This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Next hour Sekkar spent sitting with his back against the gates, resting and playing with the new toy - a shiny pebble, given to him by Kaylyn. "Should it always fly around my head?" It was not that annoying, though, kind of reminded of swamp insects - sort of nostalgic, if you think about it. "Thanks, might get handy." "So, that Ogremoch's Bane is neither an ogre nor a rat" (Sekkar never claimed to be smart - smart one got eaten before they have a chance get offsprings and pollute the physical perfection of the trybe) "What is it, exactly? Nah, we are doing it anyway, even if it does sound as another demon. So, get inside, find the rock, put on it another rock and get help?" He nodded seriously "we can do it. Give me some room to check the tunnels."
He pulled over the hood of his new cloak (as Zeno did with this thing) and was the first one to slip in the doors and moved ahead listening, looking and sniffing.
Pax and Sekkar lead the way, although with his natural skill and a drow piwafwi, Sekkar is impossible to see in the darkness once he is outside the radius of Rhayna's light. Kaylyn and Kastix follow, watching the sides and the rear. Rhayna tags along behind, taking her time to inspect every aspect of the new environment. The rush of the waterfall ahead blends with the faint sounds of battle - sword on sword, hammer on shield, gnome shouts mingling with drow commands - but the noises come and go like moths flitting around a candle. Rhayna's light creates shadows on the walls, and the eye of each explorer is constantly caught by what might be merely a shadow but seems a lot like the rocks themselves come to life and lurching out of the gloom at the party.
Heading south, the group skirt around the right side of a large pool that seems to have formed from a number of slow-dripping stalactites. Just beyond this there is a passage to their left which seems to have carves steps leading down into a semi-lit cavern beyond filled with a kaleidoscope of soft colours. Straight ahead seems to be where the waterfall noise is coming from...
My 'directions' are based on the facing of the group. Looking at the map though, the passage to the colourful cavern is to the right (map just shows the passage, not the cavern beyond)
For perspective, the pool (both pools in fact) are about 100' across.
Do you continue forward toward the waterfall or take the side passage toward the colourful cavern?
Pax glances around, looking for Sekkar, but unable to see, she decides to just turn left towards the partially lit room...assuming the lizard will figure out where they went....
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer? Class.
(Whether or not Pax was intercepted depends on how far ahead Sekkar was and what did he see)
(Oh, and whether or not we got some map and direction - I assume if existence of the standing stone is known, gnomes should know how to get to the place? If direction is known, then Sekkar will make sure the group is moving there.)
As the group pause at the side passage, Sekkar scouts a little further ahead. The lizardman feels somewhat comforted by the warble of running water, but he is also intrigued by the fleeting clamor of battle, which is clearly some kind of illusion. Not wanting to get too far separated from the group, he stays long enough to satisfy himself that there are no creatures lurking in the darkness ahead - at least if there are they can't see him either - and then returns to the others.
A set of steps descends into a cavern festooned with large crystal formations erupting from the floor. Light from bioluminescent fungi in amongst the formations refracts through the crystals, creating a kaleidoscope of colors on the surrounding walls. (The effect is charming, although it has nothing on Neverlight Grove.) Several passages or tunnels radiate from the cavern, but at the far side another pair of steps leads up to a raised area, in the center of which stands a great menhir about twenty feet in height.
The cavern is about 250 feet across, and is filled with crystals (or groups of crystals) of various sizes, all about 5-10' apart and most about 3-10' tall. They don't obstruct movement, but are semitransparent and slightly distort images seen through them. Amongst some of the crystals is a fungus called 'nightlight', a tall and tube-shaped bioluminescent mushroom that grows to a similar height as the crystals and emits different-coloured bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. If a living nightlight is touched, either by a creature or an object, its light goes out until it is touched again.
There's a passage with steps on the left and a flat passage on the bottom. There are are the stairs ascending to the raised platform with the menhir. And there two tunnels in the floor of the cavern that seem to descend into open spaces (the darker-shaded areas)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Kaylyn slows as she makes her way into the room, taking in the wonderment that the crystals invoke in their light. She looks through some of the larger crystals to see the distorted images on the other side. For a brief moment she is entertained by touching the fungi and have the light go out and then touching it again to have the light come back on.
"Amazing room, very beautiful." she whispers, loud enough that the others could hear her but sill keeping her voice down. Working her way towards the menhir she takes a closer look at it.
