Jorin heads back to the raft while listening to HIldigrim's reply to Quillary's question.

With a glance at the cavern passage, Quillary turns and stalks back toward the raft. Her body language is pissed, which is not a thing you’ve seen much with her.

Quote from Quasimodal >>

Quote from JcAndD >>

(Terribly sorry about missing stuff, Quasi. School has been hectic. For now, I’m placing Pascal in your hands. Don’t want to hold you guys up.)

(Got it. Perfectly understandable. Good luck with school.)

 

Previously... When Hildigrim shot his warning arrow, Pascal prepared a Fire Bolt. You see him aim a finger towards the beachhead. At the last moment, he gives a sigh of disappointment, angles his finger slightly to the right, and fires the Bolt. A fire explodes 2 feet away from the troglodyte that Hildigrim startled.

 (Much appreciated!)

"A pact?" Hildigrim replies, looking a strange mixture of confused, relieved and angry. "With it? No! Why would you ask that? Because I didn't want you near it? I didn't want you to get hurt," he says, calming a little. "Now, let's go that way," he says, motioning in the opposite direction.

(Is Hildigrim okay being down an arrow? Everyone okay with heading into that cavern through the two water passages to the north?)

(Jorin is ok going that way)

"HIldi, we have braved many dangers together, " Jorin says softly as he gets back on the raft, "you have not been yourself down here.  Can you tell me what is on your mind?"

(Also okay with moving along.)

Quillary steps onto the raft, nodding along with Jorin. “What he says is true, Hildigrim. I have not known you as long as Jorin of the Bodt has, but you are unlike the you I met in the sunlight.” She seems to have simmered down.

She looks over her shoulder. “The enslavement of others is a high evil, and I would end it even were my life forfeit to see it done.” She looks back, and then crouches to stop looking down at him. “What has happened that you do not see it so?”

Hildigrim is not going near that thing, even if it meant losing all of his arrows.

Hildigrim tries to not look at Jorin or Quillary until their silence is too much for him to ignore. He takes a deep breath through his nose. "What if it's true?" he asks, his jaw set. "What if what that ... whatever it is, is telling the truth?" He looks at the two of them briefly before turning to stare away from them again. "You might be brave enough to forfeit your life, Quillary, but I'm not brave enough to forfeit your life. I don't want to lose you. Any of you. I just want to go home. I want all of us to go home. Maybe I'm not the same. Maybe I'm a coward now." He closes his eyes and puts his fists to the sides of his head. "I can't shake the feeling that that thing is watching us, and it's driving me crazy!" he yells, tears starting to run.

Now Quillary is concerned, and all the anger drains from her. From her kneeling position, she wraps Hildi up in her arms, giving him a big hug. She smells like dirt and mushrooms and a campfire. “Is this that which has plagued you since we came to this place, even while we were in Skullport?”

Hildigrim does not resist Quillary's embrace. He doesn't wrap his arms around her in response, but he leans against her. "It said that it has been watching us for some time. I wonder if it had some kind of kinship with the mind flayer. Some kind of relationship. I've felt like we've been watched ever since we killed him."

Drusk scratches his head. "Telling the truth? That thing hasn't made a peep so far."

Drusk and Jorin use their poles to push the raft into one of the northern water passages. It is a tight fit, but the raft is able to go though the passage to reach the next cavern. (The cavern is described in post 4709, link to that post.)

Before the party can continue the discussion with Hildigrim, you see something emerging from the slimey water, at that passage on the east wall (northernmost part), 30' away northeast from your raft. An ogre-sized eel-fish head breaks the surface of the water, and the 3 eyes stare at the party. A pair of tentacles grip the side walls of that passage.

(It is similar to what you just saw to the south with the troglodytes. You can't tell if it is another of the same species, or the same creature.)

Quillary whips her head around, letting go of Hildi. Now she’s pissed. “Now is not the time!” she growls at the eel-thing. A guttural sound like a curse word, and a 5’ square right where the thing is (30’ away) suddenly smells like skunk.

Is there any try land in this cavern or is it just a larger water passage?

(The water slime smells like a sewer, so Quillary's stink-bomb is only slightly noticable.

Only water passage. The water depth is between 10-20'. Water-walking is in effect.)

"No, no, no, no, no!" Hildi says, staring wide-eyed at the creature. His jabbering stops, and he growls something in an old language as if he is fighting his own body to make the sounds. At the same time, he gestures strangely at the creature.

[Tooltip Not Found]

Oh dang, guess we're off then!

Quillary turns to face the creature fully. She glares at it dangerously and takes one step toward it off the raft onto the slimy water.

(Also, the tooltip didn't resolve for me, it just told me the content had been archived, so I don't know what id insinuation implies... also for what Hildi is saying, Quillary speaks Primordial (it is what she casts her spells in), and thus can get along in the elemental languages, too, just in case.)

I don't know if the archived UA id insinuation is the same as the official spell, so I don't want to link to the official tooltip, so you'll have to go to Hildi's sheet and read it there. Basically, if the creature fails a DC13 WIS save, it is incapacitated. At the end of its turn, it takes 1d12 psychic damage and can roll to see if it frees itself. Rinse and repeat.

And I don't know what language Hildi would be using for the verbal components for this spell, so I didn't specify.

(OOC: Yeah, Hildi's character sheet was needed to look up those archived spells. I did find a wiki that has a bunch of the UA spells, but it is clumsy to use.)

(OOC2: I just remembered that Detect Magic is active, so I am ret-conning Hildigrim's action. Hope that is okay with you. The spell slot is not used at this time.)

Perception rolls - Drusk: 13 , Hildigrim: 19 , Jorin: 8 , Pascal: 12 , Quillary: 21
Initiative rolls - Drusk: 15 , Hildigrim: 8 , Jorin: 10 , Pascal: 22 , Quillary: 14 , C1: 7 , C2: 2

The party prepares to attack this unnatural creature. But as you get within 30' of it, Hildigrim notices a magic aura surrounding it. Instead of casting his attack spell, he concentrates on his Detect Magic. "This thing is covered by illusion magic..."

Jorin, Pascal, and Quillary are surprised as two chuuls erupt from the water next to the raft. (This must have been what Volo saw under the water, earlier.) The size of your raft, these lobster-roach tentacled monstrosities attack the party. (Hildigrim's paranoia and Drusk's shield had them alert to the danger, so they are not surprised.)

For this first round of combat, the order is: Hildigrim, Drusk, then the 2 chuuls. The other party members are surprised.

(OOC: For the next round, it will be: Hildigrim, Quillary, Drusk, chuul-1, Jorin, Pascal, chuul-2. Feel free to suggest what Pascal would do.)

Everyone has water walking. The chuuls are at the surface of the water. Their pincer attacks have a 10' range, so everyone is in melee range.
The 3-eyed eel-fish-thing is still in the northeast passage 30' away, and Hildigrim has told everyone that the thing is covered in illusion magic.

Hildigirm is up.