Oorr puts himself into a commune with the Underdark to detect the presence of fiends.
You close your eyes, and let the walls of the cavern fall away as you reach out with your primeval awareness. Though you can't tell the direction or number, you are certain there are fiends within 6 miles of your location. The presence irritates you, as it feels unnatural. Fiends do not belong in this plane.
As the rest of you watch Oorr focus his senses, you notice a flash of dim light throughout the cavern as faerzress floods it.
Grimnir, you suddenly become frightened. The source of your fear is all around you, and you start running. You push through the rest of your companions, and start to run at your top speed down the halls. But after just a minute passes, the fear abates, and you turn to see the wondering stares of your troops looking at you.
Brox, you retreat into your mind, and your body locks up. You're effectively paralyzed. Your troops check on you, but you're unresponsive. They start to get worried, and begin asking Oorr and Belwar what they should do, but after four minutes, you shake the paralysis, and return to your senses.
Having encountered this before, you are all aware of the madness that can result from areas infused with faerzress. The remaining soldiers from the various factions seem jumpy now, eager to move on from this place. But they await your orders.
"Yes, let's move on. This is not a good place to take a rest."
Brox riding Elkapone leads the caravan further away from the slaughter.
While the group starts their track again, Brox dreams about the world above. About seas and forests. She imagines walking along a barely visible path in a thick forest. Elkapone walking behind her. She stops to smell some strange red flowers that she has never seen before. They are beautiful and she sits down and jots them down on a piece of paper. It is peaceful.
When she hears some of their followers argue about the direction to take, her mind slowly returns to the dim world of the underdark. But she struggles to return.
You gather your forces and move away from the cave. It seems wherever these strange scenes occur, the air is thick with faerzress. You follow Grimnir and the ring, and Oorr notes that the tracks he found lead away in the same direction. There are legs, wings, and other bits of fire beetle scattered among the tracks.
You follow the ring for five more days leading West. The tracks of the creatures you discovered in the fire beetles cave continued the entire time, and on the fifth day you approach a cavern where you discover the owners of the tracks. Oorr's Zhentarim scouts return from the advance guard and report seeing three ape-like creatures. Larger than any similar creature they've seen before, they appeared to be resting, but they were hideous to behold. There do not appear to be any side tunnels in this area, so in order to proceed, you'll have to go through the cavern where the creatures are. You could potentially backtrack to find another path, but that will take extra time, and send you off the path of the ring.
((OOC I want to take a moment to pause the game and post an art commission I had made by a comic artist I know locally where I live. He did an amazing job of catching our adventurers exploring the Underdark! Drawn by Gregory Dickens: https://twitter.com/gregorydraws?lang=en))
Grimnir presents his idea: "I don't think we should try to avoid this path. The ring is telling me it is this way." "I can use my spores to make us extremely silent. That could give us an advantage on the start of the battle."
"Agreed. These are powerful demons, but strong and with magical abilities. But we have the advantage here and we should not let these things cause havoc any further."
You approach the cavern and find exactly what the scouts described Three Barlgura seem to be sleeping. They do not appear to have heard your approach. The roughly square cavern they are resting in is small, no more than 30 feet on a side. The demons are curled up in different corners of the room, and you are approaching from the fourth corner, so there's about 10 feet between each monster, and 20 feet from where you enter to where they are.
Oorr puts himself into a commune with the Underdark to detect the presence of fiends.
You close your eyes, and let the walls of the cavern fall away as you reach out with your primeval awareness. Though you can't tell the direction or number, you are certain there are fiends within 6 miles of your location. The presence irritates you, as it feels unnatural. Fiends do not belong in this plane.
As the rest of you watch Oorr focus his senses, you notice a flash of dim light throughout the cavern as faerzress floods it.
I need you all to make a wisdom saving throw.
Oorr WIS save: 20
Wis : 23
Currently Playing: Regdus Ironfist (Greyhawk) Lvl 1 Storm Sorcerer ; Goraseth Drerjoxian (Icespeak) Lvl 3 Paladin Oath of Glory; Lerak (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight) Lvl 3 Barbarian Wild Magic
In Pause: Grimnir " Shadow-Feet", Lv 11 Owner of "The Basilisk & the Monk" (OotA) - Kurma Kappa, Lv 8 Priest of Oghma (ToA)
Currently DM'ing: Princes of Apocalypse >> Tomb of Annihilation
WIS 11
Grimnir, you suddenly become frightened. The source of your fear is all around you, and you start running. You push through the rest of your companions, and start to run at your top speed down the halls. But after just a minute passes, the fear abates, and you turn to see the wondering stares of your troops looking at you.
Brox, you retreat into your mind, and your body locks up. You're effectively paralyzed. Your troops check on you, but you're unresponsive. They start to get worried, and begin asking Oorr and Belwar what they should do, but after four minutes, you shake the paralysis, and return to your senses.