Sekkar was judging that beauty (a concept that was still escaping his grasp) from a strategic point of view and scanned it for the presence of life, good ambush points and possible traps. "I wonder where exactly those guardian will appear and how they will see us - friends or foe?" He was staying closer to Rhayna in case something will try to take away the stone.
Pax looks around, taken aback by the beauty for a moment. Even here, in this dark cursed place one can find beauty. She sighs, wistfully thinking of the world above ground...for some reason this beauty makes her miss her home even more. Well, nothing for it. She strides ahead of the group, making sure they're keeping up and slowing if they do not, but otherwise making a B line for the stairs that head up to the menhir. "Think that's it?" she asks unnecessarily.
Sekkar knows an attack could come from any of the side tunnels, but figures that 'hiding among the crystals' is probably a likely choice for ambushers, and looks there first. Pax is pushing toward the menhir and Kaylyn is taking time to stop and smell the roses, so it is Sekkar that first spots the gnome - perfectly motionless it stands, slightly crouching, behind one of the crystals, not even stirring as Sekkar approaches, just looking forward, as if directly into one of the crystals. Sekkar is still some distance away when he realises that the gnome is in fact a perfectly life-like stone statue! ... a little tall perhaps, for the average svirfneblin, but otherwise an exact likeness.
As Pax nears the menhir, she can see that it is carved from a stalagmite. It stands in the center of the upper chamber, pockmarked with dozens of empty sockets that might once have held gems. Glancing around the chamber, she also notices that the roughness of the walls outlines several large, vaguely humanoid shapes.
Kirin - Level 15 High Elf Wizard (Evocation) - Zorg's Lost Souls - Overchannel Steel Wind Strike for the Win against Demogorgon Silas - Level 11 Human Cleric (War Domain) - Tomb of Annihilation Done
Sekkar froze on place too at first look at the gnome statue but realizing he is dealing with something un-animated (at least for now) pointed the thing out to other, while carefully looking around - after all, turning life into stones is not something unheard of. Those shapes on the walls ... were kind of giving similar idea and Lizardman did not like it a bit.
"Hope this is not the work of those guardians we are supposed to wake. Or at least it will not be directed at us." But there was no point in dwelling on the matter - they came to activate the stone and soon would have to find out.
Kastix inspects the statue carefully, judging its posture and position. It is a statue of a taller-than-average male gnome wearing leather armor. He is positioned as if looking directly through a large crystal toward the entrance of one of the tunnels that goes down into the floor of the cavern. His posture is defensive, and one hand seems to be poised above a hip-sheathed shortsword, while the other is touching the crystal as if to brace himself. His facial expression is one of determined concentration, and his eyelids are barely open. There is almost no moss or lichen growing on him (relative to the walls and stones of the caverns and tunnels), just a few beads of condensation.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Pax sighs, "Well, I'd guess that's Sark's brother. Maybe there's a way he can be turned back to normal. For now...I'd say....expect some sort of nasties that can turn you to stone, by looking at them...based on these crystals everywhere....seems the perfect trap. Shall we stick the stone in the rock thing, summon these guardians, and see what this ogrebane thing throws at us?"
She casts Armor of Agathys on herself at 3rd level....shadows creep up her body, sheathing her in a darkness that so thick its almost hard to see through. She tucks her chin in, so that she's looking at her own feet, draws her sword...brings her shield up...and focus on her breathing, and on listening...for movement in the dark.
"This is not good, not good at all," Kastix whispers as he backs away while keeping to the shadow as best he can to get back to the main group, "Something petrified him and it's well beyond my abilities to undo it so if any of you get turned, you're stoned until I don't know,"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Kirin - Level 15 High Elf Wizard (Evocation) - Zorg's Lost Souls - Overchannel Steel Wind Strike for the Win against Demogorgon Silas - Level 11 Human Cleric (War Domain) - Tomb of Annihilation Done
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Rhayna thanks Kaylyn for the Haversack, and she proceeds to transfer her equipment into it. She makes sure that the wand and the crystal does not poke the sack in any way. Rhayna tries to keep up with her companions. At Sekkar's question, she tries to remember if she has ever heard of a Ogremoch's Bane. (History: 15)
As the group goes into another chamber of the cavern, she notices the nightlight fungi, and tries to touch it to see if she can make any connection to it. She "turn off" her light spell, for she believes the fungi are illuminating the chamber enough. When she sights the great menhir, she goes to it, takes out the gem, and see if there is a spot for it. (Investigation?)
