs. Volo (with disadvantage due to long range) Attack: 12 Damage: 6

(Next post will cover what happened. Fortunately the Kuo-toa thrower rolled as bad as Volo.)

Anywhere with ??? are passages that the party hasn't explored yet.

Volo flies upstream (west), then downstream (east). Hildigrim relates what he is seeing (and fills in more map details when he is out of Volo's head). As Volo approaches the bend in the river (the SE corner of the map), he is seen by a Kuo-Toa standing on the western part of the river. It throws a spear at the owl, but misses by a wide margin. Volo flies back to the party to avoid being attacked more. (That was the 100' limit of where Volo could go with Hildi in its head, anyways.)

The river appeared normal upstream (no slime, smell okay), but you know that the ettin complained that the taste was bad where it got water.

Volo didn't have a chance to look in any detail downstream, as the fishman's attack drove the owl back. (Result of bad Perception roll.)

"Hildi, could volo see what was causing the slime in the river?  If the water is ok upstream, then it must be something near us, no?"

Here's my third roll for perception: 12 — Le sigh

Hildi shakes his head at Jorin's question. "I couldn't see anything of note. I will have Volo avoid flying downstream again. If we want to know more about that area, we may need to brave the hostile fish creatures ourselves. For now, I'll have Volo fly a ways down each of the two tunnels across the river closer to us to see what he sees."

(OOC: No more perception rolls for the previous flight. You got your results from the previous roll. You don't keep rolling until you get a success. A new roll is made only if something significantly different is tried, and if there was a reason to keep trying.

That roll of 6 applies for Volo flying down each of the two tunnels across the river.)

Both of those passages continue south. In each case, Volo stops at the 100' limit for Hildigrim to uses his senses. In each case, the owl sees that the passage will eventually reach a larger cavern (different ones for each passage), but the cavern is too far away to notice anything more than that.

(Hildigrim could ask Volo to continue scouting further south for either passage, but the owl would be out of telepathic range.)

The reason I rolled a third time is because Volo gets advantage on perception. Oh ... never mind. I was rolling for Volo, not Hildi. I forgot. :)

"I wasn't able to see much, but I could send Volo to scout ahead and then come back and report," the halfling says to the others.

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

"I wasn't able to see much, but I could send Volo to scout ahead and then come back and report," the halfling says to the others.

Hildigrim sends Volo again to the passage directly across the river, with instructions to fly farther than 100' (telepathy range) to see what is in the next cavern, and to return with that information.

The owl is taking longer than expected to come back, but you wait in case the owl was delayed (hiding, or had to take a longer route). But after 10 more minutes, the owl still hasn't returned to telepathy range.

OOC > Remind me, the reasons we are loathe to swim across is because a) the river rocks are slimy, indicating something may be wrong with the water, b) the ettin told us the river water "tastes bad," indicating something may be wrong with the water, c) it is moving too fast? A and B, but not C?

Quote from Mingofaust >>

OOC > Remind me, the reasons we are loathe to swim across is because a) the river rocks are slimy, indicating something may be wrong with the water, b) the ettin told us the river water "tastes bad," indicating something may be wrong with the water, c) it is moving too fast? A and B, but not C?

(Actually, all three. The current by itself is swift enough that you'd be worried about being swept away if your footing slips. And the slime coating the rocks and the water is something you would expect to see in a stagnant swamp, not in a strong current.

This is the furthest upstream spot that you can find, so if you decide to wade across, this is the place to do it. Or if you are willing to backtrack (and fight the Xorn), you've seen Zurkhwood mushrooms in the cavern. Anything you can construct with lumber from a tree, you should be able to make with zurkhwood.)