Having encountered this before, you are all aware of the madness that can result from areas infused with faerzress. The remaining soldiers from the various factions seem jumpy now, eager to move on from this place. But they await your orders.
What do you do?
"I say we proceed. Staying in one place means attracting fiends."
"Yes, let's move on. This is not a good place to take a rest."
Brox riding Elkapone leads the caravan further away from the slaughter.
While the group starts their track again, Brox dreams about the world above. About seas and forests. She imagines walking along a barely visible path in a thick forest. Elkapone walking behind her. She stops to smell some strange red flowers that she has never seen before. They are beautiful and she sits down and jots them down on a piece of paper. It is peaceful.
When she hears some of their followers argue about the direction to take, her mind slowly returns to the dim world of the underdark. But she struggles to return.
You gather your forces and move away from the cave. It seems wherever these strange scenes occur, the air is thick with faerzress. You follow Grimnir and the ring, and Oorr notes that the tracks he found lead away in the same direction. There are legs, wings, and other bits of fire beetle scattered among the tracks.
You follow the ring for five more days leading West. The tracks of the creatures you discovered in the fire beetles cave continued the entire time, and on the fifth day you approach a cavern where you discover the owners of the tracks. Oorr's Zhentarim scouts return from the advance guard and report seeing three ape-like creatures. Larger than any similar creature they've seen before, they appeared to be resting, but they were hideous to behold. There do not appear to be any side tunnels in this area, so in order to proceed, you'll have to go through the cavern where the creatures are. You could potentially backtrack to find another path, but that will take extra time, and send you off the path of the ring.
What do you want to do?
OOC Does Oorr recognise the creatures? (considering fiends are my Favored Enemy)
Based on their descriptions, and after conferring with Belwar and his own vast knowledge, you believe what they are describing are Barlgura
((OOC I want to take a moment to pause the game and post an art commission I had made by a comic artist I know locally where I live. He did an amazing job of catching our adventurers exploring the Underdark! Drawn by Gregory Dickens: https://twitter.com/gregorydraws?lang=en))
Grimnir presents his idea: "I don't think we should try to avoid this path. The ring is telling me it is this way."
"I can use my spores to make us extremely silent. That could give us an advantage on the start of the battle."
OOC: I learned Pass without Trace
Currently Playing: Regdus Ironfist (Greyhawk) Lvl 1 Storm Sorcerer ; Goraseth Drerjoxian (Icespeak) Lvl 3 Paladin Oath of Glory; Lerak (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight) Lvl 3 Barbarian Wild Magic
In Pause: Grimnir " Shadow-Feet", Lv 11 Owner of "The Basilisk & the Monk" (OotA) - Kurma Kappa, Lv 8 Priest of Oghma (ToA)
Currently DM'ing: Princes of Apocalypse >> Tomb of Annihilation
"Agreed. These are powerful demons, but strong and with magical abilities. But we have the advantage here and we should not let these things cause havoc any further."
Grimnir nods and cast Pass without trace (+10 for your stealth check team !)
OOC: just before attacking, Grimnir will activate 1 wildshape use to get extra-poisonous damage and +12 TempHP
Currently Playing: Regdus Ironfist (Greyhawk) Lvl 1 Storm Sorcerer ; Goraseth Drerjoxian (Icespeak) Lvl 3 Paladin Oath of Glory; Lerak (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight) Lvl 3 Barbarian Wild Magic
In Pause: Grimnir " Shadow-Feet", Lv 11 Owner of "The Basilisk & the Monk" (OotA) - Kurma Kappa, Lv 8 Priest of Oghma (ToA)
Currently DM'ing: Princes of Apocalypse >> Tomb of Annihilation
You prepare for a fight. Grimnir creates a path of moss that quiets your steps as you near the cavern with the fiends.
((OOG Okay, let's roll a Stealth check and Initiative!))
Stealth: 29
Initiative: 19
Currently Playing: Regdus Ironfist (Greyhawk) Lvl 1 Storm Sorcerer ; Goraseth Drerjoxian (Icespeak) Lvl 3 Paladin Oath of Glory; Lerak (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight) Lvl 3 Barbarian Wild Magic
In Pause: Grimnir " Shadow-Feet", Lv 11 Owner of "The Basilisk & the Monk" (OotA) - Kurma Kappa, Lv 8 Priest of Oghma (ToA)
Currently DM'ing: Princes of Apocalypse >> Tomb of Annihilation
Initiative: 3
Stealth: 16 second roll for disadvantage: 16
Oorr Initiative: 9, Stealth: 20
You approach the cavern and find exactly what the scouts described Three Barlgura seem to be sleeping. They do not appear to have heard your approach. The roughly square cavern they are resting in is small, no more than 30 feet on a side. The demons are curled up in different corners of the room, and you are approaching from the fourth corner, so there's about 10 feet between each monster, and 20 feet from where you enter to where they are.
Round 1:
19 Oorr
19 Grimnir
13 Belwar
11 Brox
07 Barlgura