Kazri - Level 10 Human Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) - The Tales of the Fellowship of the White Cloaks Droknin Palemane - Level 4 Leonin Barbarian (Path of the Beast) - Where the Cold Winds Blow... A Lost Mines of Phandelver Story Faelan (Cottontail) Whisperwind - Level 3 Ranger (Fey Wanderer) - Zorg's Lost Souls II
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Rhayna has heard of Ogremoch, the Prince of Evil Earth, the Mountain that Walks, a powerful being from the Elemental Plane of Earth. Ogremoch's Bane is not a familiar term, but must imply something that can adversely affect Ogremoch, and presumably, by extension, other earth elementals. However Rhayna surmises that Ogremoch's Bane is unlikely to be an earth elemental itself, but perhaps some other evil being or force from that plane.
There are several spots on the menhir that the spell gem can be placed - each looks as good as the other. Those who ascend the steps to the platform also notice that the roughness of the surrounding walls outlines several large, vaguely humanoid shapes. As everyone takes a defensive position, Rhayna lifts the magical ruby and places it in one of the empty slots...
As the ruby begins to glow against the menhir, the walls begin to rumble. Part of one wall shifts, detaches, and starts to move toward... 4... Sekkar
Kazri - Level 10 Human Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) - The Tales of the Fellowship of the White Cloaks Droknin Palemane - Level 4 Leonin Barbarian (Path of the Beast) - Where the Cold Winds Blow... A Lost Mines of Phandelver Story Faelan (Cottontail) Whisperwind - Level 3 Ranger (Fey Wanderer) - Zorg's Lost Souls II
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
Next hour Sekkar spent sitting with his back against the gates, resting and playing with the new toy - a shiny pebble, given to him by Kaylyn. "Should it always fly around my head?" It was not that annoying, though, kind of reminded of swamp insects - sort of nostalgic, if you think about it. "Thanks, might get handy." "So, that Ogremoch's Bane is neither an ogre nor a rat" (Sekkar never claimed to be smart - smart one got eaten before they have a chance get offsprings and pollute the physical perfection of the trybe) "What is it, exactly? Nah, we are doing it anyway, even if it does sound as another demon. So, get inside, find the rock, put on it another rock and get help?" He nodded seriously "we can do it. Give me some room to check the tunnels."
He pulled over the hood of his new cloak (as Zeno did with this thing) and was the first one to slip in the doors and moved ahead listening, looking and sniffing.
Stealth: 19
Perception: 24
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Pax and Sekkar lead the way, although with his natural skill and a drow piwafwi, Sekkar is impossible to see in the darkness once he is outside the radius of Rhayna's light. Kaylyn and Kastix follow, watching the sides and the rear. Rhayna tags along behind, taking her time to inspect every aspect of the new environment. The rush of the waterfall ahead blends with the faint sounds of battle - sword on sword, hammer on shield, gnome shouts mingling with drow commands - but the noises come and go like moths flitting around a candle. Rhayna's light creates shadows on the walls, and the eye of each explorer is constantly caught by what might be merely a shadow but seems a lot like the rocks themselves come to life and lurching out of the gloom at the party.
Heading south, the group skirt around the right side of a large pool that seems to have formed from a number of slow-dripping stalactites. Just beyond this there is a passage to their left which seems to have carves steps leading down into a semi-lit cavern beyond filled with a kaleidoscope of soft colours. Straight ahead seems to be where the waterfall noise is coming from...
Link to the post with the map.
My 'directions' are based on the facing of the group. Looking at the map though, the passage to the colourful cavern is to the right (map just shows the passage, not the cavern beyond)
For perspective, the pool (both pools in fact) are about 100' across.
Do you continue forward toward the waterfall or take the side passage toward the colourful cavern?
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Pax glances around, looking for Sekkar, but unable to see, she decides to just turn left towards the partially lit room...assuming the lizard will figure out where they went....
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
(Whether or not Pax was intercepted depends on how far ahead Sekkar was and what did he see)
(Oh, and whether or not we got some map and direction - I assume if existence of the standing stone is known, gnomes should know how to get to the place? If direction is known, then Sekkar will make sure the group is moving there.)
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
As the group pause at the side passage, Sekkar scouts a little further ahead. The lizardman feels somewhat comforted by the warble of running water, but he is also intrigued by the fleeting clamor of battle, which is clearly some kind of illusion. Not wanting to get too far separated from the group, he stays long enough to satisfy himself that there are no creatures lurking in the darkness ahead - at least if there are they can't see him either - and then returns to the others.
A set of steps descends into a cavern festooned with large crystal formations erupting from the floor. Light from bioluminescent fungi in amongst the formations refracts through the crystals, creating a kaleidoscope of colors on the surrounding walls. (The effect is charming, although it has nothing on Neverlight Grove.) Several passages or tunnels radiate from the cavern, but at the far side another pair of steps leads up to a raised area, in the center of which stands a great menhir about twenty feet in height.
The cavern is about 250 feet across, and is filled with crystals (or groups of crystals) of various sizes, all about 5-10' apart and most about 3-10' tall. They don't obstruct movement, but are semitransparent and slightly distort images seen through them. Amongst some of the crystals is a fungus called 'nightlight', a tall and tube-shaped bioluminescent mushroom that grows to a similar height as the crystals and emits different-coloured bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. If a living nightlight is touched, either by a creature or an object, its light goes out until it is touched again.
There's a passage with steps on the left and a flat passage on the bottom. There are are the stairs ascending to the raised platform with the menhir. And there two tunnels in the floor of the cavern that seem to descend into open spaces (the darker-shaded areas)
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Kaylyn slows as she makes her way into the room, taking in the wonderment that the crystals invoke in their light. She looks through some of the larger crystals to see the distorted images on the other side. For a brief moment she is entertained by touching the fungi and have the light go out and then touching it again to have the light come back on.
"Amazing room, very beautiful." she whispers, loud enough that the others could hear her but sill keeping her voice down. Working her way towards the menhir she takes a closer look at it.
Sekkar was judging that beauty (a concept that was still escaping his grasp) from a strategic point of view and scanned it for the presence of life, good ambush points and possible traps. "I wonder where exactly those guardian will appear and how they will see us - friends or foe?" He was staying closer to Rhayna in case something will try to take away the stone.
Perception 30
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Pax looks around, taken aback by the beauty for a moment. Even here, in this dark cursed place one can find beauty. She sighs, wistfully thinking of the world above ground...for some reason this beauty makes her miss her home even more. Well, nothing for it. She strides ahead of the group, making sure they're keeping up and slowing if they do not, but otherwise making a B line for the stairs that head up to the menhir. "Think that's it?" she asks unnecessarily.
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
Sekkar knows an attack could come from any of the side tunnels, but figures that 'hiding among the crystals' is probably a likely choice for ambushers, and looks there first. Pax is pushing toward the menhir and Kaylyn is taking time to stop and smell the roses, so it is Sekkar that first spots the gnome - perfectly motionless it stands, slightly crouching, behind one of the crystals, not even stirring as Sekkar approaches, just looking forward, as if directly into one of the crystals. Sekkar is still some distance away when he realises that the gnome is in fact a perfectly life-like stone statue! ... a little tall perhaps, for the average svirfneblin, but otherwise an exact likeness.
As Pax nears the menhir, she can see that it is carved from a stalagmite. It stands in the center of the upper chamber, pockmarked with dozens of empty sockets that might once have held gems. Glancing around the chamber, she also notices that the roughness of the walls outlines several large, vaguely humanoid shapes.
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Kastix catuous investigate the gnome statue It's location and posture giving him the creeps, causing his scales to itch almost.
Investigation: 25
Stealth: 14
Kirin - Level 15 High Elf Wizard (Evocation) - Zorg's Lost Souls- Overchannel Steel Wind Strike for the Win against DemogorgonSilas - Level 11 Human Cleric (War Domain) - Tomb of AnnihilationDoneSekkar froze on place too at first look at the gnome statue but realizing he is dealing with something un-animated (at least for now) pointed the thing out to other, while carefully looking around - after all, turning life into stones is not something unheard of. Those shapes on the walls ... were kind of giving similar idea and Lizardman did not like it a bit.
"Hope this is not the work of those guardians we are supposed to wake. Or at least it will not be directed at us." But there was no point in dwelling on the matter - they came to activate the stone and soon would have to find out.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
(Wow, nice roll)
Kastix inspects the statue carefully, judging its posture and position. It is a statue of a taller-than-average male gnome wearing leather armor. He is positioned as if looking directly through a large crystal toward the entrance of one of the tunnels that goes down into the floor of the cavern. His posture is defensive, and one hand seems to be poised above a hip-sheathed shortsword, while the other is touching the crystal as if to brace himself. His facial expression is one of determined concentration, and his eyelids are barely open. There is almost no moss or lichen growing on him (relative to the walls and stones of the caverns and tunnels), just a few beads of condensation.
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Pax sighs, "Well, I'd guess that's Sark's brother. Maybe there's a way he can be turned back to normal. For now...I'd say....expect some sort of nasties that can turn you to stone, by looking at them...based on these crystals everywhere....seems the perfect trap. Shall we stick the stone in the rock thing, summon these guardians, and see what this ogrebane thing throws at us?"
She casts Armor of Agathys on herself at 3rd level....shadows creep up her body, sheathing her in a darkness that so thick its almost hard to see through. She tucks her chin in, so that she's looking at her own feet, draws her sword...brings her shield up...and focus on her breathing, and on listening...for movement in the dark.
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
"This is not good, not good at all," Kastix whispers as he backs away while keeping to the shadow as best he can to get back to the main group, "Something petrified him and it's well beyond my abilities to undo it so if any of you get turned, you're stoned until I don't know,"
Kirin - Level 15 High Elf Wizard (Evocation) - Zorg's Lost Souls- Overchannel Steel Wind Strike for the Win against DemogorgonSilas - Level 11 Human Cleric (War Domain) - Tomb of AnnihilationDoneRhayna thanks Kaylyn for the Haversack, and she proceeds to transfer her equipment into it. She makes sure that the wand and the crystal does not poke the sack in any way. Rhayna tries to keep up with her companions. At Sekkar's question, she tries to remember if she has ever heard of a Ogremoch's Bane. (History: 15)
As the group goes into another chamber of the cavern, she notices the nightlight fungi, and tries to touch it to see if she can make any connection to it. She "turn off" her light spell, for she believes the fungi are illuminating the chamber enough. When she sights the great menhir, she goes to it, takes out the gem, and see if there is a spot for it. (Investigation?)
Kazri - Level 10 Human Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) - The Tales of the Fellowship of the White Cloaks
Droknin Palemane - Level 4 Leonin Barbarian (Path of the Beast) - Where the Cold Winds Blow... A Lost Mines of Phandelver Story
Faelan (Cottontail) Whisperwind - Level 3 Ranger (Fey Wanderer) - Zorg's Lost Souls II
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
Rhayna has heard of Ogremoch, the Prince of Evil Earth, the Mountain that Walks, a powerful being from the Elemental Plane of Earth. Ogremoch's Bane is not a familiar term, but must imply something that can adversely affect Ogremoch, and presumably, by extension, other earth elementals. However Rhayna surmises that Ogremoch's Bane is unlikely to be an earth elemental itself, but perhaps some other evil being or force from that plane.
There are several spots on the menhir that the spell gem can be placed - each looks as good as the other. Those who ascend the steps to the platform also notice that the roughness of the surrounding walls outlines several large, vaguely humanoid shapes. As everyone takes a defensive position, Rhayna lifts the magical ruby and places it in one of the empty slots...
As the ruby begins to glow against the menhir, the walls begin to rumble. Part of one wall shifts, detaches, and starts to move toward... 4... Sekkar
Roll Initiative!
Earth Elemental: 11
(Is anyone NOT on the platform with the menhir?)
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Sekkar initiative: 12.
(The idea was to protect the menhir, so, looks like we all climbed up there?)
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Sekkar has the higher DEX, so can go before the elemental
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Rhayna Initiative: 29
On Rhayna’s turn. She will stay next to the menhir, and Bless her companions (Kastix, Kaylyn, Pax, Sekkar).
Kazri - Level 10 Human Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) - The Tales of the Fellowship of the White Cloaks
Droknin Palemane - Level 4 Leonin Barbarian (Path of the Beast) - Where the Cold Winds Blow... A Lost Mines of Phandelver Story
Faelan (Cottontail) Whisperwind - Level 3 Ranger (Fey Wanderer) - Zorg's Lost Souls II
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
Pax init : 15
Pax plans to cast Blur on herself and walks right up to the creature, her sword out and shield up, ready to fight...
